ps in tow, he sailed back to Lampsakus with
triumphal music of flutes and paeans of victory, having won a great
victory with little labour, and in a short time brought to a close the
longest and most uncertain war ever known in his times. There had been
innumerable battles, and frequent changes of fortune, in which more
generals had perished than in all the previous wars in Greece, and yet
all was brought to a close by the wisdom and conduct of one man: which
thing caused some to attribute this victory to the interposition of
the gods.

XII. Some affirmed, that when Lysander's ship sailed out of the
harbour of Lampsakus to attack the enemy, they saw the Dioskuri, like
two stars, shining over the rudders[147]. Some also say that the fall
of the great stone was an omen of this disaster: for the common belief
is that a vast stone fell down from Heaven into the Goat's Rivers,
which stone is even now to be seen, and is worshipped by the people of
the Chersonese. We are told that Anaxagoras foretold that in case of
any slip or disturbance of the bodies which are fixed in the heavens,
they would all fall down. The stars also, he said, are not in their
original position, but being heavy bodies formed of stone, they shine
by the resistance and friction of the atmosphere, while they are
driven along by the violence of the circular motion by which they were
originally prevented from falling, when cold and heavy bodies were
separated from the general universe. There is a more credible theory
on this subject, that shooting-stars are not a rush of aerial fire
which is put out as soon as it is kindled, nor yet a blaze caused by a
quantity of air being suddenly allowed to rush upwards, but that they
are heavenly bodies, which from some failure in their rotatory power,
fall from their orbit and descend, not often into inhabited portions
of the earth, but for the most part into the sea, whereby they escape
notice. This theory of Anaxagoras is confirmed by Daimachus in his
treatise on Piety, where he states that for seventy-five days before
the stone fell a fiery body of great size like a burning cloud, was
observed in the heavens. It did not remain at rest, but moved in
various directions by short jerks, so that by its violent swaying
about many fiery particles were broken off, and flashed like
shooting-stars. When, however, it sank to the earth, the inhabitants,
after their first feeling of terror and astonishment were passed,
collecte