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Such was the address of the Spartans. The greater number of the
allies listened without being persuaded. None however broke silence
but Sosicles the Corinthian, who exclaimed -
"Surely the heaven will soon be below, and the earth above, and men
will henceforth live in the sea, and fish take their place upon the dry
land, since you, Lacedaemonians, propose to put down free
governments in the cities of Greece, and to set up tyrannies in their
room. There is nothing in the whole world so unjust, nothing so
bloody, as a tyranny. If, however, it seems to you a desirable
thing to have the cities under despotic rule, begin by putting a tyrant
over yourselves, and then establish despots in the other states.
While you continue yourselves, as you have always been, unacquainted
with tyranny, and take such excellent care that Sparta may not suffer
from it, to act as you are now doing is to treat your allies
unworthily. If you knew what tyranny was as well as ourselves, you
would be better advised than you now are in regard to it. The
government at Corinth was once an oligarchy - a single race, called
Bacchiadae, who intermarried only among themselves, held the
management of affairs. Now it happened that Amphion, one of these,
had a daughter, named Labda, who was lame, and whom therefore none
of the Bacchiadae would consent to marry; so she was taken to wife by
Aetion, son of Echecrates, a man of the township of Petra, who
was, however, by descent of the race of the Lapithae, and of the
house of Caeneus. Aetion, as he had no child, either by this wife
or by any other, went to Delphi to consult the oracle concerning the
matter. Scarcely had he entered the temple when the Pythoness saluted
him in these words
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No one honours thee now, Aetion, worthy of honour
Labda shall soon be a mother - her offspring a rock, that will one day
Fall on the kingly race, and right the city of Corinth.
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By some chance this address of the oracle to Aetion came to the ears
of the Bacchiadae, who till then had been unable to perceive the
meaning of another earlier prophecy which likewise bore upon Corinth,
and pointed to the same event as Aetion's prediction. It was the following:
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When mid the rocks an eagle shall bear a carnivorous lion,
Mighty and fierce, he shall loosen the limbs of many beneath them
Brood ye well upon this, all ye Corinthian people,
Ye who dwell by fair Peirene, and beetling Corinth.
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The Bacchiadae had possessed this oracle for some time; but they were
quite at a loss to know what it meant until they heard the response
given to Aetion; then however they at once perceived its meaning,
since the two agreed so well together. Nevertheless, though the
bearing of the first prophecy was now clear to them, they remained
quiet, being minded to put to death the child which Aetion was
expecting. As soon, therefore, as his wife was delivered, they sent
ten of their number to the township where Aetion lived, with orders to
make away with the baby. So the men came to Petra, and went into
Aetion's house, and there asked if they might see the child; and
Labda, who knew nothing of their purpose, but thought their inquiries
arose from a kindly feeling towards her husband, brought the child,
and laid him in the arms of one of them. Now they had agreed by the
way that whoever first got hold of the child should dash it against the
ground. It happened, however, by a providential chance, that the
babe, just as Labda put him into the man's arms, smiled in his
face. The man saw the smile, and was touched with pity, so that he
could not kill it; he therefore passed it on to his next neighbour,
who gave it to a third; and so it went through all the ten without any
one choosing to be the murderer. The mother received her child back;
and the men went out of the house, and stood near the door, and there
blamed and reproached one another; chiefly however accusing the man who
had first had the child in his arms, because he had not done as had
been agreed upon. At last, after much time had been thus spent, they
resolved to go into the house again and all take part in the murder.
But it was fated that evil should come upon Corinth from the progeny
of Aetion; and so it chanced that Labda, as she stood near the
door, heard all that the men said to one another, and fearful of their
changing their mind, and returning to destroy her baby, she carried
him off and hid him in what seemed to her the most unlikely place to be
suspected, viz., a 'cypsel' or corn-bin. She knew that if they
came back to look for the child, they would search all her house; and
so indeed they did, but not finding the child after looking
everywhere, they thought it best to go away, and declare to those by
whom they had been sent that they had done their bidding. And thus
they reported on their return home. Aetion's son grew up, and, in
remembrance of the danger from which he had escaped, was named
Cypselus, after the cornbin. When he reached to man's estate, he
went to Delphi, and on consulting the oracle, received a response
which was two-sided. It was the following:
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See there comes to my dwelling a man much favour'd of fortune,
Cypselus, son of Aetion, and king of the glorious Corinth
He and his children too, but not his children's children.
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Such was the oracle; and Cypselus put so much faith in it that he
forthwith made his attempt, and thereby became master of Corinth.
Having thus got the tyranny, he showed himself a harsh ruler - many
of the Corinthians he drove into banishment, many he deprived of their
fortunes, and a still greater number of their lives. His reign lasted
thirty years, and was prosperous to its close; insomuch that he left
the government to Periander, his son. This prince at the beginning
of his reign was of a milder temper than his father; but after he
corresponded by means of messengers with Thrasybulus, tyrant of
Miletus, he became even more sanguinary. On one occasion he sent a
herald to ask Thrasybulus what mode of government it was safest to set
up in order to rule with honour. Thrasybulus led the messenger without
the city, and took him into a field of corn, through which he began to
walk, while he asked him again and again concerning his coming from
Corinth, ever as he went breaking off and throwing away all such ears
of corn as over-topped the rest. In this way he went through the
whole field, and destroyed all the best and richest part of the crop;
then, without a word, he sent the messenger back. On the return of
the man to Corinth, Periander was eager to know what Thrasybulus had
counselled, but the messenger reported that he had said nothing; and
he wondered that Periander had sent him to so strange a man, who
seemed to have lost his senses, since he did nothing but destroy his
own property. And upon this he told how Thrasybulus had behaved at
the interview. Periander, perceiving what the action meant, and
knowing that Thrasybulus advised the destruction of all the leading
citizens, treated his subjects from this time forward with the very
greatest cruelty. Where Cypselus had spared any, and had neither put
them to death nor banished them, Periander completed what his father
had left unfinished. One day he stripped all the women of Corinth
stark naked, for the sake of his own wife Melissa. He had sent
messengers into Thesprotia to consult the oracle of the dead upon the
Acheron concerning a pledge which had been given into his charge by a
stranger, and Melissa appeared, but refused to speak or tell where
the pledge was - 'she was chill,' she said, 'having no clothes;
the garments buried with her were of no manner of use, since they had
not been burnt. And this should be her token to Periander, that what
she said was true - the oven was cold when he baked his loaves in
it.' When this message was brought him, Periander knew the token;
wherefore he straightway made proclamation, that all the wives of the
Corinthians should go forth to the temple of Juno. So the women
apparelled themselves in their bravest, and went forth, as if to a
festival. Then, with the help of his guards, whom he had placed for
the purpose, he stripped them one and all, making no difference
between the free women and the slaves; and, taking their clothes to a
pit, he called on the name of Melissa, and burnt the whole heap.
This done, he sent a second time to the oracle; and Melissa's ghost
told him where he would find the stranger's pledge. Such, O
Lacedaemonians! is tyranny, and such are the deeds which spring from
it. We Corinthians marvelled greatly when we first knew of your
having sent for Hippias; and now it surprises us still more to hear
you speak as you do. We adjure you, by the common gods of Greece,
plant not despots in her cities. If however you are determined, if
you persist, against all justice, in seeking to restore Hippias -
know, at least, that the Corinthians will not approve your conduct."
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