Hellenica

Now all that part of the army which was from Peloponnesus kept quiet and prepared for battle; but as for the men from Priene and Achilleium, from the islands and the Ionian cities, some of them left their arms in the standing grain (for the grain was tall in the plain of the Maeander) and ran away, while all those who did stand showed clearly that they would[*](397 B.C.) not stand very long.

On the other side Pharnabazus, it was reported, was urging an engagement. But Tissaphernes, remembering the way Cyrus’ troops had made war with the Persians and believing that the Greeks were all like them, did not wish to fight, but sent to Dercylidas and said that he wanted to come to a conference with him. And Dercylidas, taking the best-looking of the troops he had, both cavalry and infantry, came forward to meet the messengers and said: For my part I had prepared to fight, as you see; however, since he wishes to come to a conference, I have no objection myself. But if this is to be done, pledges and hostages must be given and received.

When this plan had been decided upon and carried out, the armies went away, the barbarians to Tralles in Caria, and the Greeks to Leucophrys, where there was a very holy shrine of Artemis and a lake more than a stadium in length, with a sandy bottom and an unfailing supply of drinkable, warm water. This, then, was what was done at that time; but on the following day the commanders came to the place agreed upon, and it seemed best to them to learn from one another on what terms each would make peace.

Dercylidas accordingly stated his condition, that the King should leave the Greek cities independent; and Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus stated theirs, that the Greek army should depart from the country and the Lacedaemonian governors from the cities. When they had stated these terms to one another, they concluded a truce, to continue until the proposals should be reported by Dercylidas to Lacedaemon, and by Tissaphernes to the King.

While these things were being done in Asia by[*](399 B.C.) Dercylidas, the Lacedaemonians at the same time were engaged in war at home, against the Eleans. They had long been angry with the Eleans, both because the latter had concluded an alliance with the Athenians, Argives, and Mantineans, and because, alleging that judgment had been rendered against the Lacedaemonians, they had debarred them from both the horse-races and the athletic contests;[*](I.e., at the Olympic games.) and this alone did not suffice them, but furthermore, after Lichas[*](A Lacedaemonian.) had made over his chariot to the Thebans and they were proclaimed victorious, when Lichas came in to put the garland upon his charioteer, they had scourged him, an old man, and driven him out.

And again, at a later time, when Agis was sent to sacrifice to Zeus in accordance with an oracle, the Eleans would not allow him to pray for victory in war, saying that even from ancient times it was an established principle that Greeks should not consult the oracle about a war with Greeks; so that Agis went away without sacrificing.

It was in consequence of all these things that the ephors and the assembly were angry, and they determined to bring the Eleans to their senses. Accordingly, they sent ambassadors to Elis and said that it seemed to the authorities of Lacedaemon to be just that they should leave their outlying towns independent. And when the Eleans replied that they would not do so, for the reason that they held the towns as prizes of war, the ephors called out the ban.[*](φρουρὰν φαίνειν was a Lacedaemonian phrase covering both the declaration of war and the mobilization of the army.) And Agis, at the head of the army, made his entrance into the territory of Elis through Achaea, along the Larisus.

Now when the[*](399 B.C.) army had but just arrived in the enemy’s country and the land was being laid waste, an earthquake took place. Then Agis, thinking that this was a heaven-sent sign, departed again from the country and disbanded his army. As a result of this the Eleans were much bolder, and sent around embassies to all the states which they knew to be unfriendly to the Lacedaemonians.

In the course of the year, however, the ephors again called out the ban against Elis, and with the exception of the Boeotians and the Corinthians all the allies, including the Athenians, took part with Agis in the campaign. Now when Agis entered Elis by way of Aulon, the Lepreans at once revolted from the Eleans and came over to him, the Macistians likewise at once, and after them the Epitalians. And while he was crossing the river, the Letrinians, Amphidolians, and Marganians came over to him.

Thereupon he went to Olympia and offered sacrifices[*](398 B.C.) to Olympian Zeus, and this time no one undertook to prevent him. After his sacrifices he marched upon the city of Elis, laying the land waste with axe and fire as he went, and vast numbers of cattle and vast numbers of slaves were captured in the country; insomuch that many more of the Arcadians and Achaeans, on hearing the news, came of their own accord to join the expedition and shared in the plunder. In fact this campaign proved to be a harvest, as it were, for Peloponnesus.

When Agis reached the city he did some harm to the suburbs and the gymnasia, which were beautiful, but as for the city itself (for it was unwalled) the Lacedaemonians thought that he was unwilling, rather than unable, to capture it. Now while the country was being ravaged and[*](398 B.C.) the Lacedaemonian army was in the neighbourhood of Cyllene, the party of Xenias—the man of whom it was said that he measured out with a bushel measure the money he received from his father—wishing to have their city go over to the Lacedaemonians and to receive the credit for this, rushed out of a house, armed with swords, and began a slaughter; and having killed, among others, a man who resembled Thrasydaeus, the leader of the commons, they supposed that they had killed Thrasydaeus himself, so that the commons lost heart entirely and kept quiet,

while the men engaged in the slaughter supposed that everything was already accomplished and their sympathizers gathered under arms in the market-place. But it chanced that Thrasydaeus was still asleep at the very place where he had become drunk. And when the commons learned that he was not dead, they gathered round his house on all sides, as a swarm of bees around its leader.

And when Thrasydaeus put himself at their head and led the way, a battle took place in which the commons were victorious, and those who had undertaken the slaughter were forced to flee to the Lacedaemonians. As for Agis, when he departed and crossed the Alpheus again, after leaving a garrison in Epitalium near the Alpheus, with Lysippus as governor, and also leaving there the exiles from Elis, he disbanded his army and returned home himself.

During the rest of the summer and the ensuing winter the country of the Eleans was plundered by Lysippus and the men with him. But in the course[*](397 B.C.) of the following summer Thrasydaeus sent to Lacedaemon and agreed to tear down the walls of Phea and Cyllene, to leave the Triphylian towns of Phrixa[*](397 B.C.) and Epitalium independent, likewise the Letrinians, Amphidolians, and Marganians, and besides these the Acrorians and the town of Lasion, which was claimed by the Arcadians. The Eleans, however, claimed the right to hold Epeum, the town between Heraea and Macistus; for they said that they had bought the whole territory for thirty talents from the people to whom the town at that time belonged, and had paid the money.

But the Lacedaemonians, deciding that it was no more just to get property from the weaker by a forced purchase than by a forcible seizure, compelled them to leave this town also independent; they did not, however, dispossess them of the presidency of the shrine of Olympian Zeus, even though it did not belong to the Eleans in ancient times, for they thought that the rival claimants[*](The Pisatans, who had had charge of the Olympic shrine and games up to 580 B.C.) were country people and not competent to hold the presidency. When these things had been agreed upon, a peace and an alliance were concluded between the Eleans and the Lacedaemonians. And so the war between the Lacedaemonians and the Eleans ended.

After this Agis, having gone to Delphi and offered to the god the appointed tithe of his booty, on his way back fell sick at Heraea, being now an old man, and although he was still living when brought home to Lacedaemon, once there he very soon died; and he received a burial more splendid than belongs to man. When the prescribed days of mourning had been religiously observed and it was necessary to appoint a king, Leotychides, who claimed to be a son of Agis, and Agesilaus, a brother of Agis, contended for the kingship.

And Leotychides said:[*](397 B.C.) But, Agesilaus, the law directs, not that a brother, but that a son of a king, should be king; if, however, there should chance to be no son, in that case the brother would be king. It is I, then, who should be king. How so, when I am alive? Because he whom you call your father said that you were not his son. Nay, but my mother, who knows far better than he did, says even to this day that I am. But Poseidon showed that you are entirely in the wrong, for he drove your father[*](Leotychides was reputed to be the son of Alcibiades. For the incident here mentioned, cp. Plut. Alc. 23.) out of her chamber into the open by an earthquake. And time also, which is said to be the truest witness, gave testimony that the god was right; for you were born in the tenth month from the time when he fled from the chamber. Such were the words which passed between these two.

But Diopeithes, a man very well versed in oracles, said in support of Leotychides that there was also an oracle of Apollo which bade the Lacedaemonians beware of the lame kingship.[*](Agesilaus was lame.) Lysander, however, made reply to him, on behalf of Agesilaus, that he did not suppose the god was bidding them beware lest a king of theirs should get a sprain and become lame, but rather lest one who was not of the royal stock should become king. For the kingship would be lame in very truth when it was not the descendants of Heracles who were at the head of the state.

After hearing such arguments from both claimants the state chose Agesilaus king.When Agesilaus had been not yet a year in the kingly office, once while he was offering one of the appointed sacrifices in behalf of the state, the seer said that the gods revealed a conspiracy of the most[*](397 B.C.) terrible sort. And when he sacrificed again, the seer said that the signs appeared still more terrible. And upon his sacrificing for the third time, he said: Agesilaus, just such a sign is given me as would be given if we were in the very midst of the enemy. There-upon they made offerings to the gods who avert evil and to those who grant safety, and having with difficulty obtained favourable omens, ceased sacrificing. And within five days after the sacrifice was ended a man reported to the ephors a conspiracy, and Cinadon as the head of the affair.

This Cinadon was a young man, sturdy of body and stout of heart, but not one of the peers.[*](i.e., those who enjoyed full rights of citizenship, the Spartiatae.) And when the ephors asked how he had said that the plan would be carried out, the informer replied that Cinadon had taken him to the edge of the market-place and directed him to count how many Spartiatae there were in the market-place.[*](The Spartiatae, always few in number in comparison with the other elements of the Laconian population (see below), were now becoming steadily fewer by reason of constant wars and the demoralising influence of wealth and luxury.) And I, he said, after counting king and ephors and senators and about forty others, asked Why, Cinadon, did you bid me count these men? And he replied: Believe, said he, that these men are your enemies, and that all the others who are in the market-place, more than four thousand in number, are your allies. In the streets also, the informer said, Cinadon pointed out as enemies here one and there two who met them, and all the rest as allies; and of all who chanced to be on the country estates belonging to Spartiatae, while there would be one whom he would point out as an enemy, namely the master, yet there would be many on each estate named as allies.