University of Virginia Library

34.36

After the Roman camp had been moved nearer the city, these conditions were sent to Lacedaemon. None of them, of course, were very agreeable to the tyrant, though he was relieved to find that nothing was said about repatriating the refugees, but what he resented most of all was being deprived of his ships and his seaports. The sea had been a great source of profit to him as long as he could infest the whole Maleatic coastline with his pirate ships, and, moreover, the men drawn from the maritime cities furnished him with by far the finest of his troops. He had discussed the conditions privately with his friends, but as courtiers are untrustworthy in all other matters, so are they especially in keeping secrets, and the consul's demands soon became generally known. They were not objected to so strongly by the great body of the citizens as they were by the different individuals who were immediately affected by them. Those who had married the wives of the political exiles and those who had appropriated any of their property were as indignant as though they were to lose what belonged to themselves, instead of restoring what belonged to others. The slaves who had been freed by the tyrant saw not only their liberty gone but an even worse slavery awaiting them if they had to pass into the power of their enraged masters. The mercenary troops were angry at losing their pay when peace was established, and they saw no chance of returning to their own cities, which were as bitterly opposed to the supporters of tyrants as to the tyrants themselves.