Agis and Cleomenes

And they were a spectacle to the cities as they marched through the Peloponnesus without doing any injury, without rudeness, and almost without noise, so that the other Greeks were amazed and asked themselves what must have been the discipline of a Spartan army under the command of the great Agesilaüs, or the famous Lysander, or Leonidas of old, since towards a stripling who was almost the youngest of the whole army so great reverence and fear were felt by his soldiers.

And indeed the young man himself, owing to his simplicity, his love of hardships, and the pride he took in clothing and arming himself with no more splendour than a common soldier, won the admiration and devotion of the multitudes; for to the rich, certainly, his innovating ways were not pleasing, owing to a fear that they might prove a disturbing force and set a bad example among the common people everywhere.

Aratus, when Agis joined him near Corinth, was still deliberating whether or not to meet the enemy in open battle. Here Agis displayed great ardour, and courage which was sane and calculating. For he declared that in his opinion it was best to fight a decisive battle and not to abandon the gate of the Peloponnesus and suffer the enemy to pass inside: However, he said, I will do as seems best to Aratus, for Aratus is an older man, and is general of the Achaeans; I did not come hither to be their leader or to give them orders, but to give them aid and share their expedition.

Baton of Sinopé, however, says that Agis himself was unwilling to give battle although Aratus urged it; but Baton has not read what Aratus wrote about this matter,[*](In his Commentaries. See the Aratus, iii. 2. ) urging in self-defence that he thought it better, now that the husbandmen had gathered in almost all their crops, to suffer the enemy to pass by, instead of risking everything in battle.