132 LYSANDER.

stitution. These were as follows. The Heraclidte who joined with the Dorians, and came into Peloponnesus, be- came a numerous and glorious race in Sparta, but not every family belonging to it had the right of succession in the kingdom, but the kings were chosen out of two only, called the Eurypontidse and the Agiadse ; the rest had no privilege in the government by their nobility of birth, and the honors which followed from merit lay open to all who could obtain them. Lysander, who was born of one of these families, when he had risen into great renown for his exploits, and had gained great friends and power, was vexed to see the city which had increased to what it was by him, ruled by others not at all better descended than himself, and formed a design to remove the government from the two families, and to give it in common to all the Heraclidce ; or, as some say, not to the Heraclidce only, but to all the Spartans; that the reward might not belong to the posterity of Hercules, but to those who were like Hercules, judging by that personal merit which raised even him to the honor of the Godhead ; and he hoped that when the kingdom was thus to be competed for, no Spartan would be chosen before himself. Accordingly he first attempted and prepared to per- suade the citizens privately, and studied an oration com- posed to this purpose by Cleon, the Halicarnassian. Af- terwards perceiving so unexpected and great an innova- tion required bolder means of support, he proceeded as it might be on the stage, to avail himself of machinery,* and to try the effects of divine agency upon his country- men. He collected and arranged for his purpose, an- swers and oracles from Apollo, not expecting to get any

• Machinery, that is, in the the stage. Lysander, finding or-

sense of supernatural intervention, dinary agencies insufficient, re- derived from the actual machines solves to introduce a Dews ex ma- by which actors personating gods china for the solution of the dii- were introduced on, or rather above ficulty of his position.