an plain, near Eleusis. All hope of surprising Peiraeus by a
night attack was now gone, and it is said, also, that the soldiers
were alarmed and terror-stricken by certain lights which gleamed from
the temples at Eleusis. Sphodrias himself, now that his enterprise had
so manifestly failed, lost heart, and after hurriedly seizing some
unimportant plunder, led his men back to Thespiae. Upon this an embassy
was sent from Athens to Sparta to complain of the acts of Sphodrias;
but on the arrival of the ambassadors at Sparta they found that the
government there were in no need of encouragement from without to
proceed against Sphodrias, for they had already summoned him home to
be tried for his life. Sphodrias durst not venture to return to
Sparta, for he saw that his fellow-countrymen were angry with him and
ashamed of his conduct towards the Athenians, and that they wished
rather to be thought fellow-sufferers by his crime than accomplices in
it.

XXV. Sphodrias had a son, named Kleonymus, who was still quite a
youth, and who was beloved by Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus. He now
assisted this youth, who was pleading his father's cause as best he
might, but he could not do so openly, because Sphodrias belonged to
the party which was opposed to Agesilaus. When, however, Kleonymus
came to him, and besought him with tears and piteous entreaties to
appease Agesilaus, because the party of Sphodrias dreaded him more
than any one else, the young man, after two or three days' hesitation,
at length, as the day fixed for the trial approached, mustered up
courage to speak to his father on the subject, telling him that
Kleonymus had begged him to intercede for his father.

Agesilaus was well aware of his son's intimacy with Kleonymus, which
he had never discouraged; for Kleonymus promised to become as
distinguished a man as any in Sparta. He did not on this occasion,
however, hold out to his son any hopes of a satisfactory termination
of the affair, but said that he would consider what would be the most
fitting and honourable course to pursue. After this reply, Archidamus
had not the heart to meet Kleonymus, although he had before been
accustomed to see him several times daily. This conduct of his plunged
the friends of Sphodrias into yet deeper despair of his cause, until
Etymokles, one of the friends of Agesilaus, in a conference with them,
explained that what Agesilaus really thought about the matter was,
that the action itself de