Agesilaus

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22.3.1
At once, then, Agesilaüs sprang up to go to their assistance, but when he learned that it was all over with them, he came back again to the Heraeum, and ordering the Boeotians then to come before him, gave them an audience. But they returned his insolence by making no mention of peace, but simply asking safe conduct into Corinth. Agesilaüs was wroth at this, and said: If you wish to see your friends when they are elated at their successes, you can do so tomorrow in all safety.
22.4.1
And taking them along with him on the next day, he ravaged the territory of the Corinthians, and advanced to the very gates of the city. After he had thus proved that the Corinthians did not dare to resist him, he dismissed the embassy. Then he himself, picking up the survivors of the division that had been cut to pieces, led them back to Sparta, always breaking camp before it was day, and pitching the next camp after it was dark, in order that the hateful and malicious Arcadians might not exult over them.
22.5.1
After this, to gratify the Achaeans, he crossed over with them on an expedition into Acarnania, where he drove away much booty and conquered the Acarnanians in battle. But when the Achaeans asked him to spend the winter there in order to prevent the enemy from sowing their fields, he said he would do the opposite of this; for the enemy would dread the war more if their land was sown when summer came. And this proved true; for when a second expedition against them was announced, they came to terms with the Achaeans.
23.1.1
When Conon and Pharnabazus with the Great King’s fleet were masters of the sea and were ravaging the coasts of Laconia, and after the walls of Athens had been rebuilt with the money which Pharnabazus furnished, the Lacedaemonians decided to make peace with the king of Persia. To that end, they sent Antalcidas to Tiribazus, and in the most shameful and lawless fashion handed over to the King the Greeks resident in Asia, in whose behalf Agesilaüs had waged war. Agesilaüs, therefore, could have had no part at all in this infamy.
23.2.1
For Antalcidas was his enemy, and put forth all his efforts to make the peace because he saw that the war enhanced to the utmost the reputation and power of Agesilaüs. Notwithstanding this, to one who remarked that the Lacedaemonians were favouring the Medes, Agesilaüs replied that the Medes were the rather favouring the Lacedaemonians.
23.3.1
Moreover, by threatening with war the Greeks who were unwilling to accept the peace, he forced them all to abide by the terms which the Persian dictated, more especially on account of the Thebans, his object being to make them weaker by leaving Boeotia independent of Thebes. This he made clear by his subsequent behaviour. For when Phoebidas committed the foul deed of seizing the Cadmeia in a time of perfect peace, and all the Greeks were indignant and the Spartans displeased at the act,
23.4.1
and when especially those who were at variance with Agesilaüs angrily asked Phoebidas by whose command he had done this thing, thereby turning suspicion upon Agesilaüs, he did not scruple to come to the help of Phoebidas, and to say openly that they must consider whether the act itself was serviceable or not; for that which was advantageous to Sparta might well be done independently, even if no one ordered it.
23.5.1
And yet in his discourse he was always declaring that justice was the first of the virtues; for valour was of no use unless justice attended it, and if all men should be just, there would be no need of valour. And to those who said, This is the pleasure of the Great King, he would say, How is he greater than I unless he is also more just?, rightly and nobly thinking that justice must be the royal measure wherewith relative greatness is measured.
23.6.1
And when, after the peace was concluded, the Great King sent him a letter proposing guest-friendship, he would not accept it, saying that the public friendship was enough, and that while that lasted there would be no need of a private one. Yet in his acts he no longer observed these opinions, but was often carried away by ambition and contentiousness, and particularly in his treatment of the Thebans.
23.7.1
For he not only rescued Phoebidas from punishment, but actually persuaded Sparta to assume responsibility for his iniquity and occupy the Cadmeia on its own account, besides putting the administration of Thebes into the hands of Archias and Leontidas, by whose aid Phoebidas had entered and seized the acropolis.
24.1.1
Of course this gave rise at once to a suspicion that while Phoebidas had done the deed, Agesilaüs had counselled it; and his subsequent acts brought the charge into general belief. For when the Thebans expelled the Spartan garrison and liberated their city, he charged them with the murder of Archias and Leontidas, who were really tyrants, though polemarchs in name, and levied war upon them.
24.2.1
And Cleombrotus, who was king now that Agesipolis was dead, was sent into Boeotia with an army; for Agesilaüs, who had now borne arms for forty years, and was therefore exempt by law from military service, declined this command. He was ashamed, after having recently made war upon the Phliasians in behalf of their exiles, to be seen now harrying the Thebans in the interests of their tyrants.
24.3.1
Now, there was a certain Lacedaemonian named Sphodrias, of the party opposed to Agesilaüs, who had been appointed harmost at Thespiae. He lacked neither boldness nor ambition, but always abounded in hopes rather than in good judgement. This man, coveting a great name, and considering that Phoebidas had made himself famous far and near by his bold deed at Thebes, was persuaded that it would be a far more honourable and brilliant exploit for him to seize the Peiraeus on his own account and rob the Athenians of access to the sea, attacking them unexpectedly by land.
24.4.1
It is said, too, that the scheme was devised by Pelopidas and Melo, chief magistrates at Thebes. They privily sent men to him who pretended to be Spartan sympathizers, and they, by praising and exalting Sphodrias as the only man worthy to undertake so great a task, urged and incited him into an act which was no less lawless and unjust than the seizure of the Cadmeia, though it was essayed without courage or good fortune.
24.5.1
For full daylight overtook him while he was yet in the Thriasian plain, although he had hoped to attack the Peiraeus by night. It is said also that his soldiers saw a light streaming from certain sanctuaries at Eleusis, and were filled with shuddering fear. Their commander himself lost all his courage, since concealment was no longer possible, and after ravaging the country a little, retired disgracefully and ingloriously to Thespiae.
24.6.1
Hereupon men were sent from Athens to Sparta to denounce Sphodrias. They found, however, that the magistrates there had no need of their denunciation, but had already indicted Sphodrias on a capital charge. This charge he determined not to meet, fearing the wrath of his countrymen, who were ashamed in the presence of the Athenians, and wished to be thought wronged with them, that they might not be thought wrongdoers with Sphodrias.
25.1.1
Now Sphodrias had a son, Cleonymus, who was still a boy and fair to look upon, and of whom Archidamus, the son of King Agesilaüs, was enamoured. In this crisis Archidamus naturally sympathized with his favourite because of the peril in which his father stood, but he was unable to aid and assist him openly, since Sphodrias was one of the opponents of Agesilaüs.
25.2.1
But when Cleonymus came to him in tears and begged him to mollify Agesilaüs, from whom he and his father had most to fear, for three or four days he was restrained by awe and fear from saying anything to Agesilaüs as he followed him about; but finally, when the trial was near at hand, he plucked up courage to tell him that Cleonymus had begged him to intercede for his father.
25.3.1
Now Agesilaüs, although he knew of the love of Archidamus, had not put a stop to it, since Cleonymus, from his early boyhood, had given special promise of becoming an earnest and worthy man. At this time, however, he did not permit his son to expect any advantage or kindness in answer to his prayer; he merely said, as he went away, that he would consider what was the honourable and fitting course in the matter.
25.4.1
Archidamus was therefore mortified, and ceased to visit Cleonymus, although before this he had done so many times a day. As a consequence, the friends of Sphodrias also were more in despair of his case, until Etymocles, one of the friends of Agesilaüs, conferred with them and disclosed the mind of the king, namely, that he blamed to the utmost what Sphodrias had done, but yet thought him a brave man, and saw that the city needed just such soldiers.
25.5.1
For this was the way in which Agesilaüs always spoke about the trial, in his desire to gratify his son, so that Cleonymus was at once aware of the zealous efforts of Archidamus in his behalf, and the friends of Sphodrias had courage at last to come to his help. It is a fact also that Agesilaüs was excessively fond of his children, and a story is told of his joining in their childish play. Once, when they were very small, he bestrode a stick, and was playing horse with them in the house, and when he was spied doing this by one of his friends, he entreated him not to tell any one, until he himself should be a father of children.
26.1.1
But after Sphodrias was acquitted, and the Athenians, on learning of it, were inclined to go to war, Agesilaüs was very harshly criticized. It was thought that, to gratify an absurd and childish desire, he had opposed the course of justice in a trial, and made the city accessory to great crimes against the Greeks.
26.2.1
Besides, when he saw that his colleague Cleombrotus was little inclined to make war upon the Thebans, he waived the exemption by law which he had formerly claimed in the matter of the expedition, and presently led an incursion into Boeotia himself, where he inflicted damage upon the Thebans, and in his turn met with reverses, so that one day when he was wounded, Antalcidas said to him: Indeed, this is a fine tuition-fee which thou art getting from the Thebans, for teaching them how to fight when they did not wish to do it, and did not even know how.
26.3.1
For the Thebans are said to have been really more warlike at this time than ever before, owing to the many expeditions which the Lacedaemonians made against them, by which they were virtually schooled in arms. And Lycurgus of old, in one of his three so-called rhetras, forbade his people to make frequent expeditions against the same foes, in order that those foes might not learn how to make war. Moreover, the allies of the Lacedaemonians were offended at Agesilaüs, because, as they said, it was not upon any public ground of complaint, but by reason of some passionate resentment of his own, that he sought to destroy the Thebans.
26.4.1
Accordingly, they said they had no wish to be dragged hither and thither to destruction every year, they themselves so many, and the Lacedaemonians, with whom they followed, so few. It was at this time, we are told, that Agesilaüs, wishing to refute their argument from numbers, devised the following scheme. He ordered all the allies to sit down by themselves promiscuously, and the Lacedaemonians apart by themselves.
26.5.1
Then his herald called upon the potters to stand up first, and after them the smiths, next, the carpenters in their turn, and the builders, and so on through all the handicrafts. In response, almost all the allies rose up, but not a man of the Lacedaemonians; for they were forbidden to learn or practise a manual art. Then Agesilaüs said with a laugh: You see, O men, how many more soldiers than you we are sending out.
27.1.1
But in Megara, when he was leading his army back from Thebes, as he was going up to the senate-house in the acropolis, he was seized with a cramp and violent pain in his sound leg, which then swelled up, appeared to be congested, and showed signs of excessive inflammation.
27.2.1
As soon as a certain Syracusan physician had opened a vein below the ankle, the pains relaxed, but much blood flowed and could not be checked, so that Agesilaüs was very faint from its loss, and in dire peril of his life. At last, however, the flow of blood was stopped, and Agesilaüs was carried to Sparta, where he remained for a long time in a weak condition and unable to take the field.
27.3.1
During this time the Spartans met with many reverses both by land and sea, the greatest of which was at Tegyra, where for the first time they were overpowered by the Thebans in a pitched battle. There was, accordingly, a general sentiment in favour of a general peace, and ambassadors from all Hellas came together at Sparta to settle its terms.
27.4.1
One of these ambassadors was Epaminondas, a man of repute for culture and philosophy, although he had not yet given proof of capacity as a general. This man, seeing the rest all cringing before Agesilaüs, alone had the courage of his convictions, and made a speech, not in behalf of Thebes, his native city, but of all Greece in common, declaring that war made Sparta great at the expense of the sufferings of all the other states, and urging that peace be made on terms of equality and justice, for it would endure only when all parties to it were made equal.
28.1.1
Agesilaüs, accordingly, seeing that the Greeks all listened to Epaminondas with the greatest attention and admiration, asked him whether he considered it justice and equality that the cities of Boeotia should be independent of Thebes. Then when Epaminondas promptly and boldly asked him in reply whether he too thought it justice for the cities of Laconia to be independent of Sparta, Agesilaüs sprang from his seat and wrathfully bade him say plainly whether he intended to make the cities of Boeotia independent.
28.2.1
And when Epaminondas answered again in the same way by asking whether he intended to make the cities of Laconia independent, Agesilaüs became violent and was glad of the pretext for at once erasing the name of the Thebans from the treaty of peace and declaring war upon them. The rest of the Greeks, however, he ordered to depart, now that they were reconciled with each other, leaving differences which could be healed to the terms of peace, and those which could not, to war, since it was a hard task to settle and remove all their disputes.
28.3.1
At this time Cleombrotus was in Phocis with an army. The ephors therefore immediately sent him orders to lead his forces against Thebes. They also sent round a summons for an assembly of their allies, who were without zeal for the war and thought it a great burden, but were not yet bold enough to oppose or disobey the Lacedaemonians.
28.4.1
And although many baleful signs appeared, as I have written in my Life of Epaminondas, and though Prothouüs the Laconian made opposition to the expedition, Agesilaüs would not give in, but brought the war to pass. He thought that since all Hellas was on their side, and the Thebans had been excluded from the treaty, it was a favourable time for the Spartans to take vengeance on them.
28.5.1
But the time chosen for it proves that this expedition was made from anger more than from careful calculation. For the treaty of peace was made at Lacedaemon on the fourteenth of the month Scirophorion, and on the fifth of Hecatombaeon the Lacedaemonians were defeated at Leuctra,—an interval of twenty days. In that battle a thousand Lacedaemonians fell, besides Cleombrotus the king, and around him the mightiest of the Spartans.
28.6.1
Among these, they say, was Cleonymus, the beautiful son of Sphodrias, who was thrice struck down in front of his king, as many times rose again to his feet, and died there, fighting the Thebans.
29.1.1
Now that the Lacedaemonians had met with an unexpected reverse, and the Thebans with an unlooked-for success surpassing that of any other Hellenes at strife with Hellenes, the high conduct of the defeated city was no less to be envied and admired than that of the victorious city.
29.2.1
Xenophon says that in the case of noble men, there is much that is worth recording even in what they say and do at their wine and in their sports, and he is right; and it is no less, but even more, worth while to observe carefully the decorum with which noble men speak and act in the midst of adversity. The city was holding a festival and was full of strangers; for the gymnopaediae were in progress and choirs of boys were competing with one another in the theatre; then came the messengers of calamity from Leuctra.
29.3.1
But the ephors, although it was at once apparent that their cause was ruined and their supremacy lost, would not allow a choral performance to be omitted, nor the fashion of the festival to be changed by the city, but after sending the names of the slain warriors to the homes of their kindred, they themselves conducted the spectacle and the choral contests to a close.
29.4.1
On the next morning also, now that everyone knew who had survived the battle and who had been slain, the fathers and kindred and friends of the slain went down into the market-place and greeted one another with bright faces, full of pride and exultation; while the friends of the survivors, as if in mourning, tarried at home with the women, and if one of them was obliged to appear in public, his garb and speech and looks betokened his humiliation and abasement.
29.5.1
And a still greater difference was to be seen (or heard about) in the women; she who expected her son back from the battle alive was dejected and silent, but the mothers of those reported to have fallen immediately frequented the temples, and visited one another with an air of gladness and pride.
30.1.1
The greater number, however, when their allies were falling away from them and it was expected that Epaminondas, in all the pride of a conqueror, would invade Peloponnesus, fell to thinking of the oracles, in view of the lameness of Agesilaüs, and were full of dejection and consternation in respect to the divine powers, believing that their city was in an evil plight because they had dethroned the sound-footed king and chosen instead a lame and halting one,—the very thing which the deity was trying to teach them carefully to avoid.
30.2.1
And yet otherwise he had such power and valour and fame that they not only continued to employ him as king and general in matters pertaining to war, but also as physician and arbiter in their civil perplexities. For instance, upon those who had shown cowardice in the battle, whom they themselves call tresantes, or run-aways, they hesitated to inflict the disabilities required by the laws, since the men were numerous and powerful, for fear that they might stir up a revolution.
30.3.1
For such men are not only debarred from every office, but intermarriage with any of them is a disgrace, and any one who meets them may strike them if he pleases. Moreover, they are obliged to go about unkempt and squalid, wearing cloaks that are patched with dyed stuffs, half of their beards shaven, and half left to grow.
30.4.1
It was a serious matter, therefore, to allow many such men in the city, when she lacked not a few soldiers. So they chose Agesilaüs as a law-giver for the occasion. And he, without adding to or subtracting from or changing the laws in any way, came into the assembly of the Lacedaemonians and said that the laws must be allowed to sleep for that day, but from that day on must be in sovereign force. By this means he at once saved the laws for the city and the men from infamy.
30.5.1
Then, wishing to remove the discouragement and dejection which prevailed among the young men, he made an incursion into Arcadia, and though he studiously avoided joining battle with the enemy, he took a small town of the Mantineans and overran their territory, and thus lightened and gladdened the expectations of his city, which felt that its case was not wholly desperate.
31.1.1
After this, Epaminondas entered Laconia with his allies, having no fewer than forty thousand men-at-arms. Many light armed and unarmed troops also followed him for the sake of plunder, so that a horde of seventy thousand, all told, made this incursion into Laconia.
31.2.1
For a period of no less than six hundred years the Dorians had been living in Lacedaemon, and this was the first time in all that period that enemies had been seen in the country; before this, none had ventured there. But now they burst into an unravaged and inviolate land, and burned and plundered as far as the river and the city, and no one came out against them.
31.3.1
For Agesilaüs would not suffer the Lacedaemonians to fight against such a billowy torrent of war, to use the words of Theopompus, but surrounded the central and most commanding parts of the city with his men-at-arms, while he endured the boastful threats of the Thebans, who called upon him by name and bade him come out and fight for his country, since he had caused her misfortunes by lighting up the flames of war.
31.4.1
But this was not the worst. Agesilaüs was still more harassed by the tumults and shrieks and running about throughout the city, where the elder men were enraged at the state of affairs, and the women were unable to keep quiet, but were utterly beside themselves when they heard the shouts and saw the fires of the enemy.
31.5.1
He was also distressed at the thought of what his fame would be, because he had taken command of the city when she was greatest and most powerful, and now saw her reputation lowered, and her proud boast made empty, which boast he himself also had often made, saying that no Spartan woman had ever seen the smoke of an enemy’s fires. It is said also that Antalcidas, when an Athenian was disputing with him over the valour of the two peoples and said, Yet we have often driven you away from the Cephisus, replied: But we have never driven you away from the Eurotas.
31.6.1
And a similar retort was made by a Spartan of lesser note to the Argive who said, Many of you lie buried in the lands of Argos; the Spartan answered: But not a man of you in the lands of Laconia.
32.1.1
Now, however, they say that Antalcidas, who was an ephor, secretly sent his children away to Cythera, so full of fear was he. But Agesilaüs, when the enemy tried to cross the Eurotas and force their way to the city, abandoned the rest of it and drew up his forces in front of its central and lofty precincts.
32.2.1
Now, the Eurotas at this time was flowing at its fullest and deepest, since snows had fallen, and its current, even more from its coldness than its violence, was very troublesome to the Thebans. As Epaminondas was fording it at the head of his phalanx, certain ones pointed him out to Agesilaüs, and he, we are told, after fixing his gaze upon him and watching him for a long time, said but these words: O adventurous man!
32.3.1
Epaminondas was ambitious to join battle in the city and set up a trophy of victory there, but since he could neither force nor tempt Agesilaüs out of his positions, he withdrew and began to ravage the country. Meanwhile, about two hundred of the Lacedaemonians who had long been disaffected and mutinous banded together and seized the Issorium, where the temple of Artemis stands, a well-walled and inaccessible spot.
32.4.1
The Lacedaemonians wished to make a dash upon them at once, but Agesilaüs, fearing their insurrection, ordered the rest to keep quiet, while he himself, wearing his cloak and attended by a single servant, went towards them, crying out that they had misunderstood his orders; for he had not commanded them to assemble in that place, nor in a body, but some yonder (pointing to another spot), and some in another part of the city.
32.5.1
They were delighted to hear this, supposing that their design was undiscovered, and, breaking up, went off to the places which he ordered them to occupy. Then Agesilaüs at once summoned other troops and took possession of the Issorium, after which he arrested about fifteen of the conspirators who had been gathered there, and put them to death in the night.
32.6.1
He was also informed of another and a larger conspiracy of Spartans, who met secretly in a house and there plotted revolution. It was impracticable either to bring these men to trial in a time of so much confusion, or to overlook their plots. Accordingly, Agesilaüs conferred with the ephors, and then put these men also to death without process of law, although no Spartan had ever before met with such a death.
32.7.1
At this time, also, many of the provincials and Helots who had been enrolled in the army ran away from the city and joined the enemy, and this caused very deep discouragement. Agesilaüs therefore instructed his servants to go every morning before it was light to the barracks and take the arms of the deserters and hide them, that their numbers might not be known.
32.8.1
As for the reason why the Thebans withdrew from Laconia, most writers say that it was because winter storms came on and the Arcadians began to melt away and disband; others, because they had remained there three entire months and thoroughly ravaged most of the country; but Theopompus says that when the Theban chief magistrates had already determined to take their army back, Phrixus, a Spartan, came to them, bringing ten talents from Agesilaüs to pay for their withdrawal, so that they were only doing what they had long ago decided to do, and had their expenses paid by their enemies besides.
33.1.1
This story may be true, although I know not how all other writers could be ignorant of it, while Theopompus alone heard it; but, at any rate, all agree that the salvation of Sparta at this time was due to Agesilaüs, because he renounced his inherent passions of contentiousness and ambition, and adopted a policy of safety.
33.2.1
He could not, however, restore the power and reputation of his city after its fall, for it was like a human body that is sound, indeed, but has followed all the while too strict and severe a regimen; a single error turned the scale and brought down the entire prosperity of the city. Nor was this strange. For to a civil polity best arranged for peace and virtue and unanimity they had attached empires and sovereignties won by force, not one of which Lycurgus thought needful for a city that was to live in happiness; and therefore they fell.
33.3.1
Agesilaüs himself now declined military service on account of his years, but Archidamus his son, with assistance which came from the tyrant of Sicily, conquered the Arcadians in the so-called tearless battle, where not one of his own men fell, and he slew great numbers of the enemy. This victory, more than anything else, showed the weakness of the city.
33.4.1
For up to this time they were wont to think the conquest of their enemies so customary and natural a thing for them to achieve, that no sacrifice for victory was offered in the city to the gods, beyond that of a cock, neither did the winners of the contest exult, nor those who heard of their victory show great joy. Nay, even after the battle at Mantinea, which Thucydides has described, the one who first announced the victory had no other reward for his glad tidings than a piece of meat sent by the magistrates from the public mess.
33.5.1
But now, at the news of the Arcadian victory and at the approach of Archidamus, no one could restrain himself, but first his father went to meet him, weeping for joy, and after him the chief magistrates, while the elderly men and the women went down in a throng to the river, lifting their hands to heaven and blessing the gods, as if Sparta had wiped away her unmerited disgraces and now saw the light shine bright again as of old; for before this, we are told, her men could not so much as look their wives in the face, out of shame at their disasters.
34.1.1
But when Messene was built by Epaminondas, and its former citizens flocked into it from all quarters, the Spartans had not the courage to contest the issue nor the ability to hinder it, but cherished the deepest resentment against Agesilaüs, because a country which was not of less extent than their own, which stood first among Hellenic lands for its fertility, the possession and fruits of which they had enjoyed for so long a time, had been lost by them during his reign.
34.2.1
For this reason, too, Agesilaüs would not accept the peace which was proffered by the Thebans. He was not willing to give up to them formally the country which was actually in their power, and persisted in his opposition. As a consequence, he not only did not recover Messenia, but almost lost Sparta besides, after being outgeneralled.
34.3.1
For when the Mantineans changed their allegiance, revolted from Thebes, and called in the Lacedaemonians to help them, Epaminondas, learning that Agesilaüs had marched out from Sparta with his forces and was approaching, set out by night from Tegea, without the knowledge of the Mantineans, and led his army against Sparta itself. He passed by Agesilaüs, and came within a little of suddenly seizing the city in a defenceless state.
34.4.1
But Euthynus, a Thespian, as Callisthenes says, or, according to Xenophon, a certain Cretan, brought word to Agesilaüs, who quickly sent on a horseman to warn the people in Sparta, and not long after his arrival the Thebans were crossing the Eurotas and attacking the city, while Agesilaüs defended it right vigorously and in a manner not to be expected of his years.
34.5.1
For he did not think, as on a former occasion, that the crisis demanded safe and cautious measures, but rather deeds of desperate daring. In these he had never put confidence before, nor had he employed them, but then it was only by their aid that he repelled the danger, snatching the city out of the grasp of Epaminondas, erecting a trophy of victory, and showing their wives and children that the Lacedaemonians were making the fairest of all returns to their country for its rearing of them.
34.6.1
Archidamus, too, fought among the foremost, conspicuous for his impetuous courage and for his agility, running swiftly through the narrow streets to the endangered points in the battle, and everywhere pressing hard upon the enemy with his few followers. But I think that Isidas, the son of Phoebidas, must have been a strange and marvellous sight, not only to his fellow-citizens, but also to his enemies.
34.7.1
He was of conspicuous beauty and stature, and at an age when the human flower has the greatest charm, as the boy merges into the man. Naked as he was, without either defensive armour or clothing,—for he had just anointed his body with oil,—he took a spear in one hand, and a sword in the other, leaped forth from his house, and after pushing his way through the midst of the combatants, ranged up and down among the enemy, smiting and laying low all who encountered him.
34.8.1
And no man gave him a wound, whether it was that a god shielded him on account of his valour, or that the enemy thought him taller and mightier than a mere man could be. For this exploit it is said that the ephors put a garland on his head, and then fined him a thousand drachmas, because he had dared to hazard his life in battle without armour.
35.1.1
A few days afterwards a battle was fought near Mantinea, in which Epaminondas had already routed the van of the Lacedaemonians, and was still eagerly pressing on in pursuit of them, when Anticrates, a Spartan, faced him and smote him with a spear, as Dioscorides tells the story; but the Lacedaemonians to this day call the descendants of Anticrates machaeriones, or swordsmen, because he used a sword for the blow.
35.2.1
For the Lacedaemonians were filled with such admiring love for him because of the fear in which they held Epaminondas while living, that they voted honours and gifts to Anticrates himself, and to his posterity exemption from taxes, an immunity which in my own day also is enjoyed by Callicrates, one of the descendants of Anticrates. After the battle and the death of Epaminondas, when the Greeks concluded peace among themselves, Agesilaüs and his partisans tried to exclude the Messenians from the oath of ratification, on the ground that they had no city.
35.3.1
And when all the rest admitted the Messenians and accepted their oaths, the Lacedaemonians held aloof from the peace, and they alone remained at war in the hope of recovering Messenia. Agesilaüs was therefore deemed a headstrong and stubborn man, and insatiable of war, since he did all in his power to undermine and postpone the general peace, and again since his lack of resources compelled him to lay burdens on his friends in the city and to take loans and contributions from them.
35.4.1
And yet it was his duty to put an end to their evils, now that opportunity offered, and not, after having lost Sparta’s whole empire, vast as it was, with its cities and its supremacy on land and sea, then to carry on a petty struggle for the goods and revenues of Messene.
36.1.1
He lost still more reputation by offering to take a command under Tachos the Egyptian. For it was thought unworthy that a man who had been judged noblest and best in Hellas, and who had filled the world with his fame, should furnish a rebel against the Great King, a mere Barbarian, with his person, his name, and his fame, and take money for him, rendering the service of a hired captain of mercenaries.
36.2.1
For even if, now that he was past eighty years of age and his whole body was disfigured with wounds, he had taken up again his noble and conspicuous leadership in behalf of the freedom of the Hellenes, his ambition would not have been altogether blameless, as men thought. For honourable action has its fitting time and season; nay, rather, it is the observance of due bounds that constitutes an utter difference between honourable and base actions.
36.3.1
Agesilaüs, however, paid no heed to these considerations, nor did he think any public service beneath his dignity; it was more unworthy of him, in his opinion, to live an idle life in the city, and to sit down and wait for death. Therefore he collected mercenaries with the money which Tachos sent him, embarked them on transports, and put to sea, accompanied by thirty Spartan counsellors, as formerly.
36.4.1
As soon as he landed in Egypt, the chief captains and governors of the king came down to meet him and pay him honour. There was great eagerness and expectation on the part of the other Egyptians also, owing to the name and fame of Agesilaüs, and all ran together to behold him.
36.5.1
But when they saw no brilliant array whatever, but an old man lying in some grass by the sea, his body small and contemptible, covered with a cloak that was coarse and mean, they were moved to laughter and jesting, saying that here was an illustration of the fable, a mountain is in travail, and then a mouse is born.
36.6.1
They were still more surprised, too, at his eccentricity. When all manner of hospitable gifts were brought to him, he accepted the flour, the calves, and the geese, but rejected the sweetmeats, the pastries, and the perfumes, and when he was urged and besought to take them, ordered them to be carried and given to his Helots. He was pleased, however, as Theophrastus tells us, with the papyrus used in chaplets, because the chaplets were so neat and simple, and when he left Egypt, asked and received some from the king.
37.1.1
But now, on joining Tachos, who was making preparations for his expedition, he was not, as he expected, appointed commander of all the forces, but only of the mercenaries, while Chabrias the Athenian had charge of the fleet, and Tachos himself was commander-in-chief
37.2.1
This was the first thing that vexed Agesilaüs; then, though he was indignant at the vain pretensions of the king in other matters, he was compelled to endure them. He even sailed with him against the Phoenicians, forcing himself into a subservience which was beneath his dignity and contrary to his nature, until he found his opportunity.
37.3.1
For Nectanabis, who was a cousin of Tachos and had a part of the forces under his command, revolted from him, and having been proclaimed king by the Egyptians, sent to Agesilaüs asking for his aid and assistance. He made the same appeal to Chabrias also, promising large gifts to both.
37.4.1
When Tachos learned of this and resorted to entreaties for their allegiance, Chabrias tried to persuade and encourage Agesilaüs to continue with him in the friendship of Tachos. But Agesilaüs said: You, Chabrias, who came here on your own account, can decide your own case; but I was given by my country to the Egyptians as a general. It would therefore be dishonourable for me to make war on those to whom I was sent as an ally, unless my country gives me a new command to do so.
37.5.1
After these words, he sent men to Sparta who were to denounce Tachos, and commend Nectanabis. Tachos and Nectanabis also sent and besought the support of the Lacedaemonians, the former on the ground that he had long been their ally and friend, the latter on the plea that he would be well disposed to their city and more eager to promote her interests. The Lacedaemonians, accordingly, after hearing the messengers, made public answer to the Egyptians that Agesilaüs would attend to these matters; but to Agesilaüs they wrote privately bidding him see to it that the interests of Sparta should not suffer.
37.6.1
So Agesilaüs took his mercenaries and went over from Tachos to Nectanabis, making the interests of his country serve as a veil for a strange and unnatural proceeding, since when this pretext was removed, the most fitting name for his act was treachery. But the Lacedaemonians assign the chief place in their ideas of honour to the interests of their country, and neither learn nor understand any other justice than that which they think will enhance the glory of Sparta.
38.1.1
Tachos, accordingly, thus deserted by his mercenaries, took to flight. But in Mendes another rival rose up against Nectanabis and was proclaimed king, and after collecting a hundred thousand men advanced against him. Then Nectanabis sought to encourage Agesilaüs by saying that although the enemy were numerous, they were a mixed rabble of artisans whose inexperience in war made them contemptible.
38.2.1
Indeed, said Agesilaüs, it is not their numbers that I fear, but the inexperience and ignorance of which you speak, which it is hard to overcome by stratagems. For stratagems array unexpected difficulties against men who try to defend themselves against them, if they suspect and await them; but he who does not await nor even suspect any stratagem gives no hold to the opponent who is trying to outwit him, just as, in a wrestling bout, he who does not stir gives no advantage to his antagonist. After this, the Mendesian also sent and tried to win over Agesilaüs.
38.3.1
Nectanabis was therefore alarmed, and when Agesilaüs urged him to fight the issue out as speedily as possible, and not to wage a war of delays against men who were inexperienced in fighting, but were numerous enough to surround him and hedge him in and anticipate and get the start of him in many ways, he grew still more suspicious and fearful of him, and retired into a city which was well fortified and had a large compass.
38.4.1
Agesilaüs was incensed at this lack of confidence, and full of indignation, but since he was ashamed to change sides again and finally go back home without accomplishing any thing, he accompanied Nectanabis and entered the city with him.
39.1.1
But when the enemy came up and began to surround the city with a trench, then the Egyptian changed his mind, grew fearful of the siege, and wished to give battle, for which the Greeks also were very eager, since there were no provisions in the place. Agesilaüs, however, would not permit it, but opposed it, and was therefore maligned by the Egyptians even more bitterly than before, and called a betrayer of the king. But he bore their calumnies more patiently now, and sought to find the fitting moment for his stratagem.
39.2.1
This was as follows. The enemy were digging a deep trench outside around the city, in order to shut its occupants up completely. Accordingly, when the trench had been carried almost around the city, and its ends were near one another, after waiting for evening to come and ordering the Greeks to arm themselves, Agesilaüs went to the Egyptian and said: Now is the time, young man, for us to save ourselves, and I would not speak of it until it came, for fear of vitiating it.
39.3.1
The enemy have now worked out our safety with their own hands. They have dug their trench so far that the part which is finished hinders them from attacking us in great numbers, and the space between the ends gives us room to fight them on fair and equal terms. Come, then, be eager to show yourself a brave man; follow with us as we charge, and save yourself and your army too.
39.4.1
For the enemy in our front will not withstand us, and the rest will not harm us because of the trench. Nectanabis, then, was filled with admiration for the sagacity of Agesilaüs, and putting himself in the centre of the Greek array, charged forwards and easily routed his opponents. And now that Agesilaüs had won back the confidence of Nectanabis, he brought the same stratagem to bear again upon the enemy, like a trick in wrestling.
39.5.1
By sometimes pretending to retreat and fly, and sometimes attacking them on the flanks, he drove their whole multitude into a tract which had a deep canal full of water on either side. The space between these he occupied and stopped up with the head of his column, and so made his numbers equal to those of the enemy who could fight with him, since they were unable to surround and enclose him. Therefore after a short resistance they were routed; many were slain, and the fugitives were dispersed and melted away.
40.1.1
After this, the Egyptian succeeded in establishing himself firmly and securely in power, and showed his friendliness and affection by begging Agesilaüs to remain and spend the winter with him. But Agesilaüs was eager to return to the war at home, knowing that his city needed money and was hiring mercenaries. He was therefore dismissed with great honour and ceremony, taking with him, besides other honours and gifts, two hundred and thirty talents of silver for the war at home.
40.2.1
But since it was now winter, he kept close to shore with his ships, and was borne along the coast of Libya to an uninhabited spot called the Harbour of Menelaüs. Here he died, at the age of eighty-four years. He had been king of Sparta forty-one years, and for more than thirty of these he was the greatest and most influential of all Hellenes, having been looked upon as leader and king of almost all Hellas, down to the battle of Leuctra.

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0007.tlg044.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.