Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/278

 254 HISTORY OF GREECE. his order at Delphi, which proclaimed himself by name and singly, as commander of the Greeks and destroyer of the Per- sians : an unseemly boast, of which the Lacedemonians them- selves were the first to mark their disapprobation, by causing the inscription to be erased, and the names of the cities who had taken part in the combat to be all enumerated on the tripod.' Never- theless, he was still sent on the command against Cyprus and By- zantium, and it was on the capture of this latter place that his ambition and discontent first ripened into distinct treason. He entered into correspondence with Gongylus the Eretrian exile (now a subject of Persia, and invested with the property and government of a district in Mysia), to whom he intrusted his new acquisition of Byzantium, and the care of the valuable pris- oners taken in it. These prisoners were presently suffered to es- cape, or rather sent away underhand to Xerxes ; together with a letter from the hand of Pausanias himself, to the following effect : " Pausanias, the Spartan commander, having taken these captives, sends them back, in his anxiety to oblige thee. I am minded, if it so please thee, to marry thy daughter, and to bring under thy dominion both Sparta and the rest of Greece : with thy aid, I think myself competent to achieve this. If my proposition be acceptable, send some confidential person down to the seaboard, through whom we may hereafter correspond." Xerxes, highly pleased with the opening thus held out, immediately sent down Artabazus (the same who had been second in command in Boeotia) to supersede Megabates in the satrapy of Daskylium ; the new satrap, furnished with a letter of reply bearing the regal seal, was instructed to further actively the projects of Pausanias. The letter was to this purport : " Thus saith King Xerxes to Pausanias. Thy name stands forever recorded in my house as a ' In the Athenian inscriptions on the votive offerings dedicated after the capture of Eion, as well as after the great victories near the river Euryme- don, the name of Kimon the commander is not even mentioned (Plutarch, Kimon, c. 7 ; Diodor. xi, 62). A strong protest, apparently familiar to Grecian feeling, against singling out the general particularly, to receive the honors of victory, appears in Euripid. Andromach. 694 : striking verses, which are said to have been indignantly repeated by Kleitus, during the intoxication of the banquet wherein he was slain by Alexander (Quint. Curtius viii, 4. 29 (viii, 4); Plutarch, Alexand. c. 51).