Agesilaus

Plutarch · a new plain-English translation from the original language

Archidamus son of Zeuxidamus, who reigned over the Lacedaemonians with distinction, left a son by his esteemed wife Lampido, Agis, and a much younger one by Eupolia daughter of Melesippidas, Agesilaus. Since the kingship belonged by law to Agis, it was expected that Agesilaus would live out his life as a private citizen, so he went through the training called the agoge at Lacedaemon, a discipline harsh in its regimen and full of hardship, but one that taught the young to be ruled.

For this reason they say Sparta was called by Simonides "tamer of men," since through its customs it made its citizens obedient to the laws and manageable, just as horses are broken in from the very start; yet the law released from this compulsion those boys who were being raised for kingship.

But it was Agesilaus's own peculiar distinction to come to rule without having gone unschooled in being ruled. For this reason he made himself far more attuned to his subjects than any other king, adding to a nature suited to leadership and kingship the popular and humane temper he acquired from the training.

Among the so-called herds of boys reared together, he had Lysander as a lover, who was struck above all by the orderliness of his nature. For though Agesilaus was the most contentious and high-spirited of the young men, and wished to be first in everything, and possessed a vehemence and impetuosity that was unbeatable and hard to overcome by force, yet in his obedience and gentleness he was such that he did nothing from fear, but everything commanded of him from a sense of shame, and he was pained more by blame than burdened by hard labor.

The lameness of his leg was hidden by the bloom of his body while it was in its prime, and the ease and good humor with which he bore the affliction—joking about it and mocking himself first—was no small remedy for the condition, but rather made his ambition all the more conspicuous, since he let it keep him from no labor or undertaking on account of his lameness. Of his appearance we have no image, for he himself would not allow one; indeed even as he was dying he forbade that any likeness, molded or painted, be made of his body. He is said to have been small and unimpressive to look at,

but his cheerfulness and good spirits, playful at every occasion, and never harsh or rough either in voice or in look, made him, even into old age, more lovable than those admired for beauty and youth. As Theophrastus records, the ephors imposed a fine on Archidamus for taking a wife of small stature, telling him that what she would give the Spartans was a line of little kinglets rather than true kings.

While Agis was king, Alcibiades came as an exile from Sicily to Lacedaemon; and not long after living in the city, he was accused of consorting with the king's wife, Timaea. Agis said he did not recognize the child born of her as his own, but declared it to be by Alcibiades. Duris says that Timaea did not take this very badly, but even whispered at home to her Helot maids that the child was Alcibiades, not Leotychides,

and moreover that Alcibiades himself said he did not consort with Timaea out of wanton insult, but out of ambition that Spartans should be ruled by kings sprung from himself. For this reason Alcibiades withdrew from Lacedaemon, fearing Agis; and the boy, for the rest of the time, was under suspicion with Agis and did not have the honor of a legitimate son from him. But when Agis fell ill, the boy threw himself at him weeping and persuaded him to declare him his son before many witnesses.

Nevertheless, when Agis died, Lysander—who had by then defeated the Athenians in the naval battle and held the greatest power in Sparta—advanced Agesilaus toward the kingship, on the ground that it did not belong to Leotychides, who was a bastard. Many of the other citizens too joined the effort and worked eagerly on his behalf, on account of Agesilaus's virtue and because he had grown up alongside them, sharing fully in the same discipline. There was a certain Diopeithes in Sparta, an interpreter of oracles, full of ancient prophecies and thought to be wise and remarkable in matters divine.

This man said it was not permitted for a lame man to become king of Lacedaemon, and in the trial he read out an oracle of this sort: "Mark well, Sparta, though you are greatly proud, lest from you, sound of foot though you are, there spring a lame kingship; for long unexpected sicknesses will hold you fast, and the wave of man-destroying war rolling on."

In response to this Lysander said that if the Spartans were truly afraid of the oracle, then Leotychides was the one they needed to watch closely; for it was not, he said, that the god cared if someone with a stumbling foot became king, but rather this: that if a man was not legitimate, nor a Heraclid, that was what constituted a "lame kingship." And Agesilaus said that Poseidon too bore witness to the illegitimacy of Leotychides, since he had cast Agis out of his bedchamber by an earthquake, and Leotychides was born more than ten months after that.

Having thus and for these reasons been declared king, Agesilaus immediately took possession also of the property of Agis, having driven out Leotychides as a bastard. Seeing that his relatives on his mother's side, though decent people, were very poor, he gave them half of the property, thereby securing for himself goodwill and good repute instead of envy and ill will over the inheritance. This is much the same point Xenophon makes, that Agesilaus gained his greatest power, and the freedom to do as he pleased, precisely by submitting to his country's will in every matter.

At that time the greatest power in the constitution belonged to the ephors and to the elders (gerontes): of these, the former hold office for only a year, while the elders hold this honor for life, having been instituted so that the kings should not have unchecked power in everything, as has been written in the account of Lycurgus. For this reason the kings, from of old, always inherited a certain hereditary rivalry and friction toward them.

But Agesilaus took the opposite path, and, letting go of contention and friction with them, he courted their favor instead, always beginning every action from them, and, if summoned, hastening rather than walking; and whenever he happened to be seated on the royal throne conducting business, he would rise before the approaching ephors; and to each man newly enrolled into the council of elders he would send a cloak and a prize ox.

By these acts, seeming to honor and magnify the dignity of their office, he was, without anyone noticing, increasing his own power and adding to the kingship a greatness granted by the goodwill felt toward him personally.

In his dealings with his fellow citizens he was a less blameworthy enemy than friend; for he did not wrong his enemies unjustly, but for his friends he would join even in what was not just. He was ashamed not to honor his enemies when they succeeded, yet found himself unable to blame his friends whenever they went wrong; rather he took pride in helping them and even in sharing in their wrongdoing, for he thought none of the services done for friends was shameful.

And again, when his rivals stumbled, he was the first to share in their distress, and when they asked for help he worked zealously with them, and so he won over the people and drew everyone to himself. The ephors, seeing this and fearing his power, fined him, adding the charge that he was making the common citizens his own private possessions.

For just as natural philosophers hold that, were strife and contention taken away from the cosmos, the stars and planets would cease their courses, and every process of coming-to-be and change would halt once all things fell into perfect agreement, so it seems the Laconian lawgiver introduced into the constitution a spark of virtue in the form of ambition and rivalry, wishing there always to be some competition and rivalry among good men with one another, and holding that the yielding accord that comes from an unchallenged deference, being idle and unexercised, is wrongly called concord.

Some think Homer too clearly perceived this: for he would not have made Agamemnon rejoice when Odysseus and Achilles were provoked into a quarrel "with terrible words," unless he considered rivalry and contention among the best men to be a great good for the common welfare. This, however, one would not concede so simply in general, for excesses of rivalry are harmful to cities and carry great dangers.

When Agesilaus had newly taken over the kingship, some who had come from Asia reported that the Persian king was preparing, with a great fleet, to drive the Lacedaemonians from the sea. Lysander, eager to be sent to Asia again and to help his friends—whom he himself had left as rulers and masters of the cities, but who, governing badly and violently, were being driven out and killed by their citizens—persuaded Agesilaus to undertake the expedition and to fight in defense of Greece, crossing as far away as possible and forestalling the barbarian's preparations.

At the same time he sent letters to his associates in Asia, urging them to send word to Lacedaemon requesting Agesilaus as their commander. So Agesilaus, coming before the assembly, undertook the war, on condition that they give him thirty Spartiate commanders and advisers, two thousand chosen neodamodeis, and an allied force of up to six thousand.

With Lysander cooperating in everything, they voted for it all zealously, and sent Agesilaus off at once with the thirty Spartiates, among whom Lysander held first place—both on account of his personal standing and influence, and equally because of his close bond with Agesilaus, for whom he thought he had accomplished a greater good than the kingship itself by securing that command for him.

While the force was gathering at Geraestus, Agesilaus himself went down to Aulis with his friends, and, spending the night there, seemed in his sleep to hear someone say to him: "O king of the Lacedaemonians, you surely realize that no one has been appointed general of all Greece together except Agamemnon before, and now you after him; and since you command the same men he did, and fight the same enemies, and set out for war from the same place, it is fitting that you too should offer to the goddess the sacrifice which he offered here before he sailed."

At once the memory came over Agesilaus of the slaughter of the maiden, whom her father had sacrificed on being persuaded by the seers. This did not trouble him, however; but rising up and recounting to his friends what had appeared to him, he said he would honor the goddess with such offerings as it is fitting for a goddess to delight in, but would not imitate the callousness of that general of old; and, crowning a deer, he ordered his own seer to perform the offering, not the one appointed by the Boeotians as was customary,

Learning of this, the Boeotarchs grew angry and dispatched officers to stop Agesilaus, since his sacrifice violated Boeotian law and ancestral practice. Beyond announcing the prohibition, these men went so far as to throw the sacrificial thigh-pieces down from the altar. Agesilaus, taking this hard, sailed away angry at the Thebans and despondent because of the omen, believing that his undertakings would go unfulfilled and that the expedition would not come to its proper conclusion.

When he arrived at Ephesus, immediately Lysander's standing and power were oppressive and burdensome, since a crowd thronged daily at his door and everyone attended and paid court to him, as though Agesilaus held only the name and outward form of command by law, while in fact Lysander held real authority over everything, having the power and doing everything himself.

For no general sent out to Asia had ever been more formidable or more feared than he, nor had any other man done greater services for his friends, or inflicted such great harm on his enemies. Since these deeds were still fresh, people remembered them, and, observing besides that Agesilaus was plain, simple in his manner, and unassuming, while Lysander retained the same intensity, roughness, and brevity of speech as before, they deferred to him completely and paid attention to him alone.

As a result of this, first the rest of the Spartiates were displeased at being, as it were, servants of Lysander rather than counselors of the king; and then Agesilaus himself, even though he was not envious nor troubled at others being honored, being nonetheless extremely ambitious and contentious, feared that if his actions turned out brilliantly, this glory would be attributed to Lysander because of his reputation. So he acted as follows.

First he opposed Lysander's advice, and, letting pass and neglecting those actions Lysander was most eager about, he pursued other courses instead. Then, of those who came to him and made requests whom he perceived to be especially devoted to Lysander, he sent away unsuccessful; and likewise in judicial matters, those whom Lysander favored had to leave with less than they sought, while conversely, those whom he was clearly eager to help found it hard to avoid being penalized instead.

Since these things were happening not by chance, but as if by design and in a regular pattern, Lysander, perceiving the cause, did not conceal it from his friends, but said that it was because of him they were being dishonored, and he urged them to go and pay court to the king and to those who had more power than himself.

So then, since it seemed that in doing and saying these things he was contriving envy against him, Agesilaus, wishing to lay hold of him still more, appointed him carver of the meat, and, with many people listening in, is reported to have remarked, "Well, let those men go now and pay court to my meat-carver."

Lysander, being vexed at this, said to him: "You certainly knew well, Agesilaus, how to belittle your friends." "Yes, by Zeus," he said, "those who wish to have more power than I." And Lysander said, "But perhaps these things have been said by you better than they have been done by me. Give me some post and place where I may be useful to you without causing offense."

Following this episode he was dispatched to the Hellespont, where he won over and brought to Agesilaus Spithridates, a Persian man from the territory of Pharnabazus, along with a considerable amount of money and two hundred horsemen; yet he did not release his grudge, but bearing it heavily he spent the rest of his time scheming how he might strip the kingship away from the two royal houses and share it among all the Spartiates in common, and it looked as though this quarrel might have stirred up a massive convulsion in the state, had he not died first while on campaign in Boeotia.

So it is that ambitious natures in political affairs, not guarding against excess, have more of harm than of good in them. For even if Lysander was overbearing, as indeed he was, exceeding due measure in his ambition, surely Agesilaus was not ignorant that there was another, less blameworthy, way of correcting a man of reputation and ambition who was erring; but it seems that by the same affliction neither the one recognized the proper authority of a ruler, nor the other could bear the ignorance of a familiar.

Now when Tissaphernes, at first fearing Agesilaus, made a truce, on the understanding that the king would release the Greek cities to be autonomous under him, but afterward, being persuaded that he had sufficient force, brought the war into the open, Agesilaus received it gladly.

For there was great expectation of the campaign; and he considered it a terrible thing that the Ten Thousand with Xenophon had reached the sea, having defeated the king as often as they themselves wished, while he himself, ruling the Lacedaemonians and leading them by land and sea, should show no deed worthy of memory before the Greeks. So immediately, defending himself with a just deception against the perjury of Tissaphernes, he made a show of intending to advance into Caria, but when the barbarian had gathered his force there, he set out instead and invaded Phrygia.

And he took many cities and became master of abundant wealth, showing his friends that while making a truce and then breaking it is an affront to the gods, tricking one's enemies is a fair and just act that carries with it renown and gain besides, pleasantly won. But being at a disadvantage in cavalry, and since the sacrificial victims proved to lack lobes, he withdrew to Ephesus and gathered a cavalry force, announcing beforehand to the wealthy that, if they did not wish to serve themselves, each should furnish a horse and a man in his place.

Many were these, and it came about for Agesilaus that he quickly had many warlike horsemen instead of cowardly hoplites; for those unwilling to serve hired those willing to serve, and those unwilling to serve on horseback hired those willing to ride. For indeed they said that Agamemnon too had done well, in that, taking a good mare, he released from the campaign a cowardly and rich man.

Now when, at his command, the spoil-sellers stripped the captives and sold them, and there were many buyers for their clothing, but when the bodies, white and soft altogether because of their sheltered upbringing, were stripped bare, they were laughed at as useless and worth nothing, Agesilaus, standing by, said, "These men are those with whom you fight, and these are the things for the sake of which you fight."

When the occasion came again for invading enemy territory, he announced beforehand that he would lead his army off into Lydia, no longer deceiving Tissaphernes in this; but that man deceived himself, distrusting Agesilaus because of the earlier deception, and now supposing that he would attack Caria, which was ill-suited to cavalry, in which he himself was far inferior.

But when, as he had announced, Agesilaus came into the plain around Sardis, Tissaphernes was forced in turn to hasten to its defense from there; and riding through with his cavalry he destroyed many of those who were plundering the plain without order. So Agesilaus, perceiving that the enemy's infantry was not yet present, while none of his own force was lacking, hastened to fight it out.

And mixing the light-armed troops in with the cavalry, he ordered them to ride as fast as possible and attack the enemy, while he himself immediately led up the hoplites; and when the barbarians were routed, the Greeks followed after and took their camp and killed many. From this battle it came about for them not only to be able to plunder and pillage the king's territory without fear, but also to see justice done upon Tissaphernes, a wicked man and most hateful to the race of the Greeks.

For the king immediately sent Tithraustes against him, and Tithraustes struck off his head, then asked Agesilaus, once terms were settled, to sail home, sending money to him as well. But Agesilaus replied that authority over peace belonged to the city, not to himself, and that he found greater satisfaction in making his soldiers wealthy than in personal riches; besides, he added, the Greeks reckoned it honorable to take spoils from their enemies but not gifts.

Nevertheless, wishing to gratify Tithraustes for having taken revenge on Tissaphernes, that enemy shared by all the Greeks, he marched his army off into Phrygia, having received from him thirty talents for provisions. And while on the road he received a dispatch-staff message from the magistrates at home ordering him to command the fleet as well; this alone fell to Agesilaus of all men. And he was admittedly the greatest and most illustrious of those then living, as Theopompus too has somewhere said, yet he himself thought more highly of himself for his virtue than for his command.

But then, in appointing Peisander commander of the fleet, he seems to have erred, in that, though there were present men older and wiser, he did not consider the interest of his country, but honored his family connection and gratified his wife, whose brother Peisander was, and handed over the admiralty to him.

He himself, having brought his army into the territory under the rule of Pharnabazus, not only lived amid abundance in all things, but also gathered much money; and advancing as far as Paphlagonia he won over Cotys, the king of the Paphlagonians, who desired his friendship because of his virtue and trustworthiness.

Spithridates, having revolted from Pharnabazus and come first to Agesilaus, was ever after his companion on campaign and abroad, having a most beautiful son, Megabates, of whom, when he was a boy, Agesilaus was passionately fond, and also a beautiful daughter of marriageable age; this girl Agesilaus persuaded Cotys to marry.

Having taken from him a force of one thousand cavalry plus two thousand light-armed men, he withdrew again into Phrygia, and did harm to the territory of Pharnabazus, who neither stood his ground nor trusted his strongholds, but kept with him at all times the greater part of his treasured and beloved possessions, shifting camp and fleeing from place to place across the country, relocating repeatedly, until Spithridates, keeping a close watch on him and taking along Herippidas the Spartan, seized his camp and took control of everything he owned.

There Herippidas, being a harsh examiner of the plunder taken, and forcing the barbarians to lay it down, and overseeing and searching everything, provoked Spithridates so much that he departed straightaway for Sardis, taking the Paphlagonians with him. This, it is said, was the most distressing thing of all that happened to Agesilaus. For he was grieved at having lost Spithridates, a noble man, and with him no small force, and he felt shame at being charged with meanness and stinginess, a reputation he had always striven to keep clear of, both for himself and for his country.

Apart from these open matters, he was not moderately stung by the love of the boy that had been instilled in him, even though, in the presence of the boy himself, striving to be contentious, he tried manfully to fight off his desire. And once, when Megabates approached him meaning to greet him with a kiss, he turned away.

But when the boy, ashamed, ceased and thereafter greeted him only from a distance, Agesilaus, being vexed in turn and regretting his flight from the kiss, pretended to wonder what had come over Megabates that he no longer greeted him affectionately in person. "You yourself are to blame," his companions said, "for not standing your ground, but shrinking and fearing the kiss of the beautiful boy; since even now he would come to you persuaded, within reach of a kiss, if only you will not flinch away again."

So Agesilaus, being for some time by himself in silence, said, "There is no need for you to persuade him: for I think I would rather fight again that battle over the kiss than have all the gold I have ever beheld become mine." Such was he while Megabates was present, but when he had gone, he was so inflamed that it is hard to say whether, had the boy changed his mind again and appeared before him, he would have held out against being kissed.

After this Pharnabazus wished to arrange a meeting with him, and Apollophanes of Cyzicus, a guest-friend to them both, brought the two together. Agesilaus, arriving first at the place with his friends, threw himself down under some shade where the grass was deep, and there waited for Pharnabazus.

And when he came up, soft fleeces and richly colored rugs having been laid out for him, he was ashamed to see Agesilaus lying thus, and lay down himself too, just as he was, on the grass on the ground, although he was clothed in a marvelous garment of fine texture and dye. And having greeted one another, Pharnabazus was not at a loss for just words, seeing that he had been of much great service to the Lacedaemonians in the war against the Athenians, and now was being ravaged by them; but Agesilaus,

seeing the Spartans with him bowing their heads to the ground in shame and at a loss, for they saw that Pharnabazus was being wronged, said, "We, Pharnabazus, when we were friends of the king before, dealt with his affairs in a friendly manner, and now, having become his enemies, we deal with them in a hostile manner. Since then we see that you too wish to be one of the king's possessions, it is reasonable that through you we do harm to him.

But from the day you judge it worthy to bear the name of friend and ally to the Greeks rather than servant of the king, count this phalanx, these weapons, these ships, and all of us as guardians of your property and of your liberty, apart from which nothing is noble or worth envying among men."

After this Pharnabazus told him the thought he had. "For my part," he said, "if the king sends out another general, I will be with you; but if he grants the command to me, I will not fall short in eagerness to defend myself against you and to do you harm on his behalf." Hearing this, Agesilaus was pleased, and taking his right hand and rising up with him, said, "Would that you, Pharnabazus, being such a man, might become our friend rather than our enemy."

As Pharnabazus was departing with his friends, his son, having been left behind, ran up to Agesilaus and, smiling, said: "I make you my guest-friend, Agesilaus." And having a javelin in his hand he gave it to him. Agesilaus, accepting it and delighted both at the boy's looks and at his friendliness, looked around among those present to see if any had something such as he might give in return as a gift to a fine and noble boy.

Seeing a horse belonging to Idaeus the scribe adorned with cheek-pieces, he quickly stripped these off and gave them to the boy. And thereafter he never ceased remembering him, but even as time went on, when the boy was deprived of his household and driven into exile in the Peloponnese by his brothers, he looked after him zealously.

And he even took a hand in the boy's love affairs. For the boy had fallen in love with an athlete's son from Athens; and when the boy, being big and hard-featured, was in danger of being disqualified at Olympia, the Persian took refuge with Agesilaus, begging on his son's behalf. Agesilaus, wishing to do him this favor too, managed it only with great difficulty and much trouble. For in other matters he was scrupulous and law-abiding, but where his friends were concerned he considered strict justice a mere excuse.

At any rate a little letter of his to Hidrieus the Carian is preserved, of this sort: "Nicias, if he is not guilty, let him go; if he is guilty, let him go for our sake; in any case, let him go." In most matters, then, Agesilaus was of this sort on behalf of his friends; yet there are occasions when he had regard rather to his own advantage than to the occasion, as he showed when, his departure having become rather chaotic, he abandoned his beloved, who was ill. For when the boy begged and called after him as he was leaving, he turned back and remarked that showing compassion and keeping a clear head could not both be done at once. This is the story Hieronymus the philosopher has recorded.

Now when the second year of his generalship was already coming round, much talk of Agesilaus was current abroad, and a wonderful reputation possessed men concerning his self-control, his frugality, and his moderation. For when away from home he pitched his tent by himself in the holiest sanctuaries, which many men are not seen doing things in, making the gods witnesses and overseers of these acts; and out of the countless thousands of troops present, no man's bedding could easily be found humbler than his own,

and toward heat and cold he was so disposed as if he alone were by nature made always to make use of the seasons as tempered by the god. And it was a truly pleasing sight for the Greek settlers living in Asia, watching men once harsh, insufferable, and softened by riches and indulgence—governors and generals—now fearing and courting a man going about in a plain cloak, and adjusting and reshaping themselves at a single brief Laconic word, so that many were moved to quote the words of Timotheus: "Ares is tyrant; Hellas fears not gold."

As Asia was being stirred up and in many places yielding to revolt, he set the cities there in order, and having restored to their constitutions their proper arrangement without murder or exile of men, he had resolved to advance further, and, carrying the war away from the Greek sea, to fight it out around the king's own person and the prosperity he enjoyed at Ecbatana and Susa, and first to strip him of his leisure, so that he should not sit at ease arbitrating the wars of the Greeks and corrupting their popular leaders,

at this point Epicydidas the Spartan arrived to him, reporting that a great Greek war beset Sparta, and that the ephors were summoning him and bidding him come to the aid of the folk at home. O the barbarous evils the Greeks have devised for themselves! For what else could one call that envy, and that combination and mustering of the Greeks against themselves? They seized upon fortune just as it was rising, and turned back upon themselves the weapons that were already looking toward the barbarians, and the war that had already been transported out of Greece,

For my own view differs from that of Demaratus of Corinth, who claimed that those Greeks who did not live to see Alexander seated upon the throne of Darius were deprived of a great pleasure; rather, I think, they might reasonably have wept, considering that these things were left to Alexander and the Macedonians by those who at that time squandered the generals of the Greeks around Leuctra and Coroneia and Corinth and Arcadia.

For Agesilaus, however, nothing greater or better has been accomplished than that withdrawal, nor has there been any finer example of obedience and justice. For whereas Hannibal, already faring badly and being pushed out of Italy, obeyed only with great reluctance those who summoned him to the war at home, and Alexander even mocked, on learning of the battle of Antipater against Agis, saying, "So it appears, gentlemen, that while we were busy defeating Darius on this side, some sort of mouse-fight was going on over in Arcadia"—

how was it not fitting to call Sparta blessed for the honor Agesilaus paid to her and for his scrupulous regard for her laws? For as soon as the scytale came to him, though such great good fortune and power were at hand and such great hopes leading him on, he let them go and gave them up, and sailed away at once "upon an unfinished task," leaving behind him great longing among his allies, and refuting most especially the saying of Erasistratus son of Phaeax, who said that the Lacedaemonians are better in public but the Athenians better in private.

For having shown himself a king and a most excellent general, he showed himself an even better and more delightful private friend and companion to those who dealt with him; and since the Persian coinage bore the stamp of an archer, as he was withdrawing he said that he was being driven out of Asia by ten thousand archers—for that many coins, dispatched to Athens and to Thebes and handed out among the demagogues there, had roused the citizens of those cities to make war on the Spartans.

As he crossed the Hellespont and marched through Thrace, he asked nothing of any of the barbarians, but sent to each people to inquire whether he should pass through their country as a friend or as an enemy. Now all the others received him in friendly fashion and escorted him, each according to his power; but those called Trallians, to whom even Xerxes, it is said, had given gifts, demanded from Agesilaus, in exchange for letting him pass, a hundred talents of silver together with an equal number of women.

But he, mocking them, said, "Why then did they not come at once to take them?" and advanced, and joining battle with them drawn up in array, routed them and destroyed many. He sent the same question to the king of the Macedonians as well; and when he said he would deliberate, Agesilaus said, "Let him deliberate then; we for our part are on our way." The king, then, admiring his boldness and taking fright, bade him proceed as a friend.

As the Thessalians were allied with his enemies, he ravaged their country. He sent Xenocles and Scythes to Larissa to negotiate friendship; but when these men were seized and kept under guard, the others, taking this hard, thought that Agesilaus ought to encamp round about and besiege Larissa; but he said he would not wish to have the whole of Thessaly if it meant losing either one of the men, and he recovered them by a truce.

And perhaps this was not surprising in Agesilaus, who, on learning that a great battle had taken place near Corinth, and that men of the very greatest distinction had perished, as it happened, quite suddenly, and that of the Spartans very few altogether had died, but very many of the enemy, was not seen to be overjoyed or elated, but instead groaned very heavily and said, "Alas for Greece, that she has destroyed by her own hand so many men as, had they lived, could have conquered all the barbarians together in battle."

When the Pharsalians kept pressing on and troubling his forces, he commanded five hundred cavalrymen to ride out alongside him, and having routed them he set up a trophy beneath Narthacium. And he took especial delight in that victory, because he himself, having organized the cavalry entirely by his own effort, had with it alone overcome men who prided themselves most greatly on their horsemanship.

At this point Diphridas, arriving from home as ephor, met him and bade him invade Boeotia at once. He, though he had intended to do this later with greater preparation, thought he must not disobey the magistrates, but told his companions that the moment they had crossed over from Asia to meet was now close at hand, and sent for two of the regiments campaigning around Corinth.

The Lacedaemonians in the city, honoring him, proclaimed that any of the young men who wished might enroll to help the king. When all had enrolled eagerly, the magistrates chose out the fifty most vigorous and strongest and sent them off. Agesilaus, having passed within the Gates and traversed Phocis, which was friendly, when he first set foot in Boeotia and encamped near Chaeronea, at the same time saw the sun eclipsed and becoming crescent-shaped, and at the same time heard that Peisander had died, defeated in a naval battle near Cnidus by Pharnabazus and Conon.

He was distressed, as was natural, at this news, both for the man's sake and for the city's; but so that despondency and fear should not fall upon the soldiers as they marched to battle, he ordered those coming from the sea to say the opposite, that they were victorious in the naval battle; and he himself came forward crowned with a garland and offered sacrifices for good tidings, and sent portions from the victims to his friends.

When, advancing and arriving at Coronea, he caught sight of the enemy and was seen by them, he drew up his line, giving the Orchomenians the left wing, while he himself led the right. The Thebans stationed themselves on the right, and the Argives took the left. Xenophon reports that the encounter was unlike any battle fought before or since; and he himself was present, fighting alongside Agesilaus, having crossed over from Asia.

Now the first clash did not involve much pushing or a long contest, but the Thebans quickly routed the Orchomenians, and Agesilaus routed the Argives; but when both sides, hearing that their left wings were being hard pressed and were fleeing, turned back, then, though victory without danger was at hand for him if he had been willing to let the frontal engagement with the Thebans go and to strike them from behind as they passed by, in his anger and love of contention he advanced directly against the men, wishing to force them back by sheer strength,

but they received him no less vigorously, and a battle occurred that was fierce throughout the whole army, but fiercest around the king himself, where he was stationed among the fifty; in this his ambition seems to have come at just the right moment and to have proved his salvation, for as they fought spiritedly and faced danger for him, they were unable to keep him unwounded, but though he received many blows to his body through his armor from spears and swords, they barely managed to snatch him away alive, and closing ranks before him they killed many, while many of their own fell.

As it was a great task to drive the Thebans back headlong, they were forced to do what they had not originally intended. For they opened their line and gave way, and then, as the Thebans went through in more disorderly fashion, following and running alongside them from the flanks, they struck them. Yet they did not rout them; rather the Thebans withdrew toward Helicon, thinking greatly of themselves for the battle, on the grounds that they had, on their own part, remained unconquered.

Agesilaus, although his body was in bad condition from many wounds, did not go off to his tent before being carried on a litter to the line and seeing the dead gathered within the ranks; and regarding the foes who had fled for safety into the temple, he commanded that every one of them be released unharmed.

For nearby stands the temple of Athena Itonia, and before it stands a trophy, which the Boeotians long ago set up there under the generalship of Sparton, when they defeated the Athenians and killed Tolmides. And at daybreak, wishing to test the Thebans to see whether they would fight it out, Agesilaus ordered his soldiers to be crowned with garlands and the flute-players to play, and a trophy to be set up and adorned as if they had won.

But when the enemy sent asking for the recovery of their dead, he granted a truce, and having thus confirmed the victory, he was carried off to Delphi, where the Pythian games were being held, and he performed the procession for the god and dedicated a tenth part of the plunder brought from Asia, a sum totaling a hundred talents.

When he returned home, he was at once beloved by his fellow citizens and much admired for his manner of life and his way of living. For he did not, like most generals, come back a changed man from abroad, disturbed by foreign customs and out of sorts and quarrelsome with things at home, but like those who had never crossed the Eurotas, he honored and cherished the present order of things, and changed neither his dinner, nor his bath, nor his attendance by his wife,

nor the adornment of his weapons, nor the furnishing of his house, but he even left the doors just as they were, so extremely old that they seemed to be those very ones which Aristodemus had set up, and the kannathron, Xenophon says, was no more splendid for his daughter than for anyone else's. They call kannathra the wooden images of griffins and goat-stags in which they carry the girls in processions.

Now Xenophon has not written the name of Agesilaus's daughter, and Dicaearchus was indignant that we know neither the daughter of Agesilaus nor the mother of Epaminondas; but we ourselves have found in the Laconian records the name of Agesilaus's wife recorded as Cleora, and his daughters as Eupolia and Proauga. And a spear of his is also to be seen lying to this day in Lacedaemon, no different from any other.

Still, seeing that some of the citizens thought themselves important and prided themselves greatly on their horse-breeding, he induced his sister Cynisca to put forward a chariot as a competitor at Olympia, wanting to demonstrate to the Greeks that victory there was a matter of no excellence at all, but of wealth and expenditure.

He kept the wise Xenophon with him, holding him in high regard, and urged him to send for his sons and raise them at Sparta, so that they would learn the finest of all lessons, to obey and to command. After Lysander had died, he found a large faction still standing together, which Lysander had organized against Agesilaus immediately upon his return from Asia, and he set out to expose what sort of citizen Lysander had been while alive.

He read a speech that had been left behind in a book, one that Cleon of Halicarnassus had written and which Lysander had intended to take up and deliver before the assembly, concerning revolutionary measures and a change of the constitution, and he wished to bring it out into the open. But when one of the elders, having read the speech and fearing its formidable power, advised him against disturbing Lysander in his grave and urged that the speech be buried together with the man, he yielded to the counsel and let the matter drop,

and those who openly opposed him he did not harm outright; instead, by arranging always to have some of them sent out as generals and officials, he would let them show themselves, once in positions of power, to be corrupt and grasping, and then, when they were brought to trial in turn, he would come to their aid and fight on their side, thereby turning enemies into friends and winning them over to himself, so that no one remained his rival,

for the other king, Agesipolis, since his father had been an exile and he himself was still quite a boy in age, and being by nature gentle and orderly, took little part in political affairs. Even so, Agesilaus made him too tractable to his hand. For the kings dine together at the same public mess when they are in the city.

Knowing then that Agesipolis, like himself, was susceptible to erotic attachments, he was always ready with some conversation about the young men in their prime, and he would draw the young king in and join in his love affairs and further them, for Laconian love affairs held nothing shameful, but involved great modesty, ambition, and zeal for virtue, as has been written in the account of Lycurgus.

Being now the most powerful man in the city, he arranged for his half-brother on his mother's side, Teleutias, to be given command of the fleet, and campaigning against Corinth he himself took the long walls by land, while Teleutias operated with the ships. At that moment it was the Argives who occupied Corinth and were in the midst of holding the Isthmian festival there, and appearing suddenly he drove them off just as they had finished sacrificing to the god,

leaving behind the whole apparatus of the festival. When those Corinthians who happened to be present as exiles begged him to conduct the games himself, he refused to do this, but when those same Argives held and completed the games again, he stayed and provided them safety. Later, after he had departed, the Isthmian games were again conducted by the Argives, and some who had won before were recorded as defeated the second time, while others who had lost earlier were recorded as victors.

Over this Agesilaus declared that the Argives had convicted themselves of great cowardice, if, regarding the presidency over the games as so solemn and weighty an honor, they nevertheless lacked the courage to defend it in battle. As for himself, he thought it proper to maintain a moderate attitude toward all such things, and he would grace the choruses and contests held at home and would always be present, full of ambition and zeal, never missing a competition of boys or of girls, yet he seemed not even to notice the things that others admired so much.

Once Callippides, the actor of tragedy, a man of renown and standing among the Greeks who was sought after by all, first came up to him and greeted him, then pompously thrust himself in among those walking with him, putting himself on display, expecting that the king would open some friendly conversation, and at last he said, "Do you not recognize me, O king?" And Agesilaus, looking at him, said, "Why, are you not Callippides the mimic?" for that is what the Spartans call actors.

On another occasion, invited to listen to a man famed for mimicking the nightingale's song, he refused the invitation, remarking, "I have already heard the bird itself." As for the physician Menecrates, who, having succeeded in some hopeless treatments, had been given the surname Zeus, and who used this title vulgarly, even daring to write to Agesilaus in this fashion: "Menecrates Zeus, to King Agesilaus, greetings," Agesilaus wrote back: "King Agesilaus, to Menecrates, good health."

During his delay in Corinthian territory, having taken the Heraeum and watching his soldiers carry off and drive away the captured goods, envoys arrived from Thebes concerning friendship. He, who always hated that city and thought it advantageous at that time to insult them, pretended neither to see nor to hear them as they approached.

But retribution soon overtook him, for before the Thebans had even left, messengers arrived bringing word that Iphicrates had cut the mora to pieces. It was a calamity of the first order, one such as they had not suffered in a great while, since many good soldiers were lost, Lacedaemonian hoplites falling before peltasts and Lacedaemonians beaten by hired troops.

Agesilaus immediately leapt up to go to their aid, but when he learned they had already been destroyed, he returned again to the Heraeum, and having ordered the Boeotians to come forward at that time, he began to negotiate with them. When they, in their arrogance, made no mention of peace but instead demanded to be allowed to pass through to Corinth, Agesilaus, angered, said, "Should you care to look upon your friends still puffed up in their good fortune, tomorrow that chance shall be granted you safely."

Bringing them along the following day, he laid waste the Corinthians' land and pressed on toward the city itself. Having thus proven that the Corinthians did not dare to defend themselves, he dismissed the embassy. He himself, taking up the survivors of the mora, led them back to Sparta, making his marches before daybreak and his encampments again under cover of darkness, so that those of the Arcadians who hated and envied them would not rejoice over it,

and after this, to please the Achaeans, he crossed over into Acarnania with an army together with them, and he drove off much plunder and defeated the Acarnanians in battle. When the Achaeans asked him to remain through the winter and destroy the enemy's sown crops, he said he would do the opposite, for they would be more afraid of war, he said, if they had their land sown in season, which indeed came to pass, for when a campaign was again announced against them, they came to terms with the Achaeans.

When Conon and Pharnabazus, with the King's fleet, controlled the sea and ravaged the coast of Laconia, and the city of Athens was walled again with money that Pharnabazus provided, the Lacedaemonians resolved to conclude a peace with the King, and they sent Antalcidas to Tiribazus, handing over to the King, in the most shameful and lawless fashion, the Greeks who inhabited Asia, on whose behalf Agesilaus had waged war,

which is why it turned out that Agesilaus had the least part in this disgrace. For Antalcidas was his enemy and pursued the peace with all his strength, believing that the war was making Agesilaus greater and more glorious and powerful. Yet even so, to the man who said that the Lacedaemonians were medizing, Agesilaus replied that it was rather the Medes who were laconizing.

By threatening those who were unwilling to accept the peace and declaring war on them, he compelled everyone to abide by what the Persian had decreed, especially on account of the Thebans, so that by leaving Boeotia autonomous they would become weaker. This became evident later on, for when Phoebidas, in a time of truce and peace, committed the outrage of seizing the Cadmea, indignation spread through the whole Greek world, and even the Spartans themselves were troubled by it,

and especially those who were at odds with Agesilaus, angrily inquired of Phoebidas at whose order he had done this, turning suspicion toward Agesilaus, he did not hesitate to come to Phoebidas' defense and to say openly that one ought to consider the action itself, whether it had any use, for whatever was advantageous to Lacedaemon was rightly done on its own account, even if no one had ordered it.

And yet in speech he everywhere declared that justice was the foremost of the virtues, for courage, he said, was of no use without justice present, but if all men became just, there would be no need of courage at all. And to those who said that this was the will of the Great King, he said, "In what way is he greater than I am, unless he surpasses me in justice too?" holding, with sound and noble judgment, that the standard for measuring one man's superiority over another must be justice itself, as though by a kingly rule,

and the letter concerning hospitality and friendship which the King sent him once the peace had been made he did not accept, saying that the common friendship was sufficient and that he would need no private one so long as that remained. Yet in his actions he no longer preserved this reputation, but was carried away in many respects by ambition and rivalry, and most of all in his dealings with the Thebans,

for he not only saved Phoebidas, but also persuaded the city to take the wrongdoing upon itself and to hold the Cadmea on its own account, and to appoint Archias and Leontidas masters of affairs and of the government, the very men through whom Phoebidas had entered and seized the acropolis.

From these events there arose immediately a suspicion that though the deed was Phoebidas' doing, the plan behind it was Agesilaus', and later actions made the charge undeniable. For when the Thebans expelled the garrison and freed their city, he, accusing them of having killed Archias and Leontidas, who were tyrants in deed though polemarchs in name, brought war against them.

And Cleombrotus, who had become king on the death of Agesipolis, was dispatched to Boeotia at the head of an army, since Agesilaus, being now forty years beyond the age of military youth and having by law an exemption from military service, avoided that command, ashamed that, having so recently made war on the Phliasians on behalf of exiles, he would now be seen again doing harm to the Thebans on account of tyrants.

There was a certain Spartan, Sphodrias, of the faction opposed to Agesilaus, stationed as governor at Thespiae, a man not lacking in daring nor in ambition, but always more full of hopes than of good sense. Desiring a great name, and thinking that Phoebidas had become famous and celebrated for his daring act at Thebes, he was persuaded that it would be far finer and more brilliant if he himself should seize Piraeus and strip the Athenians of the sea, coming upon them unexpectedly by land.

It is said that this was a scheme devised by Pelopidas and Melon and the other Boeotarchs, for they sent men pretending to favor the Spartans, who praised and magnified Sphodrias as the only man worthy of so great a deed, and stirred him up and urged him on to undertake an unjust and lawless act just like the other one, but lacking in the daring and the luck that had attended it.

For daylight caught him and exposed him on the Thriasian plain, when he had hoped to reach Piraeus by night, and they say that on seeing a light from certain sacred rites at Eleusis, the soldiers shuddered and were seized with terror. He himself lost his nerve, since it was no longer possible to escape notice, and after seizing some small plunder he withdrew shamefully and ingloriously to Thespiae.

After this, accusers were sent from Athens to Sparta, but they found that the magistrates needed no accusation against Sphodrias, having already pronounced a sentence of death against him, which he refused to face, fearing the anger of the citizens, who were ashamed before the Athenians and wished to seem to share in punishing the wrong, so as not to seem to share in committing it.

Sphodrias had a son, Cleonymus, who while still a boy and beautiful in appearance was loved by Archidamus, the son of King Agesilaus. At that time Archidamus naturally shared in the boy's anguish over the danger his father was in, but he could not openly assist or cooperate, for Sphodrias belonged to the faction opposed to Agesilaus.

When Cleonymus came to him and, with entreaty and tears, begged him to make Agesilaus well disposed toward his father — for it was Agesilaus above all whom they feared — for three or four days Archidamus, out of respect and fear of his own father, followed him about in silence; but at last, when the trial was drawing near, he ventured to tell Agesilaus that Cleonymus had begged him on behalf of his father.

Agesilaus, knowing that Archidamus was in love, did not stop him — for Cleonymus, from boyhood, gave every promise of becoming, if any man would, a serious and excellent man. Yet he gave the boy no cause then to hope for anything kind or generous in his petition, but said only that he would consider what would be honorable and fitting, and so departed.

Archidamus, out of shame, therefore stopped calling on Cleonymus, though he had previously been accustomed to do so often during the day. Because of this, Sphodrias's friends grew ever more hopeless about the outcome, until Etymocles, a companion of Agesilaus, revealed to them in a private talk Agesilaus's actual thinking: that he condemned the deed as strongly as possible, but that in other respects he considered Sphodrias a good man, and saw that the city had need of such soldiers.

For these were the arguments Agesilaus kept making on every occasion concerning the trial, wishing to please his son, so that Cleonymus at once perceived Archidamus's zeal, and Sphodrias's friends now took courage to help him. Agesilaus was, moreover, remarkably fond of children; and they tell this story of him as a form of play: that when his children were small, he used to ride a reed like a horse and play with them at home, and being seen by one of his friends, he asked him to tell no one, until he himself should become a father of children.

When Sphodrias had been acquitted, and the Athenians, upon learning of it, turned toward war, Agesilaus was very badly spoken of, since he was thought, out of some strange and childish desire, to have obstructed a just verdict, and to have made the city partly responsible for wrongs of such magnitude against the Greeks.

But when he saw that Cleombrotus was not eager to make war on the Thebans, he then let go the law which he had previously invoked concerning who should lead the campaign, and himself invaded Boeotia, doing harm to the Thebans and in turn suffering harm from them, so that once when he had been wounded, Antalcidas said: "Truly you are receiving fine tuition-fees from the Thebans, for having taught them to fight when they neither wished nor knew how."

For indeed they say the Thebans themselves became at that time the most warlike people they had ever been, having been trained, as it were, by the Lacedaemonians' many campaigns against them; for which reason old Lycurgus too, in the so-called three rhetras, forbade making frequent campaigns against the same enemies, so that they might not thereby learn how to make war. Agesilaus was also burdensome to the allies of the Lacedaemonians, since he seemed to seek the Thebans' destruction not for any public grievance, but out of some private anger and love of contention.

So they said nothing, though they were unwilling to be worn down, going here and there every year, so many of them following in the train of so few. It was on such an occasion, they say, that Agesilaus, wishing to expose their numbers, contrived the following device. He commanded that all the allies take seats intermingled with one another, while the Lacedaemonians sat apart, on their own.

Then he had it proclaimed that the potters should stand up first; and when these had stood up, he proclaimed next the smiths, then in turn the carpenters and builders and each of the other trades. So nearly all the allies stood up, but none of the Lacedaemonians; for it was forbidden to them to practice a trade or learn any manual craft. Then Agesilaus, laughing, said: "You see, gentlemen, how much larger a fighting force we furnish compared with you."

At Megara, while bringing his army home from Thebes, as he climbed toward the government building on the acropolis, he took a severe cramp and pain in his sound leg; from this it seemed to swell up and become full of blood, and it produced an excessive inflammation.

When a Syracusan doctor made an incision in a vein just under the ankle, the pain went away, but as much blood flowed and ran uncontrollably, a great faintness and acute danger from it surrounded Agesilaus. However, he then stopped the flow of blood; and having been carried to Lacedaemon, he remained ill for a long time and unable to go on campaign.

During this time many reverses befell the Spartans both by land and by sea, the worst of which was the engagement at Tegyra, the first occasion on which the Thebans defeated them in open battle. It seemed good to all, then, to make peace with everyone; and envoys assembled at Lacedaemon from all Greece to bring about the settlement, one of whom was Epaminondas,

a man renowned for education and philosophy, but who had not yet given proof of generalship. This man, seeing all the others deferring to Agesilaus, alone employed a proud and outspoken freedom of speech, and delivered a speech not on behalf of the Thebans but on behalf of Greece in common, showing that the war increased Sparta's power at the expense of all the rest, who suffered from it, and urging that peace be established on equality and justice — for only so, he said, would it endure, once all had become equal.

Agesilaus, then, seeing the Greeks marveling exceedingly at him and paying close attention to him, asked him whether he considered it fair and reasonable for Boeotia to be self-governing. When Epaminondas quickly and boldly asked in return whether he too thought it just that Laconia should be autonomous, Agesilaus sprang up in anger and demanded that he state clearly whether he was releasing Boeotia to be autonomous.

When Epaminondas again put the same question back — whether he was releasing Laconia to be autonomous — Agesilaus grew so harsh, and so gladly seized the pretext, that he at once struck the Thebans' name from the peace and declared war on them beforehand; and he ordered the other Greeks, now reconciled, to depart, treating what could be healed by peace and what could not be healed by war. For it was a great task to clear away and resolve all the disputes.

It happened that at that time Cleombrotus was in Phocis with his forces; the ephors accordingly sent at once ordering him to lead his army against the Thebans, and, sending around to the allies, they gathered them, though they were reluctant and burdened by the war, not yet daring to speak against or disobey the Lacedaemonians.

Though many bad omens occurred, as has been written in the account of Epaminondas, and though Prothous the Laconian opposed the campaign, Agesilaus did not relent but pushed the war through, hoping that, while all Greece still belonged to them, and the Thebans were now outside the treaty, it was the moment to exact justice from them.

That this campaign was undertaken in anger rather than by calculation is shown by the timing: for on the fourteenth of the month Scirophorion they concluded the treaty at Lacedaemon, and on the fifth of Hecatombaion — twenty days later — they were defeated at Leuctra. A thousand Lacedaemonians died, and King Cleombrotus, and around him the best of the Spartans,

among them, it is said, Cleonymus, Sphodrias's handsome son, who went down before the king three separate times, rose each time in turn, and finally died battling the Thebans.

Since this unexpected disaster befell the Lacedaemonians and this unexpected good fortune befell the Thebans, such as had never come to any other Greeks contending against Greeks, one might no less admire the excellence, and marvel at the defeated city no less than at the victorious one.

For Xenophon says that the words and pastimes of good men, even in wine and play, are worth remembering, and he says rightly; but it is no less, indeed even more, worthy of note and observation, what good men do and say amid misfortunes while still keeping their dignity. It so happened that the city was in the midst of a festival, crowded with visitors from abroad; for the Gymnopaediae were being celebrated, with choruses competing in the theater, when those from Leuctra arrived bringing news of the disaster.

Though it was at once evident that their affairs were ruined and they had lost their supremacy, the ephors did not allow the chorus to leave nor the city to change the form of the festival, but sending the names of the dead to their households, they themselves attended to the spectacle and the contest of the choruses.

At daybreak, when it had already become clear to everyone who had survived and who had died, the fathers and kinsmen and relatives of the dead went down into the marketplace and greeted one another with cheerful faces, full of pride and joy, while the relatives of the survivors, as though in mourning, stayed at home with the women; and if any of them was compelled to go out, he appeared humble and downcast in bearing, voice, and look.

Still more remarkable was it to see and hear the women: the mother expecting her son to return alive from the battle appeared downcast and silent, while those whose sons were reported to have fallen at once went about visiting the temples, walking to one another cheerfully and proudly.

Nevertheless, as the allies fell away, and it was expected that Epaminondas, having won, would invade the Peloponnese in high pride, remembrance of the oracles then fell upon the people concerning Agesilaus's lameness, and much discouragement and fear before the divine, as though the city fared badly for this reason: that, rejecting the sound-footed one for kingship, they had chosen a lame and maimed man — which taught them more than anything to take heed and be on guard against the divine.

Yet because of his other power, excellence, and reputation, they made use of him not only as king and general in war, but also as physician and arbiter of their political difficulties — namely, in dealing with the men who had proven cowardly in the fighting, the ones the Spartans themselves called "tremblers," being reluctant to impose upon them the disgraces prescribed by law, since they were many and powerful, fearing revolution from them.

For they are not only excluded from every office, but it is also disgraceful to give a wife to or take a wife from any of them; and whoever meets them may strike them. They endure it, going about squalid and humbled, wearing cloaks patched with dyed cloth, and shaving part of their beard while letting the other part grow.

It was, then, a fearful thing to overlook so many such men in the city, which had need of no small number of soldiers, and they chose Agesilaus as lawgiver. He, neither adding anything nor taking anything away nor rewriting anything, went in among the assembled Lacedaemonians and said that the laws must today be allowed to sleep, but from this day forward be in force for the future — and thus at once he preserved both the laws for the city and the honor of the men.

Wishing to lift the present despondency and gloom of the young men, he invaded Arcadia, and while he took great care not to join battle with the enemy, he captured a small town belonging to the Mantineans and overran their territory, thereby making the city's hopes lighter and its spirit happier, as one no longer altogether despaired of.

After this Epaminondas arrived in Laconia with his allies, a force amounting to no fewer than forty thousand hoplites, and many light-armed and unarmed troops besides followed along for plunder, so that the whole host that poured into Laconia numbered seventy thousand.

It was now no less than six hundred years since the Dorians had settled Lacedaemon, and in all that time enemies had never before been seen in the country; before this no one had dared it, but now they invaded a land that had been unravaged and untouched, and burned and plundered it all the way to the river and to the city itself, with no one going out against them.

For Agesilaus would not allow the Lacedaemonians to fight against so great a "stream and surge of war," as Theopompus calls it, but coiling his hoplites around the central and most vital parts of the city, he endured the threats and the boasts of the Thebans, who shouted his name and dared him to come fight for the country, as being the one responsible for these evils by having kindled the war.

No less than these things did the tumults and shouting and running to and fro within the city distress Agesilaus, with the older men chafing at what was happening and the women unable to keep quiet, but altogether beside themselves at the shouting and the fires of the enemy.

The matter of his reputation also vexed him, because, having taken over a city that was greatest and most powerful, he now saw its dignity shrunk and its pride cut short — the very pride which he himself had often invoked, saying that a Spartan woman had never seen the smoke of an enemy. It is said too that Antalcidas, when some Athenian disputed with him about courage and said, "We, at any rate, have often driven you back from the Cephisus," retorted, "But we have never yet been driven by you from the Eurotas."

In much the same way one of the less notable Spartiates answered an Argive: for when the man said, "Many of your people are buried here in the Argolid," he replied, "But none of yours lie in Laconia."

At that time, they say, Antalcidas, who was ephor, sent his children away in fear to Cythera. Agesilaus, when the enemy attempted to cross the river and force their way toward the city, abandoned the rest and drew up his line before the central and elevated parts.

The Eurotas at that time ran fuller and mightier than its wont, since there had been snowfalls, and its current, made harsh and difficult for the Thebans more by its coldness than by its roughness. Some pointed out to Agesilaus Epaminondas marching at the head of the phalanx; and he, as they say, gazed at him a long while, following him with his eyes as he passed, and said only this: "Oh, what a man of great designs!"

But when Epaminondas, eager for glory, was unable, for all his ambition to join battle within the city and set up a trophy, to draw Agesilaus out or provoke him, he broke camp again and set about ravaging the countryside; meanwhile in Lacedaemon some of the long-standing malcontents and rogues, about two hundred of them, joined forces and took over the Issorium, the site of the temple of Artemis, a place well fortified and hard to dislodge men from,

and when the Lacedaemonians wished at once to rush upon them, Agesilaus, fearing the revolution, told the others to stay calm, while he himself went up in his cloak with a single servant, calling out that they had misheard the order — since he had given no command for them to gather there, nor all together in one place, but some there (pointing to another spot) and others elsewhere in the city.

They, on hearing this, were pleased, thinking they had gone undetected, and separated, withdrawing to the places he had indicated. He then at once sent for others and occupied the Issorium, and having seized about fifteen of those who had banded together, put them to death that same night.

Another and greater conspiracy was disclosed, a gathering of Spartiate men meeting secretly in a house for revolutionary purposes, whom, amid such disorder, it was hard either to bring to trial or to overlook while they were plotting. Agesilaus, therefore, after taking counsel with the ephors, put these men too to death without trial, though no Spartiate before that time had ever been put to death without a hearing,

and when many of the perioeci and helots enrolled under arms were deserting from the city to the enemy, and this caused the greatest despondency, he instructed his attendants to go around the bivouacs at dawn and take up the arms of those who had gone off and hide them, so that their number might not be known.

As for why the Thebans withdrew from Laconia, other writers say it was because bad weather set in and the Arcadians began to desert and scatter in disorder, though they had remained there fully three months and had laid waste to most of the country; Theopompus, however, says that, when the Boeotarchs had already resolved to leave, Phrixus, a Spartiate, came to them bearing ten talents from Agesilaus as pay for their withdrawal, so that on top of carrying out what they had long since decided to do, they also got extra travel money from the enemy.

How the rest failed to learn of this I do not know, but Theopompus alone found it out. That Sparta was saved on that occasion all agree was owing to Agesilaus, because he set aside those passions inborn in him, love of rivalry and love of honor, and handled affairs with safety.

He was not, however, able to recover for the city its power and reputation after this stumble; but as with a body that is healthy yet has followed too strict and regimented a diet for its whole life, a single fault and a single tip of the scale overturned the entire good fortune of the city — and not without reason. For onto a constitution best arranged for peace, virtue, and concord they grafted offices of empire and violent dominions, of none of which Lycurgus thought a city meant to live happily had any need, and in this they came to grief.

Agesilaus himself was by now, on account of his age, past campaigning, but his son Archidamus, with the reinforcement that had come from the tyrant of Sicily, defeated the Arcadians in the battle called the "Tearless Battle," for not one of his own men fell, while he slew great numbers of the enemy. Yet this very victory most of all exposed the weakness of the city,

for formerly they had considered defeating the enemy so customary and fitting a task for them that they would sacrifice nothing to the gods for a victory but a cock within the city, nor did those who fought boast of it, nor did those who heard the news show excessive joy — indeed, this held true even following the engagement at Mantinea, an event Thucydides recorded, when the magistrates sent to the man who first brought news of the victory only a piece of meat from the public mess as a reward for good tidings, and nothing else;

but on this occasion, when news of the battle came and Archidamus was approaching, no one could contain himself, but his father was the first to greet him, in tears of joy, and following him came the magistrates, while the crowd of older men and of women went down to the river, stretching out their hands and calling upon the gods, as though Sparta had thrown off reproaches unworthy of her and now saw once more her light shining bright from the beginning; for before this, they say, the men were so ashamed of their failures that they could not even look their women in the eye.

When Messene was being resettled by Epaminondas and his men, with the ancient citizens streaming into it from every quarter, the Spartans did not dare to fight it out nor were they able to prevent it, but they were bitter and heavy of heart toward Agesilaus, because a country no smaller in extent than Laconia and holding first place in excellence among the lands of Greece, which they had possessed and enjoyed for so long a time, they had lost during his reign.

For this reason Agesilaus would not accept the peace offered by the Thebans; unwilling to concede in word the land that they held in fact by force, but persisting out of rivalry, he neither recovered it nor came near losing Sparta itself besides, having been outgeneraled.

For when the Mantineans again broke away from the Thebans and sent for the Lacedaemonians, Epaminondas, learning that Agesilaus had marched out with his forces and was approaching, slipped past the Mantineans unnoticed and led his army by night from Tegea straight against Lacedaemon itself, and came within a little of bypassing Agesilaus and seizing the city while it was suddenly left undefended.

But Euthynus of Thespiae, as Callisthenes says, or, as Xenophon has it, a certain Cretan, brought word to Agesilaus, who quickly sent a horseman ahead to tell those in the city, and not long after came himself into Sparta. A little later the Thebans crossed the Eurotas and assaulted the city, with Agesilaus defending it most vigorously, beyond what his age would allow.

For he saw that the moment called not, as before, for caution and defense, but rather for desperate daring; and with troops in which he had never before, at any other time, placed trust or made use, he now alone with them beat back the danger, wresting the city free from Epaminondas's grasp, setting up a trophy, and showing his sons and the women the Lacedaemonians rendering to their country the noblest repayment for their upbringing,

and in the front rank Archidamus fighting magnificently, both in strength of spirit and in nimbleness of body, running swiftly to the hard-pressed points of the battle through the narrow streets and everywhere, with but a few men, standing firm against the enemy; and Isidas, son of Phoebidas, I think, appeared a sight strange and admirable not only to his fellow citizens but even to the enemy.

For he was conspicuous in form and stature of body, and was at that age when men in their bloom are at their sweetest as they pass from boys into men; naked, without either armor or cloak for covering, his body anointed with oil, a spear gripped in one fist and a sword clutched in the other, he leapt out from his house, and cutting a path through the thick of the fighters, ranged among the enemy, striking down whoever came in his way,

and he was wounded by no one, whether because some god was guarding him for his valor, or because he appeared to his opponents as something greater and mightier than a man. For this it is said that the ephors crowned him, and then afterward imposed on him a fine of a thousand drachmas, because he had taken the risk of fighting unarmored.

A few days later they fought a battle around Mantinea, and when Epaminondas, already victorious over the front ranks, was still pressing on and hastening the pursuit, a Laconian named Anticrates stood his ground and struck him — with a spear, according to Dioscorides' account, though the Lacedaemonians even now call the descendants of Anticrates "Machaeriones," as though he had struck him with a sword.

So much did they admire and love him out of fear of Epaminondas while he lived that they voted him honors and gifts, and exemption from taxes for his line, which Callicrates, one of the descendants of Antikrates, still holds even in our own day. Once the fighting was over and Epaminondas lay dead, and the Greek states had made peace among themselves, Agesilaus and his faction excluded the Messenians from that oath, arguing that they possessed no city of their own.

But when all the rest received them and took oaths from them, the Lacedaemonians stood apart, and they alone were at war, still hoping to recover Messenia. Agesilaus therefore seemed a violent man, unyielding, and insatiable for wars, undermining and postponing the general settlements by every means, and then, forced by lack of money, troubling his friends throughout the city, borrowing and raising contributions,

though, when he had reached such a point in his fortunes, he ought to have been rid of troubles, and not, after he had let go so vast an empire — cities and land and sea — to be struggling over the properties and revenues of Messene.

He fell into still greater disrepute by giving himself as a general to Tachos the Egyptian: for people did not think it fitting that a man judged the best of Greece, who had filled the inhabited world with his fame, should hire out his person to a rebel against the king, a barbarian, and sell his name and his reputation for money, performing the work of a mercenary and a captain of hired troops.

For even though, past eighty years of age and with his whole body cut up by wounds, he had again taken up that noble and conspicuous command on behalf of the freedom of the Greeks, his ambition was not altogether blameless: for the noble has its own proper season and hour, and, more generally, the honorable differs from the shameful chiefly by measure.

Agesilaus, however, gave no thought to these things, and considered no task performed for the state too lowly for a man of his rank; rather he thought it beneath himself to live inactive in the city and sit waiting for death. So, having gathered mercenaries with the money Tachos sent him, and having manned ships, he put out to sea, taking with him thirty Spartan advisers, as before.

When he had put in at Egypt, at once the chief of the royal commanders and officials came down to the ship to pay him court, and there was great eagerness and expectation among the rest of the Egyptians too because of the name and fame of Agesilaus, and all ran together for the spectacle.

But when they saw no splendor and no fine equipment, but an old man lying on some grass by the sea, small and cheap in body, wrapped in a rough and shabby cloak, they took to mocking him and making jokes, saying that this was the mountain of legend that went into labor and then gave birth to a mouse.

They were still more amazed at his strangeness when, gifts of hospitality having been brought and offered to him, he took the barley meal, the calves, and the geese, but waved off the confections, the baked delicacies, and the scented oils; and when they pressed and urged him to take them, he ordered them carried off and given to the helots. Theophrastus says, however, that he was pleased with the papyrus used for garlands, on account of the plainness and cleanness of such wreaths, and asked for some and took it from the king when he sailed away.

At that time, joining Tachos as he was preparing for the campaign, Agesilaus was not, as he had hoped, appointed general of the whole force, but got charge only of the hired troops; command of the fleet went instead to the Athenian Chabrias, and Tachos himself held overall command of everything.

And this first vexed Agesilaus; then, weighed down by the rest of the Egyptian's boastfulness and empty conceit, he was forced to bear it, and sailed out with him against the Phoenicians, yielding against his own worth and nature and enduring it, until he found his opportunity.

For Nektanebis, being a cousin of Tachos and having under him a part of the forces, revolted; and being proclaimed king by the Egyptians, he sent to Agesilaus asking him to help him, and made the same appeal to Chabrias, promising great gifts to both,

When Tachos perceived this and turned to entreating them, Chabrias tried to persuade and console Agesilaus to remain in friendship with Tachos, but Agesilaus said: "You, Chabrias, having come here on your own, are free to follow your own reasoning; but my homeland assigned me to the Egyptians as their general, and it would be dishonorable for me to fight against the very men to whom I was dispatched as an ally, unless my city itself commands otherwise a second time."

Having said this, he dispatched agents to Sparta with instructions to denounce Tachos and speak well of Nektanebis. The two rivals likewise sent their own envoys to plead with the Lacedaemonians — one claiming a longstanding bond of friendship and alliance with them, the other insisting he would prove the more favorably disposed and eager champion of their city. The Lacedaemonians, having heard both, answered the Egyptians openly that Agesilaus would attend to these matters, but sent word to him privately, bidding him look to what would be advantageous for Sparta,

So then Agesilaus, taking the mercenaries, went over from Tachos to Nektanebis, using the advantage of his homeland as a cloak for a strange and monstrous act: for once that pretext is stripped away, the truest name for the deed was treachery. But the Lacedaemonians, giving the first place among noble things to the advantage of their homeland, neither learn nor recognize any other justice than what they think will increase Sparta.

Tachos, then, stripped of his mercenaries, fled; and from Mendes another man rose up against Nektanebis, proclaimed king; and gathering a hundred thousand men, he advanced. As Nektanebis tried to encourage Agesilaus, saying that the enemy were many, but a mixed rabble, vulgar workmen, and easy to despise because of their inexperience,

"And yet it is not their number," Agesilaus said, "but their inexperience and ignorance that I fear, as being hard to deceive. For deceptions succeed by surprise against those who suspect and expect a turn of events, but the man who expects nothing and suspects nothing gives no handhold to one plotting against him, just as a man who does not move gives no leverage to his wrestling opponent." From this, the man of Mendes too sent to try Agesilaus.

Nektanebis then took fright, and though Agesilaus urged him to fight it out as quickly as possible and not to make war at length against men inexperienced in contest — men who, with their great numbers, could go round about, dig entrenchments, and forestall and anticipate much — his suspicion and dread of Agesilaus only deepened, and he pulled back into a strongly walled town enclosed by a great circuit of fortifications.

Agesilaus was angered at being distrusted and took it hard, but ashamed also to change sides again to the other man and to depart altogether without accomplishing anything, he followed and went in with him within the walls.

Once the enemy arrived and set about digging their entrenchments around the city, the Egyptian, again afraid of the siege, wished to fight, and had the Greeks very eager to join him as well: for there was no grain within the place. But Agesilaus, who would not allow it and hindered it, was spoken of still worse than before by the Egyptians and was called a traitor to the king; yet he bore the slanders now more mildly and watched for the right moment for his stratagem.

It was this. The enemy were drawing a deep trench outside around the wall, meaning to shut them in completely. So when the last stretches of the digging were about to meet each other and encircle the city, he waited until evening came, and, bidding the Greeks arm themselves, he went to the Egyptian and said: "This, young man, is the moment of safety, which, fearing to spoil it, I did not tell you of before now.

Since the enemy have themselves, with their own hands, prepared our security, having dug so great a trench — the finished part of which stands in the way of their numbers, while the unfinished gap allows us to fight against them on an equal and fair measure — come now, be eager to prove yourself a good man, and following with us at a run, save yourself and the army together.

The troops directly ahead of us cannot hold their ground against us, and the trench itself will keep the remainder from doing us any harm." Nektanebis marveled at the skill of Agesilaus, and giving himself into the midst of the Greek weapons and falling upon the enemy, he easily routed those who opposed him. And once Agesilaus had gotten Nektanebis to trust him, he again employed the same stratagem against the enemy, like a wrestling throw.

For now retreating and drawing back, now wheeling around against them, he drove their mass into a place that had a deep channel running along on either side, and blocking and occupying the space between with the front of his phalanx, he made their numbers equal to those of the enemy actually fighting, since they had no room to go around and encircle. Hence, having resisted only a short time, they were routed; and many were killed, while the rest scattered in flight and were dispersed.

After this, the Egyptian's affairs stood well and securely, and out of affection and friendliness he begged Agesilaus to stay through the winter as his guest. But Agesilaus was anxious to get back to the fighting at home, aware that Sparta lacked funds and had mercenary troops to support. So the Egyptian sent him off with honor and magnificence, presenting him, along with other marks of esteem, a sum amounting to two hundred thirty talents of silver to help fund the campaign.

It being now winter, he kept close to the land with his ships, and putting in along Libya at a deserted place they call the Harbor of Menelaus, he died, having lived eighty-four years, and having reigned over Sparta more than forty-one of them, and for over thirty of these having become the greatest and most powerful of all, and having been reckoned leader and virtually king of nearly the whole of Greece, up until the battle of Leuctra.

It being a Laconian custom that the bodies of others who die abroad be embalmed and left there, but that the bodies of kings be brought home, those Spartans present, melting wax over the corpse — for they had no honey — carried him back to Lacedaemon; and his son Archidamus took over the kingship, and it remained in his line until Agis, whom Leonidas, who was fifth in descent from Agesilaus, put to death when he tried to restore the ancestral constitution.

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