PHILOP@MEN AND THE FALL OF SPARTA. 343

tyrants he drove from the country, and three thou-
sand who refused to go he sold into slavery; and, as
a further insult, with the money received from their
sale he built a colonnade at Megalopolis.

Finally, as a death-blow to Spartan power, he
abolished the time-honored laws of Lycurgus, under
which that city had for centuries been so great, and
forced the people to educate their children and live
in the same manner as the Achwans. Thus ended
the glory of Sparta. Some time afterwards its citi-
zens resumed their old laws and customs, but the
city had sunk from its high estate, and from that
time forward vanished from history.

At length, being then seventy years of age, mis-
fortune came to this great warrior and ended his
warlike career. An enemy of his had induced the
Messenians to revolt from the Achwan League. At
once the old soldier, though lying sick with a fever
at Argos, rose from his bed and reached Megalopolis
fifty miles away, ina day. Putting himself at the
head of an army, he marched to meet the foe. In
the fight that followed his force was driven back,
and he became separated from his men in his efforts
to protect the rear. Unluckily his horse stumbled
in a stony place, and he was thrown to the ground
and stunned. The enemy, who were following
closely, at once made him prisoner, and carried him,
with insult and contumely, and with loud shouts of
triumph, to the city gates, through which the very
tidings of his coming had once driven a triumphant
foe.

The Messenians rapidly turned from anger to pity