Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/182

 tGO HISTORY OF GREECE. exception to the melancholy habits which pervaded Grecian w ar fare in both belligerents, we should never have learned from the meagre narrative of Xenophon. But we ascertain from other sources, that Dorieus, the son of Diagoras of Rhodes, was illustrious beyond all other Greeks for his victories in the pan- kration at the Olympic, Isthmian, and Nemean festivals ; that he had gained the first prize at three Olympic festivals in succession, of which Olympiad 88, or 428 B.C. was the second, a distinction altogether without precedent, besides eight Isthmian and seven Nemean prizes ; that his father Diagoras, his brothers, and his cousins, were all celebrated as successful athletes ; lastly, that the family were illustrious from old date in their native island of Rhodes, and were even descended from the Messenian hero Aris- tomenes. When the Athenians saw before them as their prisoner a man doubtless of magnificent stature and presence, as we may conclude from his athletic success, and surrounded by such a halo of glory, impressive in the highest degree to Grecian imagination, the feelings and usages of war were at once overruled. Though Dorieus had been one of their most vehement enemies, they could not bear either to touch his person, or to exact from him any condition. Released by them on this occasion, he lived to be put to death, about thirteen years afterwards, by the Lacedaemo- nians. 1 When Konon reached Samos to take the command, he found the armament in a state of great despondency ; not merely from the dishonorable affair of Notium, but also from disappointed hopes connected with Alkibiades, and from difficulties in procur- ing regular pay. So painfully was the last inconvenience felt, that the first measure of Konon was to contract the numbers of the armament from above one hundred triremes to seventy ; and to reserve for the diminished fleet all the ablest seamen of the larger. With this fleet, he and his colleagues roved about the enemies' coasts to collect plunder and pay. 2 Apparently about the same time that Konon superseded Alki- biades, that is, about December 407 B.C. or January 406 B.C., the year of Lysander's command expired, and Kallikratidas arrived 1 Xenoph. Hcllen. i, 5, 19 ; Pausan. vi, 7, 2. ' Xenoph. Hell* n. i, 5, 20 compare i, 6, 16 ; Diodor. kiii, 77.