Lysander

When Agis the king died,[*](In 398 B.C., after returning home from a victorious campaign (Xen. Hell. 3.3.1).) leaving a brother, Agesilaus, and a reputed son, Leotychides, Lysander, who had been a lover of Agesilaus, persuaded him to lay claim to the kingdom, on the ground that he was a genuine descendant of Heracles. For Leotychides was accused of being a son of Alcibiades, who had secret commerce with Timaea, the wife of Agis, while he was living in exile at Sparta.

Now Agis, as they tell us, being convinced by a computation of time that his wife had not conceived by him, ignored Leotychides, and manifestly repudiated him up to the last. But when he was carried sick to Heraea and was about to die, he yielded to the entreaties of the young man himself and of his friends, and declared in the hearing of many that Leotychides was his own son, and after begging those who were present to bear witness of this to the Lacedaemonians, died.

Accordingly, they did so bear witness in favour of Leotychides. Moreover, Agesilaus, who was otherwise illustrious, and had Lysander as a champion, was injured in his claim by Diopeithes, a man in high repute for his interpretation of oracles, who published the following prophecy with reference to the lameness of Agesilaus[*](Cf. Plut. Ages. 2.2 ):—

1. Bethink thee now, O Sparta, although thou art very proud,
2. Lest from thee, sound of foot, there spring a maimed royalty;
3. For long will unexpected toils oppress thee,
4. And onward rolling billows of man-destroying war.

Many, therefore, out of deference to the oracle, inclined to Leotychides, but Lysander declared that Diopeithes did not interpret the prophecy correctly; for it did not mean that the god would be displeased if one who was lame should rule the Lacedaemonians, but the kingdom would be maimed if bastards and ill-born men should be kings in a line with the posterity of Heracles. By such arguments, and because he had very great influence, he prevailed, and Agesilaus became king.[*](Cf. Plut. Ages. 3.3-5; Xen. Hell. 3.3.2 f.)

At once, then, Lysander tried to rouse and incite him to make an expedition into Asia, suggesting hopes that he would put down the Persians and become a very great man. He also wrote letters to his friends in Asia, bidding them ask Agesilaus of the Lacedaemonians as general for their war against the Barbarians.[*](Cf. Plut. Ages. 6.1 f.)

They obeyed, and sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon with the request, and thus an honor not inferior to that of being made king was obtained for Agesilaus through the efforts of Lysander. But with ambitious natures, which are otherwise not ill qualified for command, jealousy of their equals in reputation is no slight obstacle to the performance of noble deeds; for they make those their rivals in the path of virtue, whom they might have as helpers.