Description of Greece

​For those inhabiting Creusis, the harbor of the Thespians, there is nothing in common, but in the house of a private citizen there was a statue of Dionysus made of plaster and adorned with painting. The voyage to Creusis from Peloponnese is crooked and otherwise not calm; for headlands project so that one cannot cross straight through the sea, and at the same time violent winds blow down from the mountains.

​And sailing from Creusis not inland, but along Boeotia itself, there is a city on the right, Thisbe. First there is a mountain by the sea, and having crossed this, a plain will receive you, and after this another mountain; and at the foothills is the city. There is a temple of Heracles here and an upright statue of stone, and they celebrate the Heracleia festival.

​Nothing indeed would have prevented the plain between the mountains from being a lake due to the abundance of water, if a strong dyke had not been made for them through the middle; and so, every other year, they divert the water to the far side of the dyke, and cultivate the other side of it. They say Thisbe was a local nymph, from whom the city has its name.

​And sailing along from there, there is a small town by the sea, Tipha; there is a temple of Heracles for the Tiphans and they hold an annual festival. These people of the Boeotians especially from of old desire to be clever in maritime matters, remembering a local man, Tiphys, that he was chosen to be the helmsman of the Argo; and they also point out in front of the city where they say the Argo anchored when returning back from Colchis.

​And going from Thespiae inland toward the continent, there is Haliartus. As to who became the founder of Haliartus and Coroneia, it was not fitting for me to separate it from the things relating to the Orchomenians; but during the expedition of the Mede, as the Haliartians favored the cause of the Greeks, a portion of Xerxes’ army advanced upon their land and city together, burning them. And in Haliartus there is the tomb of Lysander the Lacedaemonian; for having attacked the wall of Haliartus, with an army from Thebes being inside and from Athens, and the enemies sallying out, he fell in the battle.

​Lysander indeed is to be highly praised in some respects, but in others also to be bitterly blamed. He displayed such cleverness as this: while commanding the triremes of the Peloponnesians against Antiochus, who was the helmsman of Alcibiades, having watched for Alcibiades being absent from the fleet, he then led Antiochus into the hope that he was a match to fight a naval battle with the Lacedaemonians, and when he put to sea out of boldness and vanity, he defeated him not far from the city of the Colophonians.

​And when Lysander came a second time to the triremes from Sparta, he so won over Cyrus that money, whenever he asked for the fleet, was present for him timely and abundantly; and while the Athenians were anchored with a hundred ships at Aegospotami, he captured their ships, having watched for the sailors scattered both for water and for the market. And he also presented such a deed with regard to justice.

​To Autolycus the pancratiast, of whom indeed I also know having seen a statue in the prytaneum of the Athenians, with this man Eteonicus the Spartan entered into a dispute about some property; and when indeed Eteonicus in speaking was caught pleading what was not just—for indeed at that time the government of the Thirty was in power for the Athenians and Lysander was still present—because of these things Eteonicus was incited to begin striking blows, and Autolycus having defended himself, he led him to Lysander, hoping that he would judge entirely to his own favor; but Lysander condemned Eteonicus of acting unjustly and sent him away having disgraced him in his speech.

​These were the things belonging to Lysander for glory, but there were other reproaches of equal number. For Philocles the Athenian, who was himself a general at Aegospotami, and of the other Athenians as many as four thousand being prisoners, Lysander put to death and did not even bring earth upon them when dead, which was granted even to those of the Medes who landed at Marathon by the Athenians, and by King Xerxes to those of the Lacedaemonians themselves who fell at Thermopylae. And Lysander caused even greater reproaches to come upon the Lacedaemonians because of the decarchies which he established in the cities, and because of the Lacedaemonian harmosts.

​And since the Lacedaemonians did not think it right to acquire money according to a certain oracle, that love of money alone would be the ruin of Sparta, he on the contrary implanted a strong desire for money in them. I indeed, following the Persians and judging by their law, decide that Lysander became a source of harm rather than of benefit to the Lacedaemonians;