ne dared to thwart him, his
pride and insolence of temper became intolerable. He proceeded to
extravagant lengths both when he rewarded and when he punished,
bestowing absolute government over important cities upon his friends,
while he was satisfied with nothing short of the death of an enemy,
and regarded banishment as too mild a sentence. Indeed, when
subsequently to this he feared lest the chiefs of the popular party at
Miletus might escape, and also wished to tempt those who had concealed
themselves to leave their hiding-place, he swore that he would not
harm them; and when they, trusting to his word, came forward and gave
themselves up, he delivered them over to the aristocratical party to
be put to death, to the number of not less than eight hundred men. In
all the other cities, too, an indiscriminate massacre of the popular
party took place, as Lysander not only put to death his own personal
enemies, but also those persons against whom any of his friends in
each city might happen to have a grudge. Wherefore AEteokles the
Lacedaemonian was thought to have spoken well, when he said that
"Greece could not have borne two Lysanders." We are told by
Theophrastus that Archestratus made the same remark about Alkibiades:
although in his case it was insolence, luxury and self-will which gave
so much offence, whereas Lysander's harsh, merciless disposition was
what made his power so hateful and terrible.

At first the Lacedaemonians paid no attention to complaints brought
against him; but when Pharnabazus, who had been wronged by Lysander's
depredations on his country, sent an embassy to Sparta to demand
justice, the Ephors were much enraged. They put to death Thorax, one
of his friends, whom they found in possession of silver coin, and they
sent a skytale to him bidding him appear before them. I will now
explain what a skytale was. When the Ephors sent out any one as
general or admiral of their forces, they used to prepare two round
sticks of wood of exactly the same length and thickness, corresponding
with one another at the ends. One of these they kept themselves, and
the other they gave to the person sent out. These sticks they call
skytales. Now when they desire to transmit some secret of importance
to him, they wrap a long narrow strip of paper[152] like a strap round
the skytale which is in their possession, leaving no intervals, but
completely covering the stick along its whole length with the paper.
When this has