the hoplites, in their heavy defensive armor, held in contempt
the peltarts with their darts and arrows, even as the knights of mediaeval
Europe despised an encounter with the peasantry. This event revived the
courage of the anti-Spartan allies, and intensely humiliated the
Lacedaemonians. It was not only the loss of the aristocratic hoplites, but
the disgrace of being beaten by peltarts. Iphicrates recovered the places
which Agesilaus had taken, and Corinth remained undisturbed.

(M617) Sparta, in view of these great disasters, now sought to detach
Persia from Athens. She sent Antalcidas to Ionia, offering to surrender
the Asiatic Greeks, and promising a universal autonomy throughout the
Grecian world. These overtures were disliked by the allies, who sent Conon
to counteract them. But Antalcidas gained the favor of the Persian satrap
Tiribasus, who had succeeded Tissaphernes, and he privately espoused the
cause of Sparta, and seized Conon and caused his death. Tiribasus,
however, was not sustained by the Persian court, which remained hostile to
Sparta. Struthas, a Persian general, was sent into Ionia, to act more
vigorously against the Lacedaemonians. He gained a victory, B.C. 390, over
the Spartan forces, commanded by Thimbron, who was slain.

(M618) The Lacedaemonians succeeded, after the death of Conon, in
concentrating a considerable fleet near Rhodes. Against this, Thrasybulus
was sent from Athens with a still larger one, and was gaining advantages,
when he was slain near Aspendus, in Pamphylia, in a mutiny, and Athens
lost the restorer of her renovated democracy, and an able general and
honest citizen, without the vindictive animosities which characterized the
great men of his day.

(M619) Rhodes still held out against the Lacedaemonians, who were now
commanded by Anaxibius, in the place of Dercyllidas. He was surprised by
Iphicrates, and was slain, and the Athenians, under this gallant leader,
again became masters of the Hellespont. But this success was balanced by
the defection of AEgina, which island was constrained by the Lacedaemonians
into war with Athens. I need not detail the various enterprises on both
sides, until Antalcidas returned from Susa with the treaty confirmed
between the Spartans and the court of Persia, which closed the war between
the various contending parties, B.C. 387. This treaty was of great
importance, but it indicates the loss of all Hellenic dignity when Sparta,
too, descends so fa