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 preeminence in everything, and showed

an impetuosity and fervor 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 it, (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 humor, 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 honors 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 death-bed. 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 favorable 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

skillful 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 sights 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 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 be 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 emulations 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 succoring his friends in Asia, whom

he had there left governors and masters of the cities, whose

mal-administration and tyrannical behavior 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 far 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

counselors, 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 of 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 at 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 a 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 honors 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 behavior of Agesilaus,

with the harsh and violent and brief-spoken demeanor which Lysander

still retained. Universal deference was yielded to this, and

little regard shown to Agesilaus. This first occasioned offense to

the other Spartan captains, who resented that they should rather

seem the attendants of Lysander, than the councilors of Agesilaus.

And at length Agesilaus himself, though not perhaps all envious man

in his nature, nor apt to be troubled at the honors redounding upon

other men, yet eager for honor 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, anyone 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 him a yet 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 this

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 honor, 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 had 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 plaindealing 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 honorable 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 honor which was never done to any but Agesilaus, who

being now undoubtedly the greatest and most illustrious man of his

time, still, as Theopompus has 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 honor 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 valiant

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 honor 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 endeavored 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 honorable, 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 endeavors 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 mine 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 the 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 an 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 straitlaced in point of justice, he said,

was only a colorable presence 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 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, reestablished 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 behavior 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

also is 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 at the

resolution of the Spartan, gave orders to let him pass as 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 the 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 we wonder at this saying of

Agesilaus, since when he had news brought him from Sparta, of

several great captains slain 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 was 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 honor to him, made proclamation 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 a 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 valor, and interposed their bodies frequently between him and

danger, yet could they not so preserve him, but that he received

many wounds through his armor 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 the victory which under the

conduct of Sparton, their general, they obtained over the Athenians

under Tolmides, who himself fell in the battle. And 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 traveled over the river

Eurotas. So also with his household furniture and his own armor;

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 all

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 honorable, and

attended always with lively feeling 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 all 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 tomorrow 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 dishonor 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 have 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 valor without justice was

useless, and if all the world were just, there would be no need of

valor. 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 defense 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 privily 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

dishonorable and treacherous as that of the Cadmea, but executed

with less valor 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 honorably 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 interest with his father; and

Sphodrias's friends ventured to be forward in his defense. 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 many 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

favor 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 neighbors. 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 dispatched 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 the 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 behavior, 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 theater, 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 entrusted 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 honors, 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 colors, 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 today, 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 contented 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 clamors, 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 valor 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 strong-holds of it. But it happened, that Eurotas

at that time was swollen to a great height with the 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 counsel 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 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 honor 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 at Tegea, and unknown to the Mantineans,

passing by Agesilaus, marched towards 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 dispatched 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 waiting, 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 valor 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 honors 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 honorable, 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 dishonorable; 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 counselors 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 all 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 dispatched 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

presence 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 defense; 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 overreaching 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 labor 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 the 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 honorably, 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 in shore, 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.