Lysander   

The treasure-chamber of the Acanthians at Delphi has this inscription:
"The spoils which Brasidas and the Acanthians took from the Athenians."
And, accordingly, many take the marble statue, which stands within
the building by the gates, to be Brasidas's; but, indeed, it is Lysander's,
representing him with his hair at full length, after the old fashion,
and with an ample beard. Neither is it true, as some give out, that
because the Argives, after their great defeat, shaved themselves for
sorrow, that the Spartans contrariwise triumphing in their achievements,
suffered their hair to grow; neither did the Spartans come to be ambitious
of wearing long hair, because the Bacchiadae, who fled from Corinth
to Lacedaemon, looked mean and unsightly, having their heads all close
cut. But this, also, is indeed one of the ordinances of Lycurgus,
who, as it is reported, was used to say, that long hair made good-looking
men more beautiful, and ill-looking men more terrible.
Lysander's father is said to have been Aristoclitus, who was not indeed
of the royal family but yet of the stock of the Heraclidae. He was
brought up in poverty, and showed himself obedient and conformable,
as ever any one did, to the customs of his country; of a manly spirit,
also, and superior to all pleasures, excepting only that which their
good actions bring to those who are honoured and successful; and it
is accounted no base thing in Sparta for their young men to be overcome
with this kind of pleasure. For they are desirous, from the very first,
to have their youth susceptible to good and bad repute, to feel pain
at disgrace, and exultation at being commended; and any one who is
insensible and unaffected in these respects is thought poor-spirited
and of no capacity for virtue. Ambition and the passion for distinction
were thus implanted in his character by his Laconian education, nor,
if they continued there, must we blame his natural disposition much
for this. But he was submissive to great men, beyond what seems agreeable
to the Spartan temper, and could easily bear the haughtiness of those
who were in power, when it was any way for his advantage, which some
are of opinion is no small part of political discretion. Aristotle,
who says all great characters are more or less atrabilious, as Socrates
and Plato and Hercules were, writes that Lysander, not indeed early
in life, but when he was old, became thus affected. What is singular
in his character is that he endured poverty very well and that he
was not at all enslaved or corrupted by wealth, and yet he filled
his country with riches and the love of them, and took away from them
the glory of not admiring money; importing amongst them an abundance
of gold and silver after the Athenian war, though keeping not one
drachma for himself. When Dionysius, the tyrant, sent his daughters
some costly gowns of Sicilian manufacture, he would not receive them,
saying he was afraid they would make them look more unhandsome. But
a while after, being sent ambassador from the same city to the same
tyrant, when he had sent him a couple of robes, and bade him choose
which of them he would, and carry to his daughter: "She," said he,
"will be able to choose best for herself," and taking both of them,
went his way.
The Peloponnesian war having now been carried on a long time, and
it being expected, after the disaster of the Athenians in Sicily,
that they would at once lose the mastery of the sea, and ere long
be routed everywhere, Alcibiades, returning from banishment, and taking
the command, produced a great change, and made the Athenians again
a match for their opponents by sea; and the Lacedaemonians, in great
alarm at this, and calling up fresh courage and zeal for the conflict,
feeling the want of an able commander and of a powerful armament,
sent out Lysander to be admiral of the seas. Being at Ephesus, and
finding the city well affected towards him, and favourable to the
Lacedaemonian party, but in ill condition, and in danger to become
barbarized by adopting the manners of the Persians, who were much
mingled among them, the country of Lydia bordering upon them, and
the king's generals being quartered there for a long time, he pitched
his camp there, and commanded the merchant ships all about to put