o Athens,
where he must have arrived shortly after the execution of his master
Socrates. Disgusted probably by that event, he rejoined his old
comrades in Asia, and subsequently returned to Greece along with
Agesilaus.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE SUPREMACY OF SPARTA, B.C. 404-371.

After the fall of Athens, Sparta stood without a rival in Greece. In
the various cities which had belonged to the Athenian empire Lysander
established an oligarchical Council of Ten, called a DECARCHY or
Decemvirate, subject to the control of a Spartan HARMOST or governor.
The Decarchies, however, remained only a short time in power, since the
Spartan government regarded them with jealousy as the partisans of
Lysander; but harmosts continued to be placed in every state subject to
their empire. The government of the harmosts was corrupt and
oppressive; no justice could be obtained against them by an appeal to
the Spartan authorities at home; and the Grecian cities soon had cause
to regret the milder and more equitable sway of Athens.

On the death of Agis in B.C. 398, his half-brother Agesilaus was
appointed King, to the exclusion of Leotychides, the son of Agis. This
was mainly effected by the powerful influence of Lysander, who
erroneously considered Agesilaus to be of a yielding and manageable
disposition and hoped by a skilful use of those qualities to extend his
own influence, and under the name of another to be in reality king
himself.

Agesilaus was now forty years of age, and esteemed a model of those
virtues more peculiarly deemed Spartan. He was obedient to the
constituted authorities, emulous to excel, courageous, energetic,
capable of bearing all sorts of hardship and fatigue, simple and frugal
in his mode of life. To these severer qualities he added the popular
attractions of an agreeable countenance and pleasing address. His
personal defects at first stood in the way of his promotion. He was
not only low in stature, but also lame of one leg; and there was an
ancient oracle which warned the Spartans to beware of "a lame reign."
The ingenuity of Lysander, assisted probably by the popular qualities
of Agesilaus, contrived to overcome this objection by interpreting a
lame reign to mean not any bodily defect in the king, but the reign of
one who was not a genuine descendant of Hercules. Once possessed of
power, Agesilaus supplied any defect in his title by the prudence and
policy of his conduct; and, by the marked deference wh