Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/165

 MNASIPPUS INVADES KORKYKA. 143 pecuniary payments from other confederates, who preferred com- muting their obligation to serve beyond sea, a fleet of sixty triremes and a body of one thousand five hundred mercenary hop- lites were assembled ; besides some Lacedaemonians, probably Helots or Neodamodes. 1 At the same time, application was sent to Dionysius the Syracusan despot, for his cooperation against Korkyra, on the ground that the connection of that island with Athens had proved once, and might prove again, dangerous to his city- It was in the spring of 373 B. c. that this force proceeded against Korkyra, under the command of the Lacedaemonian Mnasippus ; who, having driven in the Korkyrsean fleet with the loss of four triremes, landed on the island, gained a victory, and confined the inhabitants within the walls of the city. He next carried his rav- ages round the adjacent lands, which were found in the highest state of cultivation, and full of the richest produce ; fields admira- bly tilled, vineyards in surpassing condition, with splendid farm-buildings, well-appointed wine-cellars, and abundance of cattle as well as laboring-slaves. The invading soldiers, while enrich- ing themselves by depredations on cattle and slaves, became sc pampered with the plentiful stock around, that they refused to drink any wine that was not of the first quality. 2 Such is thfc picture given by Xenophon, an unfriendly witness, of the derno- cratical Korkyra, in respect of its lauded economy, at the time when it was invaded by Mnasippus ; a picture not less memorable than that presented by Thucydides (in the speech of Archidamus), of the flourishing agriculture surrounding democratical Athens, at 1 Xen. Hellen. vi, 2, 3, 5, 16 : compare v, 2, 21 about the commutation of personal service for money. Diodorus (xv, 47) agrees with Xenophon in the main about the expedi- tion of Mnasippus, though differing on several other contemporary points. eKpdrei re rrjq yris Kal idr/ov e^eipyaafievr]v [lev Troy/ca/lwf Kal nt(j>VTevfj.VTiv TTJV %upav, {leyahoTrpeTrelf 6e oiKT/aei^ Kal olvuvaf KaTEaKsvaaftsvovf %ovcav brl riJv aypuv war' eaaav roijf ffrpanuraf elf TOVTO Tpv7Jt; ih&eiv, WOT' oiiK t&iXeiv nivetv, el fif/ av^oa/Ltia^ elrj. Kal uvdpinroda Se Kal (3offKr/uarQ iruftTTO^a ?;/UcTKro e/c ruv uypuv. Olvnv, implied in the antecedent word oivavaf, is understood aftsr ri- veiv.
 * Xen. Hellen. vi, 2, 6. 'E-rreidTj 6s tnre3r] (when Mnasippus landed),