Agis and Cleomenes

As for my husband, even if he had some plausible excuse for his course, I robbed him of it at that time by taking thy part and testifying to what he had done; but thou makest his crime an easy one to defend by showing men that royal power is a thing so great and so worth fighting for that for its sake it is right to slay a son-in-law and ignore a child.

Uttering such supplications Chilonis rested her face upon the head of Cleombrotus and turned her eyes, all melted and marred with grief, upon the bystanders. Then Leonidas, after conference with his friends, bade Cleombrotus leave his asylum and go into exile, but begged his daughter to remain, and not to abandon him, since he loved her so much, and had made her a free gift of her husband’s life.

He could not persuade her, however, but when her husband rose to go she put one of her children in his arms, took up the other one herself, and went forth in his company after an obeisance to the altar of the god; so that if Cleombrotus had not been wholly corrupted by vain ambition, he would have considered that exile was a greater blessing for him than the kingdom, because it restored to him his wife. After removing Cleombrotus from his asylum, Leonidas expelled the officiating ephors from their office, appointed others in their place, and at once began to lay plots against the life of Agis.