At this time Lysander was more powerful than any Greek had ever been before, and displayed an amount of pride and arrogance beyond even what his power warranted.  He was the first Greek, we are told by Douris in his history, to whom cities erected altars and offered sacrifice as though he were a god, and he was the first in whose honour paeans were sung, one of which is recorded as having begun as follows: 

“The praise of our fair Graecia’s king
That comes from Sparta, let us sing,
Io paean.”

Nay, the Samians decreed that their festival, called Heraea in honour of Hera, should be called Lysandreia.  He always kept the poet Choerilus in his train, that he might celebrate his actions in verse, and when Antilochus wrote some stanzas in his praise he was so pleased that he filled his hat with silver and gave it to him.  Antimachus of Kolophon and one Nikeratus of Heraklea each wrote a poem on his deeds, and competed before him for a prize, at the Lysandreia.  He gave the crown of victory to Nikeratus, which so enraged Antimachus that he suppressed his poem.  Plato, who was a young man at that time, and admired the poetry of Antimachus, consoled him for his defeat by pointing out to him that the illiterate are as much to be pitied for their ignorance as the blind are for their loss of sight.  When, however, the harper Aristonous, who had six times won the victory at the Pythian games, to show his regard to Lysander, told him that if he won the prize again he intended to have his name proclaimed by the herald as Lysander’s servant, Lysander said, “Does he mean to proclaim himself my slave?”

XIX.  This ambition of Lysander was only a burden to the great, and to those of equal rank with himself.  But as none dared to thwart him, his pride and insolence of temper became intolerable.  He proceeded to extravagant lengths both when he rewarded and when he punished, bestowing absolute government over important cities upon his friends, while he was satisfied with nothing short of the death of an enemy, and regarded banishment as too mild a sentence.  Indeed, when subsequently to this he feared lest the chiefs of the popular party at Miletus might escape, and also wished to tempt those who had concealed themselves to leave their hiding-place, he swore that he would not harm them; and when they, trusting to his word, came forward and gave themselves up, he delivered them over to the aristocratical party to be put to death, to the number of not less than eight hundred men.  In all the other cities, too, an indiscriminate massacre of the popular party took place, as Lysander not only put to death his own personal enemies, but also those persons against whom any of his friends in each city might happen to have a grudge.  Wherefore AEteokles the Lacedaemonian was thought to have spoken well, when he said that “Greece could not have borne two Lysanders.”  We are told by Theophrastus that Archestratus made the same remark about Alkibiades:  although in his case it was insolence, luxury and self-will which gave so much offence, whereas Lysander’s harsh, merciless disposition was what made his power so hateful and terrible.