                                      75 AD
                                   AGESILAUS
                                  485-401 B.C.
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden
AGESILAUS

  ARCHIDAMUS, the son of Zeuxidamus, having reigned gloriously over
the Lacedaemonians, left behind him two sons, Agis the elder, begotten
of Lampido, a noble lady, Agesilaus, much the younger, born of
Eupolia, the daughter of Melesippidas. Now the succession belonging to
Agis by law, Agesilaus, who in all probability was to be but a private
man, was educated according to the usual discipline of the country,
hard and severe, and meant to teach young men to obey their superiors.
Whence it was that, men say, Simonides called Sparta "the tamer of
men," because by early strictness of education they, more than any
nation, trained the citizens to obedience to the laws, and made them
tractable and patient of subjection, as horses that are broken in
while colts. The law did not impose this harsh rule on the heirs
apparent of the kingdom. But Agesilaus, whose good fortune it was to
be born a younger brother, was consequently bred to all the arts of
obedience, and so the better fitted for the government, when it fell
to his share; hence it was that he proved the most popular-tempered of
the Spartan kings, his early life having added to his natural kingly
and commanding qualities the gentle and humane feelings of a citizen.
  While he was yet a boy, bred up in one of what are called the
flocks, or classes, he attracted the attachment of Lysander, who was
particularly struck with the orderly temper that he manifested. For
though he was one of the highest spirits, emulous above any of his
companions, ambitious of pre-eminence in everything, and showed an
impetuosity and fervour of mind which irresistibly carried him through
all opposition or difficulty he could meet with; yet, on the other
side, he was so easy and gentle in his nature, and so apt to yield
to authority, that though he would do nothing on compulsion, upon
ingenuous motives he would obey any commands, and was more hurt by the
least rebuke or disgrace than he was distressed by any toil or
hardship.
  He had one leg shorter than the other, but this deformity was little
observed in the general beauty of his person in youth. And the easy
way in which he bore (he being the first always to pass a jest upon
himself) went far to make it disregarded. And indeed his high spirit
and eagerness to distinguish himself were all the more conspicuous
by it, since he never let his lameness withhold him from any toil or
any brave action. Neither his statue nor picture are extant, he
never allowing them in his life, and utterly forbidding them to be
made after his death. He is said to have been a little man, of a
contemptible presence; but the goodness of his humour, and his
constant cheerfulness and playfulness of temper, always free from
anything of moroseness or haughtiness, made him more attractive,
even to his old age, than the most beautiful and youthful men of the
nation. Theophrastus writes that the Ephors laid a fine upon
Archidamus for marrying a little wife, "For," said they, "she will
bring us a race of kinglets, instead of kings."
  Whilst Agis, the elder brother, reigned, Alcibiades, being then an
exile from Athens, came from Sicily to Sparta; nor had he stayed
long there before his familiarity with Timaea, the king's wife, grew
suspected, insomuch that Agis refused to own a child of hers, which,
he said, was Alcibiades's, not his. Nor, if we may believe Duris,
the historian, was Timaea much concerned at it, being herself
forward enough to whisper among her helot maid-servants that the
infant's true name was Alcibiades, not Leotychides. Meanwhile it was
believed that the amour he had with her was not the effect of his love
but of his ambition, that he might have Spartan kings of his
posterity. This affair being grown public, it became needful for
Alcibiades to withdraw from Sparta. But the child Leotychides had
not the honours due to a legitimate son paid him, nor was he ever
owned by Agis, till by his prayers and tears he prevailed with him
to declare him his son before several witnesses upon his deathbed. But
this did not avail to fix him in the throne of Agis, after whose death
Lysander, who had lately achieved his conquest of Athens by sea, and
was of the greatest power in Sparta, promoted Agesilaus, urging
Leotychides's bastardy as a bar to his pretensions. Many of the
other citizens, also, were favourable to Agesilaus, and zealously
joined his party, induced by the opinion they had of his merits, of
which they themselves had been spectators, in the time that he had
been bred up among them. But there was a man, named Diopithes, at
Sparta, who had a great knowledge of ancient oracles, and was
thought particularly skilful and clever in all points of religion
and divination. He alleged, that it was unlawful to make a lame man
king of Lacedaemon, citing in the debate the following oracle:-

        "Beware, great Sparta, lest there come of thee,
         Though sound thyself, an halting sovereignty:
         Troubles, both long and unexpected too,
         And storms of deadly warfare shall ensue."

But Lysander was not wanting with an evasion, alleging that if the
Spartans were really apprehensive of the oracle, they must have a care
of Leotychides; for it was not the limping foot of a king that the
gods cared about, but the purity of the Herculean family, into whose
rights, if a spurious issue were admitted, it would make the kingdom
to halt indeed, Agesilaus likewise alleged that the bastardy of
Leotychides was witnessed to by Neptune, who threw Agis out of bed
by a violent earthquake, after which time he ceased to visit his wife,
yet Leotychides was born above ten months after this.
  Agesilaus was upon these allegations declared king, and soon
possessed himself of the private estate of Agis, as well as his
throne, Leotychides being wholly rejected as a bastard. He now
turned his attention to his kindred by the mother's side, persons of
worth and virtue, but miserably poor. To them he gave half his
brother's estate, and by this popular act gained general good-will and
reputation, in the place of the envy and ill-feeling which the
inheritance might otherwise have procured him. What Xenophon tells
us of him, that by complying with, and, as it were, being ruled by his
country, he grew into such great power with them, that he could do
what he pleased, is meant to apply to the power he gained in the
following manner with the Ephors and Elders. These were at that time
of the greatest authority in the state; the former, officers
annually chosen; the Elders, holding their places during life; both
instituted, as already told in the life of Lycurgus, to restrain the
power of the kings. Hence it was that there was always from generation
to generation a feud and contention between them and the kings. But
Agesilaus took another course. Instead of contending with them, he
courted them in all proceedings he commenced by taking their advice,
was always ready to go, nay almost run, when they called him; if he
were upon his royal seat, hearing causes, and the Ephors came in, he
rose to them; whenever any man was elected into the Council of
Elders he presented him with a gown and an ox. Thus, whilst he made
a show of deference to them, and of a desire to extend their
authority, he secretly advanced his own, and enlarged the prerogatives
of the kings by several liberties which their friendship to his person
conceded.
  To other citizens he so behaved himself as to be less blamable in
his enmities than in his friendships; for against his enemy he forbore
to take any unjust advantage, but his friends he would assist, even in
what was unjust. If an enemy had done anything praiseworthy, he felt
it shameful to detract from his due, but his friends he knew not how
to reprove when they did ill, nay, he would eagerly join with them,
and assist them in their misdeed, and thought all offices of
friendship commendable, let the matter in which they were employed
be what it would. Again, when any of his adversaries was overtaken
in a fault, he would be the first to pity him; and he soon entreated
to procure his pardon, by which he won the hearts of all men. Insomuch
that his popularity grew at last suspected by the Ephors, who laid a
fine on him, professing that he was appropriating the citizens to
himself who ought to be the common property of the state. For as it is
the opinion of philosophers, that could you take away strife and
opposition out of the universe, all the heavenly bodies would stand
still, generation and motion would cease in the mutual concord and
agreement of all things, so the Spartan legislator seems to have
admitted ambition and emulation among the ingredients of his
commonwealth, as the incentives of virtue, distinctly wishing that
there should be some dispute and competition among his men of worth,
and pronouncing the mere idle, uncontested, mutual compliance to
unproved deserts to be but a false sort of concord. And some think
Homer had an eye to this when he introduces Agamemnon well pleased
with the quarrel arising between Ulysses and Achilles, and with the
"terrible words" that passed between them, which he would never have
done, unless he had thought emulation and dissensions between the
noblest men to be of great public benefit. Yet this maxim is not
simply to be granted, without restriction, for if animosities go too
far they are very dangerous to cities and of most pernicious
consequence.
  When Agesilaus was newly entered upon the government, there came
news from Asia that the Persian king was making great naval
preparations, resolving with a high hand to dispossess the Spartans of
their maritime supremacy. Lysander was eager for the opportunity of
going over and succouring his friends in Asia, whom he had there
left governors and masters of the cities, whose maladministration
and tyrannical behaviour was causing them to be driven out, and in
some cases put to death. He therefore persuaded Agesilaus to claim the
command of the expedition, and by carrying the war from Greece into
Persia, to anticipate the designs of the barbarian. He also wrote to
his friends in Asia, that by embassy they should demand Agesilaus
for their captain. Agesilaus, therefore, coming into the public
assembly, offered his service, upon condition that he might have
thirty Spartans for captains and counsellors; two thousand chosen
men of the newly enfranchised helots, and allies to the number of
six thousand. Lysander's authority and assistance soon obtained his
request, so that he was sent away with the thirty Spartans, of whom
Lysander was at once the chief, not only because of his power and
reputation, but also on account of his friendship with Agesilaus,
who esteemed his procuring him this charge a greater obligation than
that of preferring him to the kingdom.
  Whilst the army was collecting to the rendezvous at Geraestus,
Agesilaus went with some of his friends to Aulis, where in a dream
he saw a man approach him, and speak to him after this manner: "O king
of the Lacedaemonians, you cannot but know that, before yourself,
there hath been but one general captain of the whole of the Greeks,
namely, Agamemnon; now, since you succeed him in the same office and
command the same men, since you war against the same enemies, and
begin your expedition from the same place, you ought also to offer
such a sacrifice as he offered before he weighed anchor." Agesilaus at
the same moment remembered that the sacrifice which Agamemnon
offered was his own daughter, he being so directed by the oracle.
Yet was he not at all disturbed by it, but as soon as he arose, he
told his dream to his friends, adding that he would propitiate the
goddess with the sacrifices a goddess must delight in, and would not
follow the ignorant example of his predecessor. He therefore ordered
an hind to be crowned with chaplets, and bade his own soothsayer
perform the rite, not the usual person whom the Boeotians, in ordinary
course, appointed to that office. When the Boeotian magistrates
understood it, they were much offended, and sent officers to Agesilaus
to forbid his sacrificing contrary to the laws of the country.
These, having delivered their message to him, immediately went to
the altar and threw down the quarters of the hind that lay upon it.
Agesilaus took this very ill, and without further sacrifice
immediately sailed away, highly displeased with the Boeotians, and
much discouraged in his mind at the omen, boding to himself an
unsuccessful voyage and an imperfect issue of the whole expedition.
  When he came to Ephesus, he found the power and interest of
Lysander, and the honours paid to him, insufferably great; all
applications were made to him, crowds of suitors attended at his door,
and followed upon his steps, as if nothing but the mere name of
commander belonged, to satisfy the usage, to Agesilaus, the whole
power of it being devolved upon Lysander. None of all the commanders
that had been sent into Asia was either so powerful or so formidable
as he; no one had rewarded his friends better, or had been more severe
against his enemies; which things having been lately done, made the
greater impression on men's minds, especially when they compared the
simple and popular behaviour of Agesilaus with the harsh and violent
and brief-spoken demeanour which Lysander still retained. Universal
preference was yielded to this, and little regard shown to
Agesilaus. This first occasioned offence to the other Spartan
captains, who resented that they should rather seem the attendants
of Lysander, than the councillors of Agesilaus. And at length
Agesilaus himself, though not perhaps an envious man in his nature,
nor apt to be troubled at the honours redounding upon other men, yet
eager for honour and jealous of his glory, began to apprehend that
Lysander's greatness would carry away from him the reputation of
whatever great action should happen. He therefore went this way to
work. He first opposed him in all his counsels; whatever Lysander
specially advised was rejected, and other proposals followed. Then
whoever made any address to him, if he found him attached to Lysander,
certainly lost his suit. So also in judicial cases, any one whom he
spoke strongly against was sure to come off with success, and any
man whom he was particularly solicitous to procure some benefit for
might think it well if he got away without an actual loss.
  These things being clearly not done by chance, but constantly and of
a set purpose, Lysander was soon sensible of them, and hesitated not
to tell his friends, that they suffered for his sake, bidding them
apply themselves to the king, and such as were more powerful with
him than he was. Such sayings of his seeming to be designed
purposely to excite ill-feeling, Agesilaus went on to offer himself
a more open affront, appointing him his meat-carver, and would in
public companies, scornfully say, "Let them go now and pay their court
to my carver." Lysander, no longer able to brook these indignities,
complained at last to Agesilaus himself, telling him that he knew very
well how to humble his friends. Agesilaus answered, "I know
certainly how to humble those who pretend to more power than
myself." "That," replied Lysander, "is perhaps rather said by you,
than done by me: I desire only that you will assign me some office and
place in which I may serve you without incurring your displeasure."
  Upon this Agesilaus sent him to the Hellespont, whence he procured
Spithridates, a Persian of the province of Pharnabazus, to come to the
assistance of the Greeks with two hundred horse and a great supply
of money. Yet his anger did not so come down, but he thenceforward
pursued the design of wresting the kingdom out of the hands of the two
families which then enjoyed it, and making it wholly elective; and
it is thought that he would on account of his quarrel have excited a
great commotion in Sparta, if he had not died in the Boeotian war.
Thus ambitious spirits in a commonwealth, when they transgress their
bounds, are apt to do more harm than good. For though Lysander's pride
and assumption was most ill-timed and insufferable in its display, yet
Agesilaus surely could have found some other way of setting him right,
less offensive to a man of his reputation and ambitious temper. Indeed
they were both blinded with the same passion, so as one not to
recognize the authority of his superior, the other not to bear with
the imperfections of his friend.
  Tisaphernes, being at first afraid of Agesilaus, treated with him
about setting the Grecian cities at liberty, which was agreed on.
But soon after finding a sufficient force drawn together, he
resolved upon war, for which Agesilaus was not sorry. For the
expectation of this expedition was great, and he did not think it
for his honour that Xenophon with ten thousand men should march
through the heart of Asia to the sea, beating the Persian forces
when and how he pleased, and that he at the head of the Spartans, then
sovereigns both at sea and land, should not achieve some memorable
action for Greece. And so to be even with Tisaphernes, he requites his
perjury by a fair stratagem. He pretends to march into Caria, whither,
when he has drawn Tisaphernes and his army, he suddenly turns back,
and falls upon Phrygia, takes many of their cities, and carries away
great booty, showing his allies that to break a solemn league was a
downright contempt of the gods, but the circumvention of an enemy in
war was not only just but glorious, a gratification at once and an
advantage.
  Being weak in horse, and discouraged by ill-omens in the sacrifices,
he retired to Ephesus, and there raised cavalry. He obliged the rich
men, that were not inclined to serve in person, to find each of them a
horseman armed and mounted, and there being many who preferred doing
this, the army was quickly reinforced by a body, not of unwilling
recruits for the infantry, but of brave and numerous horsemen. For
those that were not good at fighting themselves hired such as were
more military in their inclinations, and such as loved not
horse-service substituted in their places such as did. Agamemnon's
example had been a good one, when he took the present of an
excellent mare to dismiss a rich coward from the army.
  When by Agesilaus's order the prisoners he had taken in Phrygia were
exposed to sale, they were first stripped of their garments and then
sold naked. The clothes found many customers to buy them, but the
bodies being, from the want of all exposure and exercise, white and
tender-skinned, were derided and scorned as unserviceable,
Agesilaus, who stood by at the auction, told his Greeks, "These are
the men against whom ye fight, and these the things you will gain by
it."
  The season of the year being come, he boldly gave out that he
would invade Lydia; and this plain dealing of his was now mistaken for
a stratagem by Tisaphernes, who by not believing Agesilaus, having
been already deceived by him, overreached himself. He expected that he
should have made choice of Caria, as a rough country, not fit for
horse, in which he deemed Agesilaus to be weak, and directed his own
marches accordingly. But when he found him to be as good as his
word, and to have entered into the country of Sardis, he made great
haste after him, and by great marches of his horse, overtaking the
loose stragglers who were pillaging the country, he cut them off.
Agesilaus meanwhile, considering that the horse had outridden the
foot, but that he himself had the whole body of his own army entire,
made haste to engage them. He mingled his light-armed foot, carrying
targets, with the horse, commanding them to advance at full speed
and begin the battle, whilst he brought up the heavier-armed men in
the rear. The success was answerable to the design; the barbarians
were put to the rout, the Grecians pursued hard, took their camp,
and put many of them to the sword. The consequence of this victory was
very great; for they had not only the liberty of foraging the
Persian country, and plundering at pleasure, but also saw
Tisaphernes pay dearly for all the cruelty he had showed the Greeks,
to whom he was a professed enemy. For the King of Persia sent
Tithraustes, who took off his head, and presently dealt with Agesilaus
about his return into Greece, sending to him ambassadors to that
purpose with commission to offer him great sums of money.
Agesilaus's answer was that the making of peace belonged to the
Lacedaemonians, not to him; as for wealth, he had rather see it in his
soldiers' hands than his own; that the Grecians thought it not
honourable to enrich themselves with the bribes of their enemies,
but with their spoils only. Yet, that he might gratify Tithraustes for
the justice he had done upon Tisaphernes, the common enemy of the
Greeks, he removed his quarters into Phrygia, accepting thirty talents
for his expenses. Whilst he was upon his march, he received a staff
from the government at Sparta, appointing him admiral as well as
general. This was an honour which was never done to any but Agesilaus,
who being now undoubtedly the greatest and most illustrious man of his
time, still, as Theopompus had said, gave himself more occasion of
glory in his own virtue and merit than was given him in this authority
and power. Yet he committed a fault in preferring Pisander to the
command of the navy, when there were others at hand both older and
more experienced; in this not so much consulting the public good as
the gratification of his kindred, and especially his wife, whose
brother Pisander was.
  Having removed his camp into Pharnabazus's province, he not only met
with great plenty of provisions, but also raised great sums of
money, and marching on to the bounds of Paphlagonia, he soon drew
Cotys, the king of it, into a league, to which he of his own accord
inclined, out of the opinion he had of Agesilaus's honour and
virtue. Spithridates, from the time of his abandoning Pharnabazus,
constantly attended Agesilaus in the camp whithersoever he went.
This Spithridates had a son, a very handsome boy, called Megabates, of
whom Agesilaus was extremely fond, and also a very beautiful
daughter that was marriageable. Her Agesilaus matched to Cotys, and
taking of him a thousand horse, with two thousand light-armed foot, he
returned into Phrygia, and there pillaged the country of
Pharnabazus, who durst not meet him in the field, nor yet trust to his
garrisons, but getting his valuables together, got out of the way
and moved about up and down with a flying army, till Spithridates,
joining with Herippidas the Spartan, took his camp and all his
property. Herippidas being too severe an inquirer into the plunder
with which the barbarian soldiers had enriched themselves, and forcing
them to deliver it up with too much strictness, so disobliged
Spithridates with his questioning and examining that he changed
sides again, and went off with the Paphlagonians to Sardis. This was a
very great vexation to Agesilaus, not only that he had lost the
friendship of a gallant commander, and with him a considerable part of
his army, but still more that it had been done with the disrepute of a
sordid and petty covetousness, of which he always had made it a
point of honour to keep both himself and his country clear. Besides
these public causes, he had a private one, his excessive fondness
for the son, which touched him to the quick, though he endeavoured
to master it, and, especially in presence of the boy, to suppress
all appearance of it; so much so that when Megabates, for that was his
name, came once to receive a kiss from him, he declined it. At
which, when the young boy blushed and drew back, and afterward saluted
him at a more reserved distance, Agesilaus soon repenting his
coldness, and changing his mind, pretended to wonder why he did not
salute him with the same familiarity as formerly. His friends about
him answered, "You are in the fault, who would not accept the kiss
of the boy, but turned away in alarm; he would come to you again if
you would have the courage to let him do so." Upon this Agesilaus
paused a while, and at length answered, "You need not encourage him to
it; I think I had rather be master of myself in that refusal, than see
all things that are now before my eyes turned into gold." Thus he
demeaned himself to Megabates when present, but he had so great a
passion for him in his absence, that it may be questioned whether,
if the boy had returned again, all the courage he had would have
sustained him in such another refusal.
  After this Pharnabazus sought an opportunity of conferring with
Agesilaus, which Apollophanes of Cyzicus, the common host of them
both, procured for him. Agesilaus coming first to the appointed place,
threw himself down upon the grass under a tree, lying there in
expectation of Pharnabazus, who, bringing with him soft skins and
wrought carpets to lie down upon, when he saw Agesilaus's posture,
grew ashamed of his luxuries, and made no use of them, but laid
himself down upon the grass also, without regard for his delicate
and richly dyed clothing. Pharnabazus had matter enough of complaint
against Agesilaus, and therefore, after the mutual civilities were
over, he put him in mind of the great services he had done the
Lacedaemonians in the Attic war, of which he thought it an ill
recompense to have his country thus harassed and spoiled by those
men who owed so much to him. The Spartans that were present hung
down their heads, as conscious of the wrong they had done to their
ally. But Agesilaus said, "We, O Pharnabazus, when we were in amity
with your master the king, behaved ourselves like friends, and now
that we are at war with him, we behave ourselves as enemies. As for
you, we must look upon you as a part of his property, and must do
these outrages upon you, not intending the harm to you, but to him
whom we wound through you. But whenever you will choose rather to be a
friend to the Grecians than a slave of the King of Persia, you may
then reckon this army and navy to be all at your command, to defend
both you, your country, and your liberties, without which there is
nothing honourable or indeed desirable among men." Upon this
Pharnabazus discovered his mind, and answered, "If the king sends
another governor in my room, I will certainly come over to you, but as
long as he trusts me with the government I shall be just to him, and
not fail to do my utmost endeavours in opposing you." Agesilaus was
taken with the answer and shook hands with him; and rising, said, "How
much rather had I have so brave a man my friend than my enemy."
  Pharnabazus being gone off, his son staying behind, ran up to
Agesilaus, and smilingly said, "Agesilaus, I make you my guest;" and
thereupon presented him with a javelin which he had in his hand.
Agesilaus received it, and being much taken with the good mien and
courtesy of the youth, looked about to see if there were anything in
his train fit to offer him in return; and observing the horse of
Idaeus, the secretary, to have very fine trappings on, he took them
off, and bestowed them upon the young gentleman. Nor did his
kindness rest there, but he continued ever after to be mindful of him,
so that when he was driven out of his country by his brothers, and
lived in exile in Peloponnesus, he took great care of him and
condescended even to assist him in some love matters. He had an
attachment for a youth of Athenian birth, who was bred up as an
athlete; and when at the Olympic games this boy, on account of his
great size and general strong and full-grown appearance, was in some
danger of not being admitted into the list, the Persian betook himself
to Agesilaus, and made use of his friendship. Agesilaus readily
assisted him, and not without a great deal of difficulty effected
his desires. He was in all other things a man of great and exact
justice, but when the case concerned a friend, to be strait-laced in
point of justice, he said, was only a colourable pretence of denying
him. There is an epistle written to Idrieus, Prince of Caria, that
is ascribed to Agesilaus; it is this: "If Nicias be innocent,
absolve him; if he be guilty, absolve him upon my account; however, be
sure to absolve him." This was his usual character in his deportment
towards his friends. Yet his rule was not without exception; for
sometimes he considered the necessity of his affairs more than his
friend, of which he once gave an example, when upon a sudden and
disorderly removal of his camp, he left a sick friend behind him,
and when he called loudly after him, and implored his help, turned his
back, and said it was hard to be compassionate and wise too. This
story is related by Hieronymus, the philosopher.
  Another year of the war being spent, Agesilaus's fame still
increased, insomuch that the Persian king received daily information
concerning his many virtues, and the great esteem the world had of his
temperance, his plain living, and his moderation. When he made any
journey, he would usually take up his lodging in a temple, and there
make the gods witnesses of his most private actions, which others
would scarce permit men to be acquainted with. In so great an army you
should scarce find a common soldier lie on a coarser mattress than
Agesilaus: he was so indifferent to the varieties of heat and cold
that all the seasons, as the gods sent them, seemed natural to him.
The Greeks that inhabited Asia were much pleased to see the great
lords and governors of Persia, with all the pride, cruelty, and luxury
in which they lived, trembling and bowing before a man in a poor
threadbare cloak, and, at one laconic word out of his mouth,
obsequiously deferring and changing their wishes and purposes. So that
it brought to the minds of many the verses of Timotheus-

        "Mars is the tyrant, gold Greece does not fear."

  Many parts of Asia now revolting from the Persians, Agesilaus
restored order in the cities, and without bloodshed or banishment of
any of their members re-established the proper constitution in the
governments, and now resolved to carry away the war from the
seaside, and to march further up into the country, and to attack the
King of Persia himself in his own home in Susa and Ecbatana; not
willing to let the monarch sit idle in his chair, playing umpire in
the conflicts of the Greeks, and bribing their popular leaders. But
these great thoughts were interrupted by unhappy news from Sparta;
Epicydidas is from thence sent to remand him home, to assist his own
country, which was then involved in a great war:-

        "Greece to herself doth a barbarian grow,
         Others could not, she doth herself o'erthrow."

What better can we say of those jealousies, and that league and
conspiracy of the Greeks for their own mischief, which arrested
fortune in full career, and turned back arms that were already
uplifted against the barbarians, to be used upon themselves, and
recalled into Greece the war which had been banished out of her? I
by no means assent to Demaratus of Corinth, who said that those Greeks
lost a great satisfaction that did not live to see Alexander sit in
the throne of Darius. That sight should rather have drawn tears from
them, when they considered that they had left that glory to
Alexander and the Macedonians, whilst they spent all their own great
commanders in playing them against each other in the fields of
Leuctra, Coronea, Corinth, and Arcadia.
  Nothing was greater or nobler than the behaviour of Agesilaus on
this occasion, nor can a nobler instance be found in story of a
ready obedience and just deference to orders. Hannibal, though in a
bad condition himself and, almost driven out of Italy, could
scarcely be induced to obey when he was called home to serve his
country. Alexander made a jest of the battle between Agis and
Antipater, laughing and saying, "So, whilst we were conquering
Darius in Asia, it seems there was a battle of mice in Arcadia." Happy
Sparta, meanwhile, in the justice and modesty of Agesilaus, and in the
deference he paid to the laws of his country; who, immediately upon
receipt of his orders, though in the midst of his high fortune and
power, and in full hope of great and glorious success, gave all up and
instantly departed, "his object unachieved," leaving many regrets
behind him among his allies in Asia, and proving by his example the
falseness of that saying of Demostratus. the son of Phaeax, "That
the Lacedaemonians were better in public, but the Athenians in
private." For while approving himself an excellent king and general,
he likewise showed himself in private an excellent friend and a most
agreeable companion.
  The coin of Persia was stamped with the figure of an archer;
Agesilaus said, That a thousand Persian archers had driven him out
of Asia meaning, the money that had been laid out in bribing the
demagogues and the orators in Thebes and Athens, and thus inciting
those two states to hostility against Sparta.
  Having passed the Hellespont, he marched by land through Thrace, not
begging or entreating a passage anywhere, only he sent his
messengers to them to demand whether they would have him pass as a
friend or as an enemy. All the rest received him as a friend, and
assisted him on his journey. But the Trallians, to whom Xerxes is also
said to have given money, demanded a price of him, namely, one hundred
talents of silver and one hundred women. Agesilaus in scorn asked, Why
they were not ready to receive them? He marched on, and finding the
Trallians in arms to oppose him, fought them, and slew great numbers
of them. He sent the like embassy to the King of Macedonia, who
replied, He would take time to deliberate. "Let him deliberate,"
said Agesilaus, "we will go forward in the meantime." The
Macedonian, being surprised and daunted the resolution of the Spartan,
gave orders to let him pass as a friend.
  When he came into Thessaly he wasted the country, because they
were in league with the enemy. To Larissa, the chief city of Thessaly,
he sent Xenocles and Scythes to treat of a peace, whom when the
Larissaeans had laid hold of, and put into custody, others were
enraged, and advised siege of the town; but he answered, That he
valued either of those men at more than the whole country of Thessaly.
He therefore made terms with them, and received his men again upon
composition. Nor need wonder at this saying of Agesilaus, since when
he had news brought him from Sparta, of several great captains in a
battle near Corinth, in which the slaughter fell upon other Greeks,
and the Lacedaemonians obtained a great victory with small loss, he
did not appear at all satisfied; but with a great sigh cried out, "O
Greece, how many brave men hast thou destroyed; who, if they had
been preserved to so good an use, had sufficed to have conquered all
Persia!" Yet when the Pharsalians grew troublesome to him, by pressing
upon his army and incommoding his passage, he led out five hundred
horse, and in person fought and routed them, setting up a trophy under
the mount Narthacius. He valued himself very much upon that victory,
that with so small a number of his own training, he had vanquished a
body of men that thought themselves the best horsemen of Greece.
  Here Diphridas, the Ephor, met him, and delivered his message from
Sparta, which ordered him immediately to make an inroad into
Boeotia; and though he thought this fitter to have been done at
another time, and with greater force, he yet obeyed the magistrates.
He thereupon told his soldiers that the day had come on which they
were to enter upon that employment for the performance of which they
were brought out of Asia. He sent for two divisions of the army near
Corinth to his assistance. The Lacedaemonians at home, in honour to
him, made proclamations for volunteers that would serve under the king
to come in and be enlisted. Finding all the young men in the city
ready to offer themselves, they chose fifty of the strongest, and sent
them.
  Agesilaus having gained Thermopylae, and passed quietly through
Phocis, as soon as he had entered Boeotia, and pitched his camp near
Chaeronea, at once met with an eclipse of the sun, and with ill news
from the navy, Pisander, the Spartan admiral, being beaten and slain
at Cnidos by Pharnabazus and Conon. He was much moved at it, both upon
his own and the public account. Yet lest his army, being now near
engaging, should meet with any discouragement, he ordered the
messengers to give out that the Spartans were the conquerors, and he
himself putting on garland, solemnly sacrificed for the good news, and
sent portions of the sacrifices to his friends.
  When he came near to Coronea, and was within view of the enemy, he
drew up his army, and giving the left wing to the Orchomenians, he
himself led the right. The Thebans took the right wing of their
army, leaving the left to the Argives. Xenophon, who was present,
and fought on Agesilaus's side, reports it to be the hardest-fought
battle that he had seen. The beginning of it was not so, for the
Thebans soon put the Orchomenians to rout, as also did Agesilaus the
Argives. But both parties having news of the misfortune of their
left wings, they betook themselves to their relief. Here Agesilaus
might have been sure of his victory had he contented himself not to
charge them in the front, but in the flank or rear; but being angry
and heated in the fight he would not wait the opportunity, but fell on
at once, thinking to bear them down before him. The Thebans were not
behind him in courage, so that the battle was fiercely carried on on
both sides, especially near Agesilaus's person, whose new guard of
fifty volunteers stood him in great stead that day, and saved his
life. They fought with great valour, and interposed their bodies
frequently between him and danger, yet could they not so preserve him,
but that he received many wounds through his armour with lances and
swords, and was with much difficulty gotten off alive by their
making a ring about him, and so guarding him, with the slaughter of
many of the enemy, and the loss of many of their own number. At
length, finding it too hard a task to break the front of the Theban
troops, they opened their own files, and let the enemy march through
them (an artifice which in the beginning they scorned), watching in
the meantime the posture of the enemy, who, having passed through,
grew careless, as esteeming themselves past danger, in which
position they were immediately set upon by the Spartans. Yet were they
not then put to rout, but marched on to Helicon, proud of what they
had done, being able to say that they themselves, as to their part
of the army, were not worsted.
  Agesilaus, sore wounded as he was, would not be borne to his tent
till he had been first carried about the field, and had seen the
dead conveyed within his encampment. As many of his enemies as had
taken sanctuary in the temple he dismissed. For there stood near the
battlefield the temple of Minerva the Itonian, and before it a
trophy erected by the Boeotians, for or victory which, under the
conduct of Sparton, their general, they obtained over the Athenians
under Tolmides, who himself fell in the battle. Next morning early, to
make trial of the Theban courage, whether they had any mind to a
second encounter, he commanded his soldiers to put on garlands on
their heads, and play with their flutes, and raise a trophy before
their faces; but when they, instead of fighting, sent for leave to
bury their dead, he gave it them; and having so assured himself of the
victory, after this he went to Delphi, to the Pythian games, which
were then celebrating, at which feast he assisted, and there
solemnly offered the tenth part of the spoils he had brought from
Asia, which amounted to a hundred talents.
  Thence he returned to his own country, where his way and habits of
life quickly excited the affection and admiration of the Spartans;
for, unlike other generals, he came home from foreign lands the same
man that he went out, having not so learned the fashions of other
countries, as to forget his own, much less to dislike or despise them.
He followed and respected all the Spartan customs, without any
change either in the manner of his supping, or bathing, or his
wife's apparel, as if he had never travelled over the river Eurotas.
So also with his household furniture and his own armour, nay, the very
gates of his house were so old that they might well be thought of
Aristodemus's setting up. His daughter's Canathrum, says Xenophon, was
no richer than that of any one else. The Canathrum, as they call it,
is a chair or chariot made of wood, in the shape of a griffin, or
tragelaphus, on which the children and young virgins are carried in
processions. Xenophon has not left us the name of this daughter of
Agesilaus; and Dicaearchus expresses some indignation, because we do
not know, he says, the name of Agesilaus's daughter, nor of
Epaminondas's mother. But in the records of Laconia, we ourselves
found his wife's name to have been Cleora, and his two daughters to
have been called Eupolia and Prolyta. And you may also to this day see
Agesilaus's spear kept in Sparta, nothing differing from that of other
men.
  there was a vanity he observed among the Spartans, about keeping
running horses for the Olympic games, upon which he found they much
valued themselves. Agesilaus regarded it as a display not of any
real virtue, but of wealth and expense; and to make this evident to
the Greeks, induced his sister, Cynisca, to send a chariot into the
course. He kept with him Xenophon, the philosopher, and made much of
him, and proposed to him to send for his children, and educate them at
Sparta, where they would be taught the best of all learning; how to
obey, and how to command. Finding on Lysander's death a large
faction formed, which he on his return from Asia had established
against Agesilaus, he thought it advisable to expose both him and
it, by showing what manner of a citizen he had been whilst he lived.
To that end, finding among his writings an oration, composed by
Cleon the Halicarnassean, but to have been spoken by Lysander in a
public assembly, to excite the people to innovations and changes in
the government, he resolved to publish it as an evidence of Lysander's
practices. But one of the Elders having the perusal of it, and finding
it powerfully written, advised him to have a care of digging up
Lysander again, and rather bury that oration in the grave with him;
and this advice he wisely hearkened to, and hushed the whole thing
up and ever after forbore publicly to affront any of his
adversaries, but took occasions of picking out the ringleaders, and
sending them away upon foreign services. He thus had means for
exposing the avarice and the injustice of many of them in their
employments; and again when they were by others brought into question,
he made it his business to bring them off, obliging them, by that
means, of enemies to become his friends, and so by degrees left none
remaining.
  Agesipolis, his fellow-king, was under the disadvantage of being
born of an exiled father, and himself young, modest, and inactive,
meddled not much in affairs. Agesilaus took a course of gaining him
over and making him entirely tractable. According to the custom of
Sparta, the kings, if they were in town, always dined together. This
was Agesilaus's opportunity of dealing with Agesipolis, whom he
found quick, as he himself was, in forming attachments for young
men, and accordingly talked with him always on such subjects,
joining and aiding him, and acting as his confidant, such
attachments in Sparta being entirely honourable, and attended always
with lively feelings of modesty, love of virtue, and a noble
emulation; of which more is said in Lycurgus's life.
  Having thus established his power in the city, he easily obtained
that his half-brother Teleutias might be chosen admiral, and thereupon
making an expedition against the Corinthians, he made himself master
of the long walls by land, through the assistance of his brother at
sea. Coming thus upon the Argives, who then held Corinth, in the midst
of their Isthmian festival, he made them fly from the sacrifice they
had just commenced, and leave all their festive provision behind them.
The exiled Corinthians that were in the Spartan army desired him to
keep the feast, and to preside in the celebration of it. This he
refused, but gave them leave to carry on the solemnity if they
pleased, and he in the meantime stayed and guarded them.
  When Agesilaus marched off, the Argives returned and celebrated
the games over again, when some who were victors before became victors
a second time; others lost the prizes which before they had gained.
Agesilaus thus made it clear to everybody that the Argives must in
their own eyes have been guilty of great cowardice since they set such
a value on presiding at the games, and yet had not dared to fight
for it. He himself was of opinion that to keep a mean in such things
was best; he assisted at the sports and dances usual in his own
country, and was always ready and eager to be present at the exercises
either of the young men or of the girls, but things that many men used
to be highly taken with he seemed not at all concerned about.
Callippides, the tragic actor, who had a great name in all Greece
and was made much of once met and saluted him; of which when he
found no notice taken, he confidently thrust himself into his train,
expecting that Agesilaus would pay him some attention. When all that
failed, he boldly accosted him, and asked him whether he did not
remember him? Agesilaus turned, and looking him in the face, "Are
you not," said he, "Callippides the showman?" Being invited once to
hear a man who admirably imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying
he had heard the nightingale itself. Menecrates, the physician, having
had great success in some desperate diseases, was by way of flattery
called Jupiter; he was so vain as to take the name, and having
occasion to write a letter to Agesilaus, thus addressed it: "Jupiter
Menecrates to King Agesilaus, greeting." The king returned answer:
"Agesilaus to Menecrates, health and a sound mind."
  Whilst Agesilaus was in the Corinthian territories, having just
taken the Heraeum, he was looking on while his soldiers were
carrying away the prisoners and the plunder, when ambassadors from
Thebes came to him to treat of peace. Having a great aversion for that
city, and thinking it then advantageous to his affairs publicly to
slight them, he took the opportunity, and would not seem either to see
them or hear them speak. But as if on purpose to punish him in his
pride, before they parted from him, messengers came with news of the
complete slaughter of one of the Spartan divisions by Iphicrates, a
greater disaster than had befallen them for many years, and that the
more grievous because it was a choice regiment of full-armed
Lacedaemonians overthrown by a parcel of mere mercenary targeteers.
Agesilaus leapt from his seat, to go at once to their rescue, but
found it too late, the business being over. He therefore returned to
the Heraeum and sent for the Theban ambassadors to give them audience.
They now resolved to be even with him for the affront he gave them,
and without speaking one word of the peace, only desired leave to go
into Corinth. Agesilaus, irritated with this proposal, told them in
scorn, that if they were anxious to go and see how proud their friends
were of their success they should do it to-morrow with safety. Next
morning, taking the ambassadors with him, he ravaged the Corinthian
territories, up to the very gates of the city, where, having made a
stand, and let the ambassadors see that the Corinthians durst not come
out to defend themselves, he dismissed them. Then gathering up the
small remainders of the shattered regiment, he marched homewards,
always removing his camp before day, and always pitching his tents
after night, that he might prevent their enemies among the Arcadians
from taking any opportunity of insulting over their loss.
  After this, at the request of the Achaeans, he marched with them
into Acarnania, and there collected great spoils, and defeated the
Acarnanians in battle. The Achaeans would have persuaded him to keep
his winter quarters there, to hinder the Acarnanians from sowing their
corn; but he was of the contrary opinion, alleging that they would
be more afraid of a war next summer, when their fields were sown, than
they would be if they lay fallow. The event justified his opinion; for
next summer, when the Achaeans began their expedition again, the
Acarnanians immediately made peace with them.
  When Conon and Pharnabazus with the Persian navy were grown
masters of the sea, and had not only infested the coast of Laconia,
but also rebuilt the walls of Athens at the cost of Pharnabazus, the
Lacedaemonians thought fit to treat of peace with the King of
Persia. To that end, they sent Antalcidas to Tiribazus, basely and
wickedly betraying the Asiatic Greeks, on whose behalf Agesilaus had
made the war. But no part of this dishonour fell upon Agesilaus, the
whole being transacted by Antalcidas, who was his bitter enemy, and
was urgent for peace upon any terms, because war was sure to
increase his power and reputation. Nevertheless, once being told by
way of reproach that the Lacedaemonians had gone over to the Medes, he
replied, "No, the Medes had come over to the Lacedaemonians." And when
the Greeks were backward to submit to the agreement, he threatened
them with war, unless they fulfilled the King of Persia's
conditions, his particular end in this being to weaken the Thebans;
for it was made one of the articles of peace that the country of
Boeotia should be left independent. This feeling of his to Thebes
appeared further afterwards, when Phoebidas, in full peace, most
unjustifiably seized upon the Cadmea. The thing was much resented by
all Greece, and not well liked by the Lacedaemonians themselves; those
especially who were enemies to Agesilaus required an account of the
action, and by whose authority it was done, laying the suspicion of it
at his door. Agesilaus resolutely answered, on the behalf of
Phoebidas, that the profitableness of the act was chiefly to be
considered; if it were for the advantage of the commonwealth, it was
no matter whether it were done with or without authority. This was the
more remarkable in him, because in his ordinary language he was always
observed to be a great maintainer of justice, and would commend it
as the chief of virtues, saying, that valour without justice was
useless, and if all the world were just, there would be no need of
valour. When any would say to him, the Great King will have it so,
he would reply, "How is he greater than I, unless he be juster?" nobly
and rightly taking, as a sort of royal measure of greatness, justice
and not force. And thus when, on the conclusion of the peace, the King
of Persia wrote to Agesilaus, desiring a private friendship and
relations of hospitality, he refused it, saying that the public
friendship was enough; whilst that lasted there was no need of
private. Yet in his acts he was not constant to his doctrine, but
sometimes out of ambition, and sometimes out of private pique, he
let himself be carried away; and particularly in this case of the
Thebans, he not only saved Phoebidas, but persuaded the Lacedaemonians
to take the fault upon themselves, and to retain the Cadmea, putting a
garrison into it, and to put the government of Thebes into the hands
of Archias and Leontidas, who had been betrayers of the castle to
them.
  This excited strong suspicion that what Phoebidas did was by
Agesilaus's order, which was corroborated by after-occurrences. For
when the Thebans had expelled the garrison, and asserted their
liberty, he, accusing them of the murder of Archias and Leontidas, who
indeed were tyrants, though in name holding the office of
Polemarchs, made war upon them. He sent Cleombrotus on that errand,
who was now his fellow-king, in the place of Agesipolis, who was dead,
excusing himself by reason of his age for it was forty years since
he had first borne arms, and he was consequently exempt by the law;
meanwhile the true reason was, that he was ashamed, having so lately
fought against tyranny in behalf of the Phliasians, to fight now in
defence of a tyranny against the Thebans.
  One Sphodrias, of Lacedaemon, of the contrary faction to
Agesilaus, was governor in Thespiae, a bold and enterprising man,
though he had perhaps more of confidence than wisdom. This action of
Phoebidas fired him, and incited his ambition to attempt some great
enterprise, which might render him as famous as he perceived the
taking of the Cadmea had made Phoebidas. He thought the sudden capture
of the Piraeus, and the cutting off thereby the Athenians from the
sea, would be a matter of far more glory. It is said, too, that
Pelopidas and Melon, the chief captains of Boeotia, put him upon it;
that they privately sent men to him, pretending to be of the Spartan
faction, who, highly commending Sphodrias, filled him with a great
opinion of himself, protesting him to be the only man in the world
that was fit for so great an enterprise. Being thus stimulated, he
could hold no longer, but hurried into an attempt as dishonourable and
treacherous as that of the Cadmea, but executed with less valour and
less success; for the day broke whilst he was yet in the Thriasian
plain, whereas he designed the whole exploit to have been done in
the night. As soon as the soldiers perceived the rays of light
reflecting from the temples of Eleusis, upon the first rising of the
sun, it is said that their hearts failed them; nay, he himself, when
he saw that he could not have the benefit of the night, had not
courage enough to go on with his enterprise; but having pillaged the
country, he returned with shame to Thespiae. An embassy was upon
this sent from Athens to Sparta, to complain of the breach of peace;
but the ambassadors found their journey needless, Sphodrias being then
under process by the magistrates of Sparta. Sphodrias durst not stay
to expect judgment, which he found would be capital, the city being
highly incensed against him, out of the shame they felt at the
business, and their desire to appear in the eyes of the Athenians as
fellow-sufferers in the wrong, rather than accomplices in its being
done.
  This Sphodrias had a son of great beauty named Cleonymus, to whom
Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, was extremely attached.
Archidamus, as became him, was concerned for the danger of his
friend's father, but yet he durst not do anything openly for his
assistance, he being one of the professed enemies of Agesilaus. But
Cleonymus having solicited him with tears about it, as knowing
Agesilaus to be of all his father's enemies the most formidable, the
young man for two or three days followed after his father with such
fear and confusion that he durst not speak to him. At last, the day of
sentence being at hand, he ventured to tell him that Cleonymus had
entreated him to intercede for his father. Agesilaus, though well
aware of the love between the two young men, yet did not prohibit
it, because Cleonymus from his earliest years had been looked upon
as a youth of very great promise; yet he gave not his son any kind
or hopeful answer in the case, but coldly told him that he would
consider what he could honestly and honourably do in it, and so
dismissed him. Archidamus being ashamed of his want of success,
forbore the company of Cleonymus, whom he usually saw several times
every day. This made the friends of Sphodrias to think his case
desperate, till Etymocles, one of Agesilaus's friends, discovered to
them the king's mind; namely, that he abhorred the fact, but yet he
thought Sphodrias a gallant man such as the commonwealth much wanted
at that time. For Agesilaus used to talk thus concerning the cause,
out of a desire to gratify his son. And now Cleonymus quickly
understood that Archidamus had been true to him, in using all his
interests with his father; and Sphodrias's friend ventured to be
forward in his defence. The truth is, that Agesilaus was excessively
fond of his children; and it is to him the story belongs, that when
they were little ones, he used to make a horse of a stick, and ride
with them; and being caught at this sport by a friend, he desired
him not to mention it till he himself were the father of children.
  Meanwhile, Sphodrias being acquitted, the Athenians betook
themselves to arms, and Agesilaus fell into disgrace with the
people; since to gratify the whims of a boy he had been willing to
pervert justice, and make the city accessory to the crimes of
private men, whose most unjustifiable actions had broken the peace
of Greece. He also found his colleague, Cleombrotus, little inclined
to the Theban war; so that it became necessary for him to waive the
privilege of his age, which he before had claimed, and to lead the
army himself into Boeotia; which he did with variety of success,
sometimes conquering, and sometimes conquered; insomuch that receiving
a wound in a battle, he was reproached by Antalcidas, that the Thebans
had paid him well for the lessons he had given them in fighting.
And, indeed, they were now grown far better soldiers than ever they
had been, being so continually kept in training by the frequency of
the Lacedaemonian expeditions against them. Out of the foresight of
which it was that anciently Lycurgus, in three several laws, forbade
them to make any wars with the same nation, as this would be to
instruct their enemies in the art of it. Meanwhile, the allies of
Sparta were not a little discontented at Agesilaus, because this war
was commenced not upon any fair public ground of quarrel, but merely
out of his private hatred to the Thebans; and they complained with
indignation that they, being the majority of the army, should from
year to year be thus exposed to danger and hardship here and there, at
the will of a few persons. It was at this time, we are told, that
Agesilaus, to obviate the objection, devised this expedient, to show
the allies were not the greater number. He gave orders that all the
allies, of whatever country, should sit down promiscuously on one
side, and all the Lacedaemonians on the other: which being done, he
commanded a herald to proclaim, that all the potters of both divisions
should stand out; then all the blacksmiths; then all the masons;
next the carpenters; and so he went through all the handicrafts. By
this time almost all the allies were risen, but of the
Lacedaemonians not a man, they being by law forbidden to learn any
mechanical business; and now Agesilaus laughed and said, "You see my
friends, how many more soldiers we send out than you do."
  When he brought back his army from Boeotia through Megara, as he was
going up to the magistrate's office in the Acropolis, he was
suddenly seized with pain and cramp in his sound leg, and great
swelling and inflammation ensued. He was treated by a Syracusan
physician, who let him blood below the ankle; this soon eased his
pain, but then the blood could not be stopped, till the loss of it
brought on fainting and swooning; at length, with much trouble, he
stopped it. Agesilaus was carried home to Sparta in a very weak
condition, and did not recover strength enough to appear in the
field for a long time after.
  Meanwhile, the Spartan fortune was but ill; they received many
losses both by sea and land; but the greatest was that at Tegyrae,
when for the first time they were beaten by the Thebans in a set
battle.
  All the Greeks were, accordingly, disposed to a general peace, and
to that end ambassadors came to Sparta. Among these was Epaminondas,
the Theban, famous at that time for his philosophy and learning, but
he had not yet given proof of his capacity as a general. He, seeing
all the others crouch to Agesilaus, and court favour with him, alone
maintained the dignity of an ambassador, and with that freedom that
became his character made a speech in behalf not of Thebes only,
from whence he came, but of all Greece, remonstrating that Sparta
alone grew great by war, to the distress and suffering of all her
neighbours. He urged that a peace should be made upon just and equal
terms, such as alone would be a lasting one, which could not otherwise
be done than by reducing all to equality. Agesilaus, perceiving all
the other Greeks to give much attention to this discourse, and to be
pleased with it, presently asked him whether he thought it a part of
this justice and equality that the Boeotian towns should enjoy their
independence. Epaminondas instantly and without wavering asked him
in return, whether he thought it just and equal that the Laconian
towns should enjoy theirs. Agesilaus started from his seat and bade
him once for all speak out and say whether or not Boeotia should be
independent. And when Epaminondas replied once again with the same
inquiry, whether Laconia should be so, Agesilaus was so enraged
that, availing himself of the pretext, he immediately struck the
name of the Thebans out of the league, and declared war against
them. With the rest of the Greeks he made a peace, and dismissed
them with this saying, that what could be peaceably adjusted,
should; what was otherwise incurable, must be committed to the success
of war, it being a thing of too great difficulty to provide for all
things by treaty.
  The Ephors upon this despatched their orders to Cleombrotus, who was
at that time in Phocis, to march directly into Boeotia, and at the
same time sent to their allies for aid. The confederates were very
tardy in their business and unwilling to engage, but as yet they
feared the Spartans too much to dare to refuse. And although many
portents and prodigies of ill-presage, which I have mentioned in the
life of Epaminondas, had appeared, and though Prothous, the
Laconian, did all he could to hinder it, yet Agesilaus would needs
go forward, and prevailed so, that the war was decreed. He thought the
present juncture of affairs very advantageous for their revenge, the
rest of Greece being wholly free, and the Thebans excluded from the
peace. But that this war was undertaken more upon passion than
judgment the event may prove; for the treaty was finished but the
fourteenth of Scirophorion, and the Lacedaemonians received their
great overthrow at Leuctra on the fifth of Hecatombaeon, within twenty
days. There fell at that time a thousand Spartans, and Cleombrotus
their king, and around him the bravest men of the nation; particularly
the beautiful youth, Cleonymus, the son of Sphodrias, who was thrice
struck down at the feet of the king, and as often rose, but was
slain at the last.
  This unexpected blow, which fell so heavy upon the Lacedaemonians,
brought greater glory to Thebes than ever was acquired by any other of
the Grecian republics in their civil wars against each other. The
behaviour, notwithstanding, of the Spartans, though beaten, was as
great, and as highly to be admired, as that of the Thebans. And
indeed, if, as Xenophon says, in conversation good men even in their
sports and at their wine let fall many sayings that are worth the
preserving, how much more worthy to be recorded is an exemplary
constancy of mind, as shown both in the words and in the acts of brave
men when they are pressed by adverse fortune! It happened that the
Spartans were celebrating a solemn feast, at which many strangers were
present from other countries, and the town full of them, when this
news of the overthrow came. It was the gymnopaediae, and the boys were
dancing in the theatre, when the messengers arrived from Leuctra.
The Ephors, though they were sufficiently aware that this blow had
ruined the Spartan power, and that their primacy over the rest of
Greece was gone for ever, yet gave orders that the dances should not
break off, nor any of the celebration of the festival abate; but
privately sending the names of the slain to each family, out of
which they were lost, they continued the public spectacles. The next
morning when they had full intelligence concerning it, and everybody
knew who were slain, and who survived, the fathers, relatives, and
friends of the slain came out rejoicing in the market-place,
saluting each other with a kind of exultation; on the contrary, the
fathers of the survivors hid themselves at home among the women. If
necessity drove any of them abroad they went very dejectedly, with
downcast looks and sorrowful countenances. The women outdid the men in
it; those whose sons were slain openly rejoicing, cheerfully making
visits to one another, and meeting triumphantly in the temples; they
who expected their children home being very silent and much troubled.
  But the people in general, when their allies now began to desert
them, and Epaminondas, in all the confidence of victory, was
expected with an invading army in Peloponnesus, began to think again
of Agesilaus's lameness, and to entertain feelings of religious fear
and despondency, as if their having rejected the sound-footed, and
having chosen the halting king, which the oracle had specially
warned them against, was the occasion of all their distresses. Yet the
regard they had to the merit and reputation of Agesilaus so far
stilled this murmuring of the people that, notwithstanding it, they
intrusted themselves to him in this distress, as the only man that was
fit to heal the public malady, the arbiter of all their
difficulties, whether relating to the affairs of war or peace. One
great one was then before them concerning the runaways (as their
name is for them) that had fled out of the battle, who being many
and powerful, it was feared that they might make some commotion in the
republic, to prevent the execution of the law upon them for their
cowardice. The law in that case was very severe; for they were not
only to be debarred from all honours, but also it was a disgrace to
intermarry with them; whoever met any of them in the streets might
beat him if he chose, nor was it lawful for him to resist; they, in
the meanwhile, were obliged to go about unwashed and meanly dressed,
with their clothes patched with divers colours, and to wear their
beards half shaved, half unshaven. To execute so rigid a law as
this, in a case where the offenders were so many, and many of them
of such distinction, and that in a time when the commonwealth wanted
soldiers so much as then it did, was of dangerous consequence.
Therefore they chose Agesilaus as a sort of new lawgiver for the
occasion. But he, without adding to or diminishing from or any way
changing the law, came out into the public assembly, and said that the
law should sleep for to-day, but from this day forth be vigorously
executed. By this means he at once preserved the law from abrogation
and the citizens from infamy; and that he might alleviate the
despondency and self-distrust of the young men, he made an inroad into
Arcadia, where, carefully avoiding all fighting, he contended
himself with spoiling the territory, and taking a small town belonging
to the Mantineans, thus reviving the hearts of the people, letting
them see that they were not everywhere unsuccessful.
  Epaminondas now invaded Laconia with an army of forty thousand,
besides light-armed men and others that followed the camp only for
plunder, so that in all they were at least seventy thousand. It was
now six hundred years since the Dorians had possessed Laconia, and
in all that time the face of an enemy had not been seen within their
territories, no man daring to invade them; but now they made their
entrance, and burnt and plundered without resistance the hitherto
untouched and sacred territory up to Eurotas and the very suburbs of
Sparta; for Agesilaus would not permit them to encounter so
impetuous a torrent, as Theopompus calls it, of war. He contented
himself with fortifying the chief parts of the city, and with
placing guards in convenient places, enduring meanwhile the taunts
of the Thebans, who reproached him by name as the kindler of the
war, and the author of all that mischief to his country, bidding him
defend himself if he could. But this was not all; he was equally
disturbed at home with the tumults of the city, the outcries and
running about of the old men, who were enraged at their present
condition, and the women yet worse, out of their senses with the
clamours, and the fires of the enemy in the field. He was also himself
afflicted by the sense of his lost glory; who, having come to the
throne of Sparta when it was in its most flourishing and powerful
condition, now lived to see it laid low in esteem, and all its great
vaunts cut down, even that which he himself had been accustomed to
use, that the women of Sparta had never seen the smoke of the
enemy's fire. As it is said, also, that when Antalcidas, once being in
dispute with an Athenian about the valour of the two nations, the
Athenian boasted that they had often driven the Spartans from the
river Cephisus, "Yes," said Antalcidas, "but we never had occasion
to drive you from Eurotas." And a common Spartan of less note, being
in company with an Argive, who was bragging how many Spartans lay
buried in the fields of Argos, replied, "None of you are buried in the
country of Laconia." Yet now the case was so altered that
Antalcidas, being one of the Ephors, out of fear sent away his
children privately to the island of Cythera.
  When the enemy essayed to get over the river, and thence to attack
the town, Agesilaus, abandoning the rest, betook himself to the high
places and strongholds of it. But it happened Eurotas at that time was
swollen to a great height with snow that had fallen and made the
passage very difficult to the Thebans, not only by its depth, but much
more by its extreme coldness. Whilst this was doing, Epaminondas was
seen in the front of the phalanx, and was pointed out to Agesilaus,
who looked long at him, and said but these words, "O bold man!" But
when he came to the city, and would have fain attempted something
within the limits of it that might raise him a trophy there, he
could not tempt Agesilaus out of his hold, but was forced to march off
again, wasting the country as he went.
  Meanwhile, a body of long discontented and bad citizens, about two
hundred in number, having got into a strong part of the town called
the Issorion, where the temple of Diana stands, seized and
garrisoned it. The Spartans would have fallen upon them instantly; but
Agesilaus, not knowing how far the sedition might reach, bade them
forbear, and going himself in his ordinary dress, with but one
servant, when he came near the rebels, called out, and told them
that they mistook their orders; this was not the right place; they
were to go, one part of them thither, showing them another place in
the city, and part to another, which he also showed. The
conspirators gladly heard this, thinking themselves unsuspected of
treason, and readily went off to the places which he showed them.
Whereupon Agesilaus placed in their room a guard of his own; and of
the conspirators he apprehended fifteen, and put them to death in
the night. But after this a much more dangerous conspiracy was
discovered of Spartan citizens, who had privately met in each
other's houses, plotting a revolution. These were men whom it was
equally dangerous to prosecute publicly according to law and to
connive at. Agesilaus took council with the Ephors, and put these also
to death privately without process; a thing never before known in
the case of any born Spartan.
  At this time, also, many of the helots and country people, who
were in the army, ran away to the enemy, which was a matter of great
consternation to the city. He therefore caused some officers of his,
every morning, before day, to search the quarters of the soldiers, and
where any man was gone, to hide his arms, that so the greatness of the
number might not appear.
  Historians differ about the cause of the Thebans' departure from
Sparta. Some say the winter forced them; as also that the Arcadian
soldiers disbanding, made it necessary for the rest to retire.
Others say that they stayed there three months, till they had laid the
whole country waste. Theopompus is the only author who says that
when the Boeotian generals had already resolved upon the retreat,
Phrixus, the Spartan, came to them, and offered them from Agesilaus
ten talents to be gone, so hiring them to do what they were already
doing of their own accord. How he alone should come to be aware of
this I know not; only in this all authors agree, that the saving of
Sparta from ruin was wholly due to the wisdom of Agesilaus, who in
this extremity of affairs quitted all his ambition and his
haughtiness, and resolved to play a saving game. But all his wisdom
and courage was not sufficient to recover the glory of it, and to
raise it to its ancient greatness. For as we see in human bodies, long
used to a very strict and too exquisitely regular diet, any single
great disorder is usually fatal; so here one stroke overthrew the
whole state's long prosperity. Nor can we be surprised at this.
Lycurgus had formed a polity admirably designed for the peace,
harmony, and virtuous life of the citizens; and their fall came from
their assuming foreign dominion and arbitrary sway, things wholly
undesirable, in the judgment of Lycurgus, for a well-conducted and
happy state.
  Agesilaus being now in years, gave over all military employments;
but his son, Archidamus, having received help from Dionysius of
Sicily, gave a great defeat to the Arcadians, in the fight known by
the name of the Tearless Battle, in which there was a great
slaughter of the enemy without the loss of one Spartan. Yet this
victory, more than anything else, discovered the present weakness of
Sparta; for heretofore victory was esteemed so usual a thing with them
that for their greatest successes they merely sacrificed a cock to the
gods. The soldiers never vaunted, nor did the citizens display any
great joy at the news; even when the great victory, described by
Thucydides, was obtained at Mantinea, the messenger that brought the
news had no other reward than a piece of meat, sent by the magistrates
from the common table. But at the news of this Arcadian victory they
were not able to contain themselves; Agesilaus went out in
procession with tears of joy in his eyes to meet and embrace his
son, and all the magistrates and public officers attended him. The old
men and the women marched out as far as the river Eurotas, lifting
up their hands, and thanking the gods that Sparta was now cleared
again of the disgrace and indignity that had befallen her, and once
more saw the light of day. Since before, they tell us, the Spartan
men, out of shame at their disasters, did not dare so much as to
look their wives in the face.
  When Epaminondas restored Messene, and recalled from all quarters
the ancient citizens to inhabit it, they were not able to obstruct the
design, being not in condition of appearing in the field against them.
But it went greatly against Agesilaus in the minds of his
countrymen, when they found so large a territory, equal to their own
in compass, and for fertility the richest of all Greece, which they
had enjoyed so long, taken from them in his reign. Therefore it was
that the king broke off treaty with the Thebans when they offered
him peace, rather than set his hand to the passing away of that
country, though it was already taken from him. Which point of honour
had like to have cost him dear; for not long after he was
overreached by a stratagem, which had almost amounted to the loss of
Sparta. For when the Mantineans again revolted from Thebes to
Sparta, and Epaminondas understood that Agesilaus was come to their
assistance with a powerful army, he privately in the night quitted his
quarters of Tegea, and, unknown to the Mantineans, passing by
Agesilaus, marched toward Sparta, insomuch that he failed very
little of taking it empty and unarmed.
  Agesilaus had intelligence sent him by Euthynus, the Thespian, as
Callisthenes says, but Xenophon says by a Cretan; and immediately
despatched a horseman to Lacedaemon to apprise them of it, and to
let them know that he was hastening to them. Shortly after his arrival
the Thebans crossed the Eurotas. They made an assault upon the town,
and were received by Agesilaus with great courage, and with
exertions beyond what was to be expected at his years. For he did
not now fight with that caution and cunning which he formerly made use
of, but put all upon a desperate push; which, though not his usual
method, succeeded so well, that he rescued the city out of the very
hands of Epaminondas, and forced him to retire, and, at the erection
of a trophy, was able, in the presence of their wives and children, to
declare that the Lacedaemonians had nobly paid their debt to their
country, and particularly his son Archidamus, who had that day made
himself illustrious, both by his courage and agility of body,
rapidly passing about by the short lanes to every endangered point,
and everywhere maintaining the town against the enemy with but few
to help him.
  Isadas, however, the son of Phoebidas, must have been, I think,
the admiration of the enemy as well as of his friends. He was a
youth of remarkable beauty and stature, in the very flower of the most
attractive time of life, when the boy is just rising into the man.
He had no arms upon him and scarcely clothes; he had just anointed
himself at home, when, upon the alarm, without further awaiting, in
that undress, he snatched a spear in one hand and a sword in the
other, and broke his way through the combatants to the enemies,
striking at all he met. He received no wound, whether it were that a
special divine care rewarded his valour with an extraordinary
protection, or whether his shape being so large and beautiful, and his
dress so unusual, they thought him more than a man. The Ephors gave
him a garland; but as soon as they had done so, they fined him a
thousand drachmas for going out to battle unarmed.
  A few days after this there was another battle fought near Mantinea,
in which Epaminondas, having routed the van of the Lacedaemonians, was
eager in the pursuit of them, when Anticrates, the Laconian, wounded
him with a spear, says Dioscorides; but the Spartans to this day
call the posterity of this Anticrates, swordsmen, because he wounded
Epaminondas with a sword. They so dreaded Epaminondas when living,
that the slayer of him was embraced and admired by all; they decreed
honours and gifts to him, and an exemption from taxes to his
posterity, a privilege enjoyed at this day by Callicrates, one of
his descendants.
  Epaminondas being slain, there was a general peace again
concluded, from which Agesilaus's party excluded the Messenians, as
men that had no city, and therefore would not let them swear to the
league; to which when the rest of the Greeks admitted them, the
Lacedaemonians broke off, and continued the war alone, in hopes of
subduing the Messenians. In this Agesilaus was esteemed a stubborn and
headstrong man, and insatiable of war, who took such pains to
undermine the general peace, and to protract the war at a time when he
had not money to carry it on with, but was forced to borrow of his
friends and raise subscriptions, with much difficulty, while the city,
above all things, needed repose. And all this to recover the one
poor town of Messene, after he had lost so great an empire both by sea
and land, as the Spartans were possessed of when he began to reign.
  But it added still more to his ill-repute when he put himself into
the service of Tachos, the Egyptian. They thought it too unworthy of a
man of his high station, who was then looked upon as the first
commander in all Greece, who had filled all countries with his renown,
to let himself out to hire to a barbarian, an Egyptian rebel (for
Tachos was no better), and to fight for pay, as captain only of a band
of mercenaries. If, they said, at those years of eighty and odd, after
his body had been worn out with age, and enfeebled with wounds, he had
resumed that noble undertaking, the liberation of the Greeks from
Persia, it had been worthy of some reproof. To make an action
honourable, it ought to be agreeable to the age and other
circumstances of the person; since it is circumstance and proper
measure that give an action its character, and make it either good
or bad. But Agesilaus valued not other men's discourses; he thought no
public employment dishonourable; the ignoblest thing in his esteem was
for a man to sit idle and useless at home, waiting for his death to
come and take him. The money, therefore, that he received from Tachos,
he laid out in raising men, with whom, having filled his ships, he
took also thirty Spartan counsellors with him, as formerly he had done
in his Asiatic expedition, and set sail for Egypt.
  As soon as he arrived in Egypt, all the great officers of the
kingdom came to pay their compliments to him at his landing. His
reputation, being so great, had raised the expectation of the whole
country, and crowds flocked in to see him; but when they found,
instead of the splendid prince whom they looked for, a little old
man of contemptible appearance, without ceremony lying down upon the
grass, in coarse and threadbare clothes, they fell into laughter and
scorn of him, crying out that the old proverb was now made good,
"The mountain had brought forth a mouse." They were yet more
astonished at his stupidity, as they thought it, who, when presents
were made him of all sorts of provisions, took only the meal, the
calves, and the geese, but rejected the sweetmeats, the confections,
and perfumes: and when they urged him to the acceptance of them,
took them and gave them to the helots in his army. Yet he was taken,
Theophrastus tells us, with the garlands they made of the papyrus,
because of their simplicity, and when he returned home, he demanded
one of the king, which he carried with him.
  When he joined with Tachos, he found his expectation of being
general-in-chief disappointed. Tachos reserved that place for himself,
making Agesilaus only captain of the mercenaries, and Chabrias, the
Athenian, commander of the fleet. This was the first occasion of his
discontent, but there followed others; he was compelled daily to
submit to the insolence and vanity of this Egyptian, and was at length
forced to attend him into Phoenicia, in a condition much below his
character and dignity, which he bore and put up with for a time,
till he had opportunity of showing his feelings. It was afforded him
by Nectanabis, the cousin of Tachos, who commanded a large force under
him, and shortly after deserted him, and was proclaimed king by the
Egyptians. This man invited Agesilaus to join his party, and the
like he did to Chabrias, offering great rewards to both. Tachos,
suspecting it, immediately applied himself both to Agesilaus and
Chabrias, with great humility beseeching their continuance in his
friendship. Chabrias consented to it, and did what he could by
persuasion and good words to keep Agesilaus with them. But he gave
this short reply, "You, O Chabrias, came hither a volunteer, and may
go and stay as you see cause; but I am the servant of Sparta,
appointed to head the Egyptians, and therefore I cannot fight
against those to whom I was sent as a friend, unless I am commanded to
do so by my country." This being said, he despatched messengers to
Sparta, who were sufficiently supplied with matter both for
dispraise of Tachos and commendation of Nectanabis. The two
Egyptians also sent their ambassadors to Lacedaemon, the one to
claim continuance of the league already made, the other to make
great offers for the breaking of it, and making a new one. The
Spartans having heard both sides, gave in their public answer, that
they referred the whole matter to Agesilaus; but privately wrote to
him to act as he should find it best for the profit of the
commonwealth. Upon receipt of his orders, he at once changed sides,
carrying all the mercenaries with him to Nectanabis, covering, with
the plausible pretence of acting for the benefit of his country, a
most questionable piece of conduct, which, stripped of that
disguise, in real truth was no better than downright treachery. But
the Lacedaemonians, who make it their first principle of action to
serve their country's interest, know not anything to be just or unjust
by any measure but that.
  Tachos, being thus deserted by the mercenaries, fled for it; upon
which a new king of the Mendesian province was proclaimed his
successor, and came against Nectanabis with an army of one hundred
thousand men. Nectanabis, in his talk with Agesilaus, professed to
despise them as newly raised men, who, though many in number, were
of no skill in war being most of them mechanics and tradesmen, never
bred to war. To whom Agesilaus answered, that he did not fear their
numbers, but did fear their ignorance, which gave no room for
employing stratagem against them. Stratagem only avails with men who
are alive to suspicion, and, expecting to be assailed, expose
themselves by their attempts at defence; but one who has no thought or
expectation of anything, gives as little opportunity to the enemy as
he who stands stock-still does to a wrestler. The Mendesian was not
wanting in solicitations of Agesilaus, insomuch that Nectanabis grew
jealous. But when Agesilaus advised to fight the enemy at once, saying
it was folly to protract the war and rely on time, in a contest with
men who had no experience in fighting battles, but with their great
numbers might be able to surround them, and cut off their
communications by entrenchments, and anticipate them in many matters
of advantage, this altogether confirmed him in his fears and
suspicions. He took quite the contrary course, and retreated into a
large and strongly fortified town. Agesilaus, finding himself
mistrusted, took it very ill, and was full of indignation, yet was
ashamed to change sides back again, or to go away without effecting
anything, so that he was forced to follow Nectanabis into the town.
  When the enemy came up, and began to draw lines about the town,
and to entrench, the Egyptian now resolved upon a battle out of fear
of a siege. And the Greeks were eager for it, provisions growing
already scarce in the town. When Agesilaus opposed it, the Egyptians
then suspected him much more, publicly calling him the betrayer of the
king. But Agesilaus, being now satisfied within himself, bore these
reproaches patiently, and followed the design which he had laid, of
over-reaching the enemy, which was this.
  The enemy were forming a deep ditch and high wall, resolving to shut
up the garrison and starve it. When the ditch was brought almost quite
round and the two ends had all but met, he took the advantage of the
night and armed all his Greeks. Then going to the Egyptian, "This,
young man, is your opportunity," said he, "of saving yourself, which I
all this while durst not announce, lest discovery should prevent it;
but now the enemy has, at his own cost, and the pains and labour of
his own men, provided for our security. As much of this wall as is
built will prevent them from surrounding us with their multitude,
the gap yet left will be sufficient for us to sally out by; now play
the man, and follow the example the Greeks will give you, and by
fighting valiantly save yourself and your army; their front will not
be able to stand against us, and their rear we are sufficiently
secured from by a wall of their own making."
  Nectanabis, admiring the sagacity of Agesilaus, immediately placed
himself in the middle of the Greek troops, and fought with them; and
upon the first charge soon routed the enemy. Agesilaus having now
gained credit with the king, proceeded to use, like a trick in
wrestling, the same stratagem over again. He sometimes pretended a
retreat, at other times advanced to attack their flanks, and by this
means at last drew them into a place enclosed between two ditches that
were very deep and full of water. When he had them at this
advantage, he soon charged them, drawing up the front of his battle
equal to the space between the two ditches, so that they had no way of
surrounding him, being enclosed themselves on both sides. They made
but little resistance; many fell, others fled and were dispersed.
  Nectanabis, being thus settled and fixed in his kingdom, with much
kindness and affection invited Agesilaus to spend his winter in Egypt,
but he made haste home to assist in wars of his own country, which
was, he knew, in want of money, and forced to hire mercenaries, whilst
their own men were fighting abroad. The king, therefore, dismissed him
very honourably, and among other gifts presented him with two
hundred and thirty talents of silver toward the charge of the war. But
the weather being tempestuous, his ships kept inshore, and passing
along the coast of Africa he reached an uninhabited spot called the
Port of Menelaus, and here, when his ships were just upon landing,
he expired, being eighty-four years old, and having reigned in
Lacedaemon forty-one. Thirty of which years he passed with the
reputation of being the greatest and most powerful man of all
Greece, and was looked upon as, in a manner, general and king of it,
until the battle of Leuctra. It was the custom of the Spartans to bury
their common dead in the place where they died, whatsoever country
it was, but their kings they carried home. The followers of Agesilaus,
for want of honey, enclosed his body in wax, and so conveyed him to
Lacedaemon.
  His son, Archidamus, succeeded him on his throne; so did his
posterity successively to Agis, the fifth from Agesilaus; who was
slain by Leonidas while attempting to restore the ancient discipline
of Sparta.


                                THE END
