Agis and Cleomenes

and running over in his thoughts all possible plans, he set out with his friends for Gythium. There he went on board of vessels provided for this very purpose and put to sea.

Antigonus marched up and took the city without resistance. He treated the Lacedaemonians humanely, and did not insult or mock the dignity of Sparta, but restored her laws and constitution,[*](As they were before the reforms of Cleomenes.) sacrificed to the gods, and went away on the third day. For he learned that there was a great war in Macedonia and that the Barbarians were ravaging the country. Moreover, his disease was already ill full possession of him, having developed into a quick consumption and an acute catarrh.

He did not, however, give up, but had strength left for his conflicts at home, so that he won a very great victory, slew a prodigious number of the Barbarians, and died gloriously, having broken a blood-vessel (as it is likely, and as Phylarchus says by the very shout that he raised on the field of battle. And in the schools of philosophy one used to hear the story that after his victory he shouted for joy, O happy day! and then brought up a quantity of blood, fell into a high fever, and so died. So much concerning Antigonus.

As for Cleomenes, he sailed from Cythera to Aegialia, another island, and put in there. As he was about to cross from thence to Cyrene, one of his friends, Therycion by name, a man who brought a large spirit to the conduct of affairs and was always somewhat lofty in his speech and grandiloquent, came to him privately and said: The noblest death, O King, a death in battle, we have put away from us;

and yet all men heard us declare that Antigonus should not pass the king of Sparta except over his dead body. But a death that is second in virtue and glory is now still in our power. Whither do we unreasoningly sail, fleeing an evil that is near and pursuing one that is afar off? For if it is not shameful that the descendants of Heracles should be in subjection to the successors of Philip and Alexander, we shall spare ourselves a long voyage by surrendering to Antigonus, who is likely to surpass Ptolemy as much as Macedonians surpass Egyptians.

But if we cannot consent to be ruled by those who have conquered us in arms, wily should we make him our master who has not defeated us, thus showing ourselves inferior to two instead of one by running away from Antigonus and joining the flatterers of Ptolemy? Or, shall we say that it is on thy mother’s account that we come to Egypt? Surely thou wilt make a noble spectacle for her, and one to awaken envy, when she displays her son to the wives of Ptolemy, a captive instead of a king, and a runaway.