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[2] While he was yet a boy, bred up in one of what are called the
flocks, or classes, he attracted the attachment of Lysander /1/, 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.
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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."
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Spring 396 B.C.
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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.
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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 /4/. 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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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August 394 B.C.
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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.
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[18] 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 /5/. 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.
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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.
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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 /9/. 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.
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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.
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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.
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[26] 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 /11/. 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 /12/; and now Agesilaus laughed and said, "You
see, my friends, how many more soldiers we send out than you do."
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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.
[28] 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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