XXIV. This at once gave rise to a suspicion that Phœbidas was merely an agent, and that the whole plot originated with Agesilaus himself, and subsequent events confirmed this view; for as soon as the Thebans drove out the garrison and set free their city, Agesilaus made war upon them to avenge the murder of Archias and Leontidas, who had been nominally polemarchs, but in reality despots of Thebes. At this period Agesipolis was dead, and his successor Kleombrotus was despatched into Bœotia with an army; for Agesilaus excused himself from serving in that campaign on the ground of age, as it was forty years since he had first borne arms, and he was consequently exempt by law. The real reason was that he was ashamed, having so lately been engaged in a war to restore the exiled popular party at Phlius, to be seen now attacking the Thebans in the cause of despotism.
There was a Lacedæmonium named Sphodrias, one of the faction opposed to Agesilaus, who was established as Spartan governor of the town of Thespiæ, a daring and ambitious man, but hot-headed, and prone to act without due calculation. This man, who longed to achieve distinction, and who perceived that Phœbidas had made a name throughout Greece by his exploit at Thebes, persuaded himself that it would be a much more glorious deed if he were to make himself master of the Peiræus, and so by a sudden attack cut off the Athenians from the sea. It is said that this attempt originated with the Bœotarchs, Pelopidas and Mellon, who sent emissaries to Sphodrias to praise and flatter him, and point out that he alone was capable of conducting so bold an adventure. By this language, and an affectation of sympathy with Lacedæmon, these men at length prevailed on him to attempt a most unrighteous deed, and one which required considerable boldness and good fortune to ensure its success. Daylight, however, overtook Sphodrias before he had crossed the Thriasian plain, near Eleusis. All hope of surprising Peiræus by a night attack was now gone, and it is said, also, that the soldiers were alarmed and terror-stricken by certain lights which gleamed from the temples at Eleusis. Sphodrias himself, now that his enterprise had so manifestly failed, lost heart, and after hurriedly seizing some unimportant plunder, led his men back to Thespiæ. Upon this an embassy was sent from Athens to Sparta to complain of the acts of Sphodrias; but on the arrival of the ambassadors at Sparta they found that the government there were in no need of encouragement from without to proceed against Sphodrias, for they had already summoned him home to be tried for his life. Sphodrias durst not venture to return to Sparta, for he saw that his fellow-countrymen were angry with him and ashamed of his conduct towards the Athenians, and that they wished rather to be thought fellow-sufferers by his crime than accomplices in it.