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and defence of Athens, but had been demolished through the 

 jealousy of her rival in the Peloponnesian war. In the end, the 

 constant and deep-laid policy of Persia, in regard to Greece, pre- 

 vailed, and both powers, impoverished and exhausted by incessant 

 conflicts, in which fortune alternately favoured the contending 

 powers, were at length obliged to submit to a peace dictated by 

 Persia ; that disgraceful peace which bears the name of Antalcidas, 

 the projector of it, which, however necessary to Greece in her 

 present debilitated state, and even sanctioned by the assent of 

 Agesilaus himself, certainly rendered abortive all that commander's 

 noble and repeated efforts to liberate the Asiatic Greeks, and threw 

 them again at the feet of their former tyrants*. 



During the remainder of the long reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, 

 by a continued adherence to the same line of insidious policy in 

 regard to Greece, that is, by following the old maxim of dividing 

 and governing, alternately dispensing bribes and holding out me- 

 naces, the great leading states were kept pretty equally balanced 

 against each other ; at least no such formidable confederacy against 

 the Persian power, as had more than once spread terror even through 

 the distant court of Susa, again appeared to interrupt its repose. 

 Henceforward, too, a considerable band of Greek mercenaries con- 

 stantly ranged under the banners of that empire, and were consi- 

 sidered as the flower of its army. No less than twenty thousand 

 under the command of Iphicrates, an Athenian general, attended 

 this monarch shortly after his expedition into Egypt ; and, though 

 that expedition proved unfortunate, the miscarriage was by no 

 means to be laid to their charge, but to the obstinate infatuation of 

 Pharnabazus, the Persian commander. In fact, they seem ever to 

 have well deserved their pay, and fought with fidelity and zeal, a 







* Xenophou, lib. iv. p. 551, et Plutarch in Agesilao. 



