Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/82

 60 HISTORY OF GBEECE. celebrated by the women apart from the men, during -which tljt acropolis or Kadmeia was consecrated to their exclusive use, Phoebidas, affecting to have concluded his halt, put himself' in march to proceed as if towards Thrace ; seemingly rounding the walls of Thebes, but not going into it. The Senate was actually assembled in the portico of the agora, and the heat of a summer's noon had driven every one out of the streets, when Leontiades, stealing away from the Senate, hastened on horseback to over- take Phoebidas, caused h m to face about, and conducted the Lace- daemonians straight up to the Kadmeia ; the gates of which, as well as those of the town, were opened by his order as polemarch. There were not only no citizens in the streets, but none even in the Kadmeia ; no male person being permitted to be present at the feminine Thesinophoria ; so that Phoebidas and his army be- came possessed of the Kadmeia without the smallest opposition. At the same tune they became possessed of an acquisition of hardly less importance, the persons of all the assembled The- ban women ; who served as hostages for the quiet submission, however reluctant, of the citizens in the town below. Leontiades handed to Phoebidas the key of the gates, and then descended into the town, giving orders that no man should go up without his order. 1 The assembled Senate heard with consternation the occupation of the acropolis by Phoebidas. Before any deliberation could be taken among the senators, Leontiades came down to resume his seat. The lochages and armed citizens of his paHy, to whom he had previously given orders, stood close at hand. " Senators (said he), be not intimidated by the news that the Spartans are in the Kadmeia ; for they assure us that they have no hostile purpose against any one who does not court war against them. But I, as po- lemarch, am empowered by law to seize any one whose behavior is manifestly and capitally criminal. Accordingly, I seize this man Ismenias, as the great inflamer of war. Come forward, cap- tains and soldiers, lay hold of him, and carry him off where your orders direct." Ismenias was accordingly seized and hurried off Xenophon mentions nothing about the Pythian festival an being in course of celebration when Phoebidas was encamped near The bes : for it had no particular reference to Thebes. 1 Xen. Hellen. 2, 28, 29.