he fatal hemlock. The constancy
of his end might have adorned a better life after swallowing the
draught, he jerked on the floor a drop which remained in the cup,
according to the custom of the game called COTTABOS, exclaiming, "This
to the health of the GENTLE Critias!"

Alcibiades had been included by the Thirty in the list of exiles; but
the fate which now overtook him seems to have sprung from the fears of
the Lacedaemonians, or perhaps from the personal hatred of Agis. After
the battle of AEgospotami, Pharnabazus permitted the Athenian exile to
live in Phrygia, and assigned him a revenue for his maintenance. But a
despatch came out from Sparta, to Lysander, directing that Alcibiades
should be put to death. Lysander communicated the order to Pharnabazus,
who arranged for carrying it into execution. The house of Alcibiades
was surrounded with a band of assassins, and set on fire. He rushed
out with drawn sword upon his assailants, who shrank from the attack,
but who slew him from a distance with their javelins and arrows.
Timandra, a female with whom he lived, performed towards his body the
last offices of duty and affection. Thus perished miserably, in the
vigour of his age, one of the most remarkable, but not one of the
greatest, characters in Grecian history. With qualities which,
properly applied, might have rendered him the greatest benefactor of
Athens, he contrived to attain the infamous distinction of being that
citizen who had inflicted upon her the most signal amount of damage.

Meantime an altered state of feeling was springing up in Greece. Athens
had ceased to be an object of fear or jealousy, and those feelings
began now to be directed towards Sparta. Lysander had risen to a
height of unparalleled power. He was in a manner idolized. Poets
showered their praises on him, and even altars were raised in his
honour by the Asiatic Greeks. In the name of Sparta he exercised
almost uncontrolled authority in the cities he had reduced, including
Athens itself. But it was soon discovered that, instead of the freedom
promised by the Spartans, only another empire had been established,
whilst Lysander was even meditating to extort from the subject cities a
yearly tribute of one thousand talents. And all these oppressions were
rendered still more intolerable by the overweening pride and harshness
of Lysander's demeanour.

Even in Sparta itself the conduct of Lysander was beginning to inspire
disgust an