Agis and Cleomenes

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. X. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921.

After Eucleidas and his forces had in this way been cut to pieces, and the enemy, after their victory there, were coming on against the other wing, Cleomenes, seeing that his soldiers were in disorder and no longer had courage to stand their ground, took measures for his own safety. Many of his mercenaries fell, as we are told, and all the Spartans, six thousand in number, except two hundred.

When Cleomenes came to the city, he advised the citizens who met him to receive Antigonus; as for himself, he said he would do whatever promised to be best for Sparta, whether it called for his life or death. Then, seeing the women running up to those who had escaped with him, relieving them of their arms,