Agis and Cleomenes

The rhetra was introduced in the senate, and the senators were divided in opinion. Lysander therefore called together a general assembly and discussed the matter himself with the citizens, and Mandrocleidas and Agesilaüs begged them not to suffer the insolent opposition of a few to blind them to the prostration of Sparta’s dignity, but to call to mind the earlier oracles which bade them beware of the love of riches as a fatal thing for Sparta, as well as the oracles which had lately been brought to them from Pasiphaë.

Now there was a temple of Pasiphaë at Thalamae, and her oracle there was held in honour. Some say that Pasiphaë was one of the daughters of Atlas, and the mother of Ammon by Zeus, and some that Cassandra the daughter of Priam died at Thalamae, and was called Pasiphaë because she declared her oracles to all. Phylarchus, however, says that she was a daughter of Amyclas, Daphne by name, and that, fleeing the embraces of Apollo, she was changed into the tree of like name, after which she was honoured by the god with the gift of prophetic power.

Be this as it may, it was now said that the oracles brought from this goddess ordained that all Spartans should be on an equality according to the original law made by Lycurgus. And finally, King Agis came forward and after a brief discourse said that he offered very large contributions to the constitutions which he was trying to establish; for in the first place he put into the common stock his own estate, which included extensive tillage and pasture, and apart from this six hundred talents in money; and, besides, his mother and his grandmother did likewise, together with their relatives and friends, and they were the wealthiest among the Spartans.

The people, accordingly, were filled with amazement at the magnanimity of the young man, and were delighted, feeling that after a lapse of nearly two hundred years a king had appeared who was worthy of Sparta; but Leonidas, now more than ever, strove in opposition. For he reasoned that he would be compelled to do as Agis had done, and that he would not get the same gratitude for it among the citizens, but that if all the rich alike made their property a part of the common fund, the honour for it would be given to him alone who had led the way. He therefore asked Agis if he thought that Lycurgus had shown himself a just and worthy man,