174 HISTORY OF GREECE. ed Lira on towards complete success. Nor were the envnua gods ever more envious, than when they frustrated, by the disas- ter of Arginusae, the consummation which they had thus seemed to promise. The pertinence of these remarks will be better understood in the next chapter, when I come to recount the actual winding-up of the Peloponnesian war under the auspices of the worthless, but able, Lysander. It was into his hands that the command was retransferred, a transfer almost from the best of Greeks to the worst. We shall then see how much the suffer- ings of the Grecian world, and of Athens especially, were aggra- vated by his individual temper and tendencies, and we shall then feel by contrast, how much would have been gained if the com- mander armed with such great power of dictation had been a Pan-Hellenic patriot. To have the sentiment of that patriotism enforced, at a moment of break-up and rearrangement through- out Greece, by the victorious leader of the day, with single- hearted honesty and resolution, would have been a stimulus to all the better feelings of the Grecian mind, such as no other combi- nation of circumstances could have furnished. The defeat and death of Kallikratidas was thus even more deplorable as a loss to Athens and Greece, than to Sparta herself. To his lofty charac- ter and patriotism, even in so short a career, we vainly seek a oarallel. The news of the defeat was speedily conveyed to Eteonikus at Mitylene by the admiral's signal-boat. As soon as he heard it, he desired the crew of the signal-boat to say nothing to any one, but to go again out of the harbor, and then return with wreaths And shouts of triumph, crying out that Kallikratidas had gained the victory and had destroyed or captured all the Athenian ships. All suspicion of the reality was thus kept from Konon and the besieged, while Eteonikus himself, affecting to believe the news, offered the sacrifice of thanksgiving ; but gave orders to all the triremes to take their meal and depart afterwards without losing a moment, directing the masters of the trading-ships also to put their property silently aboard, and get off at the same time. And thus, with little or no delay, and without the least obstruction from Konon, all these ships, triremes and merchantmen, sailed out of the harbor and were carried off in safety to Chios, the wind beinjr fair. Eteonikus ai. the same time withdrew his land-forcef
