The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

THE FALL OF ATHENS 383
with the democratic government they had been hoping to overthrow
with Lysander's help. ' 9 That was not to Lysander's liking; what he
wanted was not a unified city, loyal to Sparta, but one capable of
looking to its own interests. Lysander needed cities ruled by small
groups, threatened by the opposition of the mass of citizens, and dependent
upon him for rewards and security. He therefore incited a
revolution to achieve his purposes. It is in connection with this affair
that Plutarch records two well-known sayings attributed to Lysander.
To those who criticized the use of deceit by a Spartan, he is reported
to have said: "Where the lion's skin will not reach, it must be patched
with the fox's." Another ancient authority claims that he boasted of
cheating "boys with knuckle-bones and men with oaths. " 20 No man
beginning where Lysander had started could reach the goal he set for
himself by adhering to the ordinary rules of aristocratic Spartan behavior.
He publicly praised the reconciliation of factions in Miletus,
but in private he chastised his associates and urged them on to rebellion.
During the festival of Dionysus, when people were gathered in a single
place and o~guard, Lysander's friends attacked their political opponents.
They killed 40 in their homes and 300 of Miletus' richest men
in the marketplace. A thousand of "the most respectable citizens" who
were friendly to the democratic cause fled in fear for their lives. The
murderous and rebellious faction destroyed the Milesian democracy
and placed itself in control of the oligarchy that had replaced it."
Lysander had shown his power and the value of his support for men
willing to form factions in his service.
The fugitive Milesians found asylum with the Persian satrap Pharnabazus,
who received them kindly, gave them some money, and
settled them at Blauda, a fortress in Lydia." This was obviously a
1
"Xen. 1.6.n; Plut. Lys. 8.1.
zoLys. 7·4; 8.4.
21
Diod. IJ·I04·S-6; Plut. Lys. 8; Polyaenus 1.45·1. Xenophon makes no mention of
the affair. Plutarch mentions the events at Miletus before Lysander's second visit to
Sardis, but his structure here is typically literary and moralistic rather than historical.
Diodorus' sequence is preferable. For useful discussions of the chronological problem,
see F. Bilabel, Philologus, suppl. (1920), 95; and P.A. Rahe, "Lysander and the Spartan
Settlement, 407-403 B.c." (Ph. D. diss.,. Yale University, 1977), 76, n. 1.
12 Diod. 1].104.6. For the location of Blauda, see Strabo 12.587; and Busolt, GG
Ill:2, I6I