Agis and Cleomenes

For the women were opposed to it, not only because they would be stripped of the luxury which, in the general lack of higher culture, made their lives seem happy, but also because they saw that the honour and influence which they enjoyed in consequence of their wealth would be cut off. So they had recourse to Leonidas, and besought him, since he was an older man, to withstand Agis and hinder what he was trying to accomplish.

Leonidas, accordingly, was desirous of aiding the rich, but he feared the people, who were eager for a revolution. He therefore made no open opposition to Agis, but secretly sought to damage his undertaking and bring it to nought by slandering him to the chief magistrates, declaring that he was purchasing a tyranny by offering to the poor the property of the rich, and by distribution of land and remission of debts was buying a large body-guard for himself, not many citizens for Sparta.