sagacity of Somers. The first great humiliation which befel the
Lacedaemonians was the affair of Sphacteria. It is remarkable
that on this occasion they were vanquished by men who made a
trade of war. The force which Cleon carried out with him from
Athens to the Bay of Pyles, and to which the event of the
conflict is to be chiefly ascribed, consisted entirely of
mercenaries, archers from Scythia and light infantry from Thrace.
The victory gained by the Lacedaemonians over a great confederate
army at Tegea retrieved that military reputation which the
disaster of Sphacteria had impaired. Yet even at Tegea it was
signally proved that the Lacedaemonians, though far superior to
occasional soldiers, were not equal to professional soldiers. On
every point but one the allies were put to rout; but on one point
the Lacedaemonians gave way; and that was the point where they
were opposed to a brigade of a thousand Argives, picked men, whom
the state to which they belonged had during many years trained to
war at the public charge, and who were, in fact a standing army.
After the battle of Tegea, many years elapsed before the
Lacedaemonians sustained a defeat. At length a calamity befel
them which astonished all their neighbours. A division of the
army of Agesilaus was cut off and destroyed almost to a man; and
this exploit, which seemed almost portentous to the Greeks of
that age, was achieved by Iphicrates, at the head of a body of
mercenary light infantry. But it was from the day of Leuctya that
the fall of Spate became rapid and violent. Some time before that
day the Thebans had resolved to follow the example set many years
before by the Argives. Some hundreds of athletic youths,
carefully selected, were set apart, under the names of the City
Band and the Sacred Band, to form a standing army. Their business
was war. They encamped in the citadel; they were supported at the