Sparta, having recovered her influence in Greece, acted not less tyrannically than on former occasions ; and, under the ambitious projects of Lysander, became daily more corrupted in her principles of policy. The thirty magis trates, who had been placed at the head of the Athenian state, were supported by assistance from Lacedemon in the most attrocious acts of cruelty and injustice ; and the other Grecian cities were prohibited even to afford a re fuge to the unhappy Athenians, who fled from their op pressors. Not contented with cutting off their political adversaries, the thirty tyrants, under the direction of Cri tias, proceeded to murder, upon frivolous pretences, all persons whose riches they wished to sieze ; and the slight est Murmur against their oppressions was punished with imprisonment, exile, or death. In the space of eight months, fifteen hundred citizens were sacrificed to their avarice or vengeance ; and Xenophon goes so far as to af firm, that their short reign was more destructive to Athens, than the preceding war of thirty years. At length, how ever, Thrasybulus, at the head of his exiled countrymen, drove the tyrants from their seat of abused power, and re stored the ancient democratical form of government at Athens. By his wise moderation the spirit of retaliation was restrained, a general amnesty proclaimed, and tran quillity restored to the Athenian state. But whatever was the form, tyranny was too generally the spirit of the Gre cian governments, and especially of the pure democracy at Athens. Equally unjust and cruel as the most lawless despots, they were often much more inconsistent with themselves, and fickle in their proceedings. While they allowed their poets, for their amusement, to ridicule the gods upon the stage, they punished their, sages, who en deavoured, for their instruction, to introduce worthier sen timents of religion. By their sentence, the celebrated So crates, (whom even the thirty tyrants had spared, though he often opposed their measures,) was iniquitously put to death.
The Greeks were again involved in a contest with Per sia, by the attempt of Cyrus the younger to dethrone his brother Artaxerxes. That ambitious prince being gover nor of Asia Minor, and friendly to the Spartans, persuaded them to join his standard with 13,000 Grecian troops ; but, excepting their leader Clearchus, they are said to have been entirely ignorant of his views upon the Persian crown. The celebrated retreat of the remains of this army, after the death of Cyrus, generally called the retreat of the ten thousand, is considered as one of the most extraordinary exploits recorded in the annals of the military art ; and, by proving the weakness of Persia, is supposed to have had considerable influence in promoting the Ma cedonian invasion, and conquest of that extensive but feeble empire. It had the more immediate effect of en couraging an expedition, under Agcsilaus king of Sparta, to recover the liberty of the Grecian colonies in Asia. Assisted by 30 captains, with Lysander at their head, he filled all Asia with a dread of his arms ; and was prepar ing to carry the war into the heart of the empire, when he was suddenly recalled for the protection of his own country. The Persian monarchs had discovered a more easy and effectual defence against Grecian valour, than their most numerous armies had been able to provide ; and, by a seasonable distribution of bribes among the leading men of the different states, succeeded in turning the arms of these warlike republics against one another. The The bans were first gained to their interests, who easily suc ceeded in petsuading the Athenians. Even Argos and Corinth, two Peloponnesian states, joined the confederacy, to which were added Acarnania, Ambracia, Leucadia, Eu beea, part of Thessaly, and Chaicidice in Thrace. The haughty tyranny of Lacedemon furnished sufficiently osten sible reasons for the union ; and Persian gold readily sup plied the arguments which were wanting. The confede rates sustained a severe check in the vicinity of Corinth, and were afterwards defeated by Agcsilaus at Coroneia, with great loss on both sides ; but Pharnabazus, assisted by the Athenian commander Conon, having defeated the Lacedemonian fleet, completely destroyed their influence in Asiatic Greece. They proceeded even to ravage the coasts of Laconia ; and, assisting the Athenians to rebuild their long walls, which connected the Pawls with the city, again laid the foundation of their naval power. After various vicissitudes and intrigues, all parties became tired of war, and disposed to peace. The Lacedemonians,
though still superior in the field, yet destitute of the aid which they had formerly derived from the Persian treasury, were straitened in their pecuniary resources ; and Pharna bazus, the friend of Athens, having been succeeded in Lydia by Teribazus, the new Satrap became favourable to the interests of Sparta. By the able negotiations of An talcidas the Laccdemonian, the Persian monarch was brought in as mediator, or rather dictator, for a general pacification among the states of Greece, of which the con ditions were simply these ; that all cities on the continent of Asia, together with the islands of Clazomene and Cy prus, should belong to the Persian empire ; and that all other Grecian cities, small and great, should be completely independent, except that the islands of Lemnos, Imbros, and Sciros, should remain as formerly under the dominion of Athens." Against all who should refuse these terms, the court of Persia declared itself ready to unite with those who accepted them, and to render every assistance, by land and sea, to reduce the refractory. The weaker states were well pleased to be secured in their independence. The Athenians were gratified by the exception in their favour. The Thebans, anxious to preserve their authority over the smaller towns of Bceotia, wished to stipulate for that superiority ; but were compelled to concur in the terms. And the Lacedemonians, while they lost nothing by aban doning the Asiatic Greeks, whom they had already been obliged to desert, gained the great object of the war,— the separation of the states which had combined against them, and the emancipation, especially, of the Beeotians from the growing power of Thebes. They boon shewed that they accounted themselves to have established their supremacy ; and were the first to disturb the general tran quillity. They demolished the fortifications oC Mantinaea, as a punishment for the disaffection of its citizens to the Lacedemonian interests, during the preceding wars. They marched against Olynthus, a Grecian city of Thrace, be cause, by associating the smaller towns in its vicinity under one government, it was considered as infringing the condi tions of the late treaty ; though its only offLnce was the increase of its strength by a wise and liberal policy, which ought to have been emulated, rather than opposed by the other Greeks. They interfered also, in the most unjusti fiable manner, in the political contests which agitated the Theban state ; and, by this rash measure, gave rise to a long and complicated struggle, which ended only with the general overthrow of Grecian independence. Their general Pbxbidas, returning from an expedition against the Olynthians, was persuaded to join the leader of the aristocratical party in Thebes, and to occupy the citadel with a Lacedemonian gai rison. This unauthorised step, though at first disapproved by the government of Sparta, was finally sanctioned, by their letaining possession of the fortress thus treacherously seized, and by their bringing to trial and punishment the chief of the adverse faction, as if they had been the constituted judges of Thebes. For the space of four years, they succeeded in holding the Thebans under the most humiliating subjection ; but sud denly the Theban exiles, with the assistance of the Athe nians, by one of the boldest and best conducted exploits recorded in history, recovered possession of their power in the city, and compelled the Lacedemonians to evacuate the citadel. With difficulty the Thebans at first with stood the armies of Sparta, by acting on the defensive ; but gradually improving in military skill, they learned to face in the field, and to combat, even with inferior num bers, the experienced troops of their powerful adversary. Under the able direction of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, they ventured, though then without an ally, to persevere in the unequal contest ; and, in the famous battle of Leuc tra, the bloodiest action hitherto known in Greece, these distinguished commanders, by their skilful dispositions, and the enthusiastic courage with which they inspired their troops, defeated an army nearly four times the number of their own. Never had the Lacedemonians, before that day, retreated from an inferior force, or lost in any one engagement so many of their citizens. Another of their boasts, " that never had the women of Sparta beheld the smoke of an enemy's camp," was now also done away.