Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/188

 166 HISTORY OF GREECE. having a position which gives reasonable chance that others will follow is the hero. An admiral like Lysander would not only sympathize heartily with the complaints of the allies, but also con- demn the proceeding as a dereliction of duty to Sparta ; even men better than Lysander would at first look coldly on it as a sort of Quixotism, in doubt whether the example would be copied : while the Spartan ephors, though probably tolerating it because they interfered very sparingly with their admirals afloat, would certainly have little sympathy with the feelings in which it orig- inated. So much the rather is Kallikratidas to be admired, as bringing out with him not only a Pan-Hellenic patriotism, 1 rare either at Athens or Sparta, but also a force of individual charac- ter and conscience yet rarer, enabling him to brave unpopularity and break through routine, in the attempt to make that patriot- ism fruitful find operative in practice. In his career, so sadly and prematurely closed, there was at least this circumstance to be envied ; that the capture of Methymna afforded him the opportu- nity, which he greedily seized, as if he had known that it would be the last, of putting in act and evidence the full aspirations of his magnanimous soul. Kallikratidas sent word by the released prisoners to Konon, that he would presently put an end to his adulterous intercourse with the sea ; 2 which he now considered as his wife, and lawfully appertaining to him, having one hundred and forty triremes against the seventy triremes of Konon. That admiral, in spite of his inferior numbers, had advanced near to Methymna, to try and relieve it ; but finding the place already captured, had re- tired to the islands called Hekatonnesoi, off the continent bearing northeast from Lesbos. Thither he was followed by Kallikratidas, who, leaving Methymna at night, found him quitting his moor- ings at break of day, and immediately made all sail to try and cut him off from the southerly course towards Samos. But Konon, 1 The sentiment of Kallikratidas deserved the designation of ' rarov TroAtrev/za, far more than that of Nikias, to which Plutarch applies those words (Compar. of Nikias and Crassus, c. 2). TJJV tiahaaffav, etc. He could hardly say this to Konon, in any other waf than through the Athenian prisoners.
 * Xenoph. Hellen. i. 6, 15. Kovuvi 6s elirev, 6n navcei avrbv uoi^Ctt'ra