acedaemonian
ambassadors in Athens at the moment, at the house of Callias their
proxenos; their names were Etymocles, Aristolochus, and Ocyllus.
Immediately on receipt of the news the Athenians seized these three and
imprisoned them, as not improbably concerned in the plot. Utterly taken
aback by the affair themselves, the ambassadors pleaded that, had they
been aware of an attempt to seize Piraeus, they would hardly have been
so foolish as to put themselves into the power of the Athenians, or have
selected the house of their proxenos for protection, where they were so
easily to be found. It would, they further urged, soon be plain to the
Athenians themselves that the state of Lacedaemon was quite as
little cognisant of these proceedings as they. "You will hear before
long"--such was their confident prediction--"that Sphodrias has paid for
his behaviour by his life." On this wise the ambassadors were acquitted
of all concern in the matter and dismissed. Sphodrias himself was
recalled and indicted by the ephors on the capital charge, and, in spite
of his refusal to face the trial, he was acquitted. This miscarriage
of justice, as it seemed to many, who described it as unprecedented in
Lacedaemon, has an explanation.

(10) See Plut. "Pel." xiv. (Clough, ii. p. 214).

Sphodrias had a son named Cleonymus. He was just at the age when
youth emerges from boyhood, very handsome and of high repute among
his fellows. To this youth Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, was
passionately attached. Now the friends of Cleombrotus, as comrades of
Sphodrias, were disposed to acquit him; but they feared Agesilaus and
his friends, not to mention the intermediate party, for the enormity of
his proceeding was clear. So when Sphodrias addressed his son Cleonymus:
"You have it in your power, my son, to save your father, if you will, by
begging Archidamus to dispose Agesilaus favourably to me at my trial."
Thus instructed, the youth did not shrink from visiting Archidamus, and
implored him for his sake to save his father. Now when Archidamus saw
how Cleonymus wept, he too was melted to tears as he stood beside him,
but to his petition he made answer thus: "Nay, Cleonymus, it is the bare
truth I tell you, I cannot so much as look my father in the face;
(11) if I wished anything transacted for me in the city I would beg
assistance from the whole world sooner than from my father. Still, since
it is you who bid me, rest assured I will do my best to