Agis and Cleomenes

Learning that Aratus and the Achaeans believed that this revolution had jeopardized his position, and therefore did not think that he would venture forth outside of Sparta, or leave the city while it was still in the suspense of so great an agitation, he thought it a fine and helpful thing to make a display of the ready zeal of his army to his enemies.

Accordingly, he invaded the territory of Megalopolis, collected large booty, and devastated the country far and wide. And finally arresting a company of actors who were passing through the country from Messené, he built a theatre in the enemy’s territory, instituted a contest for a prize of forty minae, and sat spectator for a whole day; not that he felt the need of a spectacle, but in exultant mockery, as it were, of his enemies, and to show to the world by his contempt for them that he held complete control of affairs, with something, as it were, to spare.

For at other times, the Spartan alone of Greek or Macedonian armies had no players in attendance, no jugglers, no dancing-girls, no harpists, but was free from every kind of licence, scurrility, and general festivity; while for the most part the young men practised themselves and the elder men taught them, and for amusement, when their work was over, they had recourse to their wonted pleasantries and the interchange of Spartan witticisms. Of what great advantage this sort of amusement is, I have told in my Life of Lycurgus.[*](Chapter xii.)

In all these matters Cleomenes was himself a teacher. His own manner of life was simple, plain, and no more pretentious than that of the common man, and it was a pattern of self-restraint for all. This gave him a great advantage in his dealings with the other Greeks. For when men had to do with the other kings, they were not so much awed by their wealth and extravagance as they were filled with loathing for their haughtiness and pomp as they gave offensive and harsh answers to their auditors;

but when men came to Cleomenes, who was a real as well as a titled king, and then saw no profusion of purple robes or shawls about him, and no array of couches and litters; when they saw, too, that he did not make the work of his petitioners grievous and slow by employing a throng of messengers and door-keepers or by requiring written memorials, but came in person, just as he happened to be dressed, to answer the salutations of his visitors, conversing at length with those who needed his services and devoting time cheerfully and kindly to them, they were charmed and completely won over, and declared that he alone was a descendant of Heracles.

His usual supper was held in a room which had only three couches, and was very circumscribed and Spartan; but if he was entertaining ambassadors or guest-friends, two more couches would be brought in, and the servants would make the table a trifle more brilliant, not with sauces or sweetmeats, but with more generous dishes and a kindlier wine. And indeed he censured one of his friends, when he heard that in entertaining guest-friends he had set before them the black soup and barley-bread of the public mess-tables; for, said he, in these matters and before foreigners we must not be too strictly Spartan.