been done they write upon the paper while it is upon the
stick, and after writing they unwind the paper and send it to the
general without the stick. When he receives it, it is entirely
illegible, as the letters have no connection, but he winds it round
the stick in his possession so that the folds correspond to one
another, and then the whole message can be read. The paper is called
skytale as well as the stick, as a thing measured is called by the
name of the measure.

XX. Lysander, when this skytale reached him at the Hellespont, was
much troubled, and as he especially feared the accusations of
Pharnabazus, he hastened to confer with him, with a view to settling
their dispute. When they met, Lysander begged him to write a second
letter to the Spartan government, stating that he had not received any
wrong, and that he had no charge to bring against him. It was,
however, a case of "diamond cut diamond," as the proverb has it, for
Pharnabazus, while he ostensibly promised to do everything that
Lysander wished, and to send publicly a letter dictated by him, had by
him another privately-written despatch, and when the seals were about
to be affixed, as the two letters looked exactly alike, he substituted
the privately-written one for that which Lysander had seen. When then
Lysander reached Lacedaemon, and proceeded, as it customary, to the
senate-house, he handed over to the Ephors this letter of Pharnabazus,
with the conviction that thereby he was quashing the most important of
all the charges against himself; for Pharnabazus was much loved by the
Lacedaemonians, because he had taken their part in the war more
zealously than any other Persian satrap. When, however, the Ephors
showed him the letter, and he perceived that "Others besides
Odysseus[153] can contrive," he retired in great confusion, and a few
days afterwards, on meeting with the Ephors, informed them that he
must go and pay a sacrifice to Ammon[154]; which he had vowed before
winning his victories. Some historians tell us that this was true, and
that when he was besieging Aphytae, a city in Thrace, the god Ammon
appeared to him in a dream; in consequence of which he raised the
siege, imagining this to be the will of the god, ordered the
inhabitants to sacrifice to Ammon, and himself made preparations for
proceeding at once to Libya to propitiate the god. Most persons,
however, imagined that this was a mere pretence, but that really he
feared the Ephors, and