Agesilaus

Plutarch

Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. V. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1917.

But Agesilaüs, although he was weakened by many wounds, would not retire to his tent until he had first been carried to his troops and seen that the dead were collected within the encampment. Moreover, he ordered that all of the enemy who had taken refuge in the sanctuary should be dismissed.

For the temple of Athena Itonia was near at hand, and a trophy stood in front of it, which the Boeotians had long ago erected, when, under the command of Sparto, they had defeated the Athenians there and slain Tolmides their general.[*](In 447 B.C.; cf. the Pericles, xviii. 2 f.) Early next morning, Agesilaüs, wishing to try the Thebans and see whether they would give him battle, ordered his soldiers to wreath their heads and his pipers to play their pipes, while a trophy was set up and adorned in token of their victory.[*](Cf the Nicias, vi. 5.)

And when the enemy sent to him and asked permission to take up their dead, he made a truce with them, and having thus assured to himself the victory, proceeded to Delphi,[*](Leaving the army in command of Gylis the polemarch (Xenophon, Hell. iv. 3, 21).) where the Pythian games were in progress. There he celebrated the customary procession in honour of the god, and offered up the tenth of the spoils which he had brought from Asia, amounting to a hundred talents.

Then he went back home, where his life and conduct brought him at once the affection and admiration of his fellow-citizens. For, unlike most of their generals, he came back from foreign parts unchanged and unaffected by alien customs; he showed no dislike towards home fashions, nor was he restive under them, but honoured and loved what he found there just as much as those did who had never crossed the Eurotas; he made no change in his table, or his baths, or the attendance on his wife,