Part 4

When the enemy, being desirous of peace, sent an embassy, it was Agesilaus who spoke against the peace, (19) until he had forced the states of Corinth and of Thebes to welcome back those of them who, for Lacedaemon's sake, had suffered banishment.

(19) I.e. "of Antalcidas, B.C. 387." See "Hell." V. i. 36; Grote, "H. G." ix. 537 note.

And still later, (20) again, he restored the exiles of the Phliasians, who had suffered in the same cause, and with that object marched in person against Phlius, a proceeding which, however liable to censure on other grounds, showed unmistakable attachment to his party. (21)

(20) B.C. 383 and 380; see "Hell." V. ii. 10; iii. 10.

(21) See "Hell." V. iii. 16.

Thus, when the adverse faction had put to death those of the Lacedaemonians then in Thebes, he brought succour to his friends, and marched upon Thebes. (22) Finding the entire country fenced with ditch and palisading, he crossed Cynoscephalae (23) and ravaged the district right up to the city itself, giving the Thebans an opportunity of engaging him in the plain or upon the hills, as they preferred. And once more, in the ensuing year, (24) he marched against Thebes, and now surmounting these palisades and entrenchments at Scolus, (25) he ravaged the remainder of Boeotia.

(22) B.C. 378.

(23) See "Hell." V. iv. 34 foll.; for the site see Breitenbach, ad loc.

(24) B.C. 377.

(25) See "Hell." V. iv. 47.

Hitherto fortune had smiled in common upon the king himself and upon his city. And as for the disasters which presently befell, no one can maintain that they were brought about under the leadership of Agesilaus. But the day came when, after the disaster which had occurred at Leuctra, the rival powers in conjunction with the Mantineans fell to massacring his friends and adherents (26) in Tegea (the confederacy between all the states of Boeotia, the Arcadians, and the Eleians being already an accomplished fact). Thereupon, with the forces of Lacedaemon alone, (27) he took the field, and thus belied the current opinion that it would be a long while before the Lacedaemonians ventured to leave their own territory again. Having ravaged the country of those who had done his friends to death, he was content, and returned home.

(26) Or intimates.

(27) B.C. 370. See "Hell."VI. v. 21.

After this Lacedaemon was invaded by the united Arcadians, Argives, Eleians, and Boeotians, who were assisted by the Phocians, both sections of the Locrians, the Thessalians, Aenianians, Acarnanians, and Euboeans; moreover, the slaves had revolted and several of the provincial cities; (28) while of the Spartans themselves as many had fallen on the field of Leuctra as survived. But in spite of all, he safely guarded the city, and that too a city without walls and bulwarks. Forbearing to engage in the open field, where the gain would lie wholly with the enemy, he lay stoutly embattled on ground where the citizens must reap advantage; since, as he doggedly persisted, to march out meant to be surrounded on every side; whereas to stand at bay where every defile gave a coign of vantage, would give him mastery complete. (29)

(28) Lit. "perioecid"; see Plut. "Ages." xxxii. (Clough, iv. 39); "Hell." VI. v. 32.

(29) Is this parallel to "Hell." VII. v. 10, or "Hell." VI. v. 28? According to the historian, Agesilaus adopted similar tactics on both occasions (in B.C. 369 and B.C. 362 alike). The encomiast after his manner appears to treat them as one. Once and again his hero "cunctando restituit rem," but it was by the same strategy.

After the invading army had retired, no one will gainsay the sound sense of his behaviour. Old age debarred him from active service on foot or horse, and what the city chiefly needed now, he saw, was money, if she looked to gain allies. To the task therefore of providing that he set himself. Everything that could be done by stopping at home he deftly turned his hand to; or when the call arose and he could better help his country by departure he had no false pride; he set off on foreign service, not as general, but as ambassador. Yet on such embassy he achieved acts worthy of the greatest general. Autophradates (30) was besieging Ariobarzanes, (31) who was an ally of Sparta, in Assos; but before the face of Agesilaus he fled in terror and was gone. Cotys, (32) besieging Sestos, which still adhered to Ariobarzanes, broke up the siege and departed crestfallen. Well might the ambassador have set up a trophy in commemoration of the two bloodless victories. Once more, Mausolus (33) was besieging both the above-named places with a squadron of one hundred sail. He too, like, and yet unlike, the former two, yielded not to terror but to persuasion, and withdrew his fleet. These, then, were surely admirable achievements, since those who looked upon him as a benefactor and those who fled from before him both alike made him the richer by their gifts.

(30) Satrap of Lydia.

(31) Satrap of Propontis or Hellespontine Phrygia.

(32) Satrap of Paphlagonia, king of Thrace. Iphicrates married his daughter. See Grote, "H. G." x. 410.

(33) Satrap of Caria.

Tachos, (34) indeed, and Mausolus gave him a magnificent escort; and, for the sake of his former friendship with Agesilaus, the latter contributed also money for the state of Lacedaemon; and so they sped him home.

(34) King of Egypt.

And now the weight of, may be, fourscore years was laid upon him, (35) when it came under his observation that the king of Egypt, (36) with his hosts of foot and horse and stores of wealth, had set his heart on a war with Persia. Joyfully he learned that he himself was summoned by King Tachos, and that the command-in-chief of all the forces was promised to him. By this one venture he would achieve three objects, which were to requite the Egyptian for the benefits conferred on Lacedaemon; to liberate the Hellenes in Asia once again; and to inflict on the Persian a just recompense, not only for the old offences, but for this which was of to-day; seeing that, while boasting alliance with Sparta, he had dictatorially enjoined the emancipation of Messene. (37) But when the man who had summoned him refused to confer the proffered generalship, Agesilaus, like one on whom a flagrant deception has been practised, began to consider the part he had to play. Meanwhile a separate division (38) of the Egyptian armies held aloof from their king. Then, the disaffection spreading, all the rest of his troops deserted him; whereat the monarch took flight and retired in exile to Sidon in Phoenicia, leaving the Egyptians, split in faction, to choose to themselves a pair of kings. (39) Thereupon Agesilaus took his decision. If he helped neither, it meant that neither would pay the service-money due to his Hellenes, that neither would provide a market, and that, whichever of the two conquered in the end, Sparta would be equally detested. But if he threw in his lot with one of them, that one would in all likelihood in return for the kindness prove a friend. Accordingly he chose between the two that one who seemed to be the truer partisan of Hellas, and with him marched against the enemy of Hellas and conquered him in a battle, crushing him. His rival he helped to establish on the throne, and having made him a friend to Lacedaemon, and having acquired vast sums besides, he turned and set sail homewards, even in mid-winter, hastening so that Sparta might not lie inactive, but against the coming summer be alert to confront the foe.

(35) Or, "But to pass on, he was already, may be, eighty years of age, when it came under his observation...."

(36) This same Tachos.

(37) See "Hell." VII. i. 36; iv. 9.

(38) I.e. "the army under Nectanebos." See Diod. xv. 92; Plut. "Ages." xxxvii. (Clough, iv. 44 foll.)