Agis and Cleomenes

Plutarch

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

Lydiadas the Megalopolitan, however, chafing at this, dashed on with the horsemen under his command, and pursuing the enemy into a place full of vines, ditches, and walls, had his ranks broken and thrown into disorder thereby, and began to fall into difficulties. Cleomenes, observing this, sent against him his Tarentines and Cretans, at whose hands Lydiadas, defending himself sturdily, fell. At this the Lacedaemonians took courage and with a shout fell upon the Achaeans and routed their entire army.

Great numbers of them were slain, and their bodies Cleomenes restored at the enemy’s request; but the body of Lydiadas he asked to have brought to him, arrayed it in a purple robe and put a crown upon the head, and then sent it back to the gates of Megalopolis. This was the Lydiadas who renounced the tyranny, gave back to the citizens their freedom, and attached the city to the Achaean league.