Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/244

 222 HISTORY OF GREECE. an advantage over them, through the help of three hundred chosen hoplites whom Agesilaus had planted in ambush hard by. in a precinct sacred to the Dioskuri. Though this action was probably of little consequence, yet Epaminondas did not dare to attempt the city by storm. Satisfied with having defied the Spartans and manifested his mastery of the field even to their own doors, he marched away southward down to Eurotas. To them, in their present depression, it was matter of consolation and even of boast- ing, 1 that he had not dared to assail them in their last stronghold. The agony of their feelings, grief, resentment, and wounded honor, was intolerable. Many wished to go out and fight, at all hazard ; but Agesilaus resisted them with the same firmness as Perikles had shown at Athens, when the Peloponnesians first in- vaded Attica at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. Especially the Spartan women, who had never before beheld an enemy, are said to have manifested emotions so furious and distressing, as to increase much the difficulty of defence. 2 We are even told that Antalkidas, at tfiat time one of the ephors, sent his children for safety away from Sparta to the island of Kythera. Epaminondas knew well how desperate the resistance of the Spartans would be if their city were attacked ; while to himself, in the midst of a hos- tile and impracticable country, repulse would be absolute ruin. 3 1 Xcn. Hellen. vi, 5, 32. Kal rd fiev p) Trpof T^V iroTiiv irpoaSafalv uv en avrovf, ij&ri TL idoKsi tiappa^eurspov, slvai. This passage is not very clear, nor are the commentators nnanimous either as to the words or as to the meaning. Some omit firi, construe ttidnei as if it were kSbnEi rol$ QT/flaiotf, and translate tiappaheurfpov "excessively rash." I agree with Schneider in dissenting from this alteration and construc- tion. I have given in the text what I believe to be the meaning. 3 Xen. Hellen. vi, 5, 28 ; Aristotel. Politic, ii, 6, 8 ; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 32, 33 ; Plutarch, comp. Agesil. and Pomp. c. 4. 3 Aristotle (in his Politica, iv, 10, 5), discussing the opinion of those po- litical philosophers who maintained that a city ought to have no walls, but to be defended only by the bravery of its inhabitants, gives various rea sons against such opinion, and adds " that these are old-fashioned thinkers ; that the cities which made such ostentatious display of personal courage, have been proved to be wrong by actual results, hiav up^a'ujc i>ifo^.afij3a- VOVGI, Kal raiii?' opuvref e/ley^o.uei'af p>V i"f sKccvuf Ka^MTriaafiKvaf. The commentators say (see the note of M. Earth. St. Hilaire) that Aris- totle has in his view Sparta at the moment of this Theban invasion- I do