Agesilaus

Once upon a time Callipides the tragic actor, who had a name and fame among the Greeks and was eagerly courted by all, first met him and addressed him, then pompously thrust himself into his company of attendants, showing plainly that he expected the king to make him some friendly overtures, and finally said: Dost thou not recognize me, O King? The king fixed his eyes upon him and said: Yea, art thou not Callipides the buffoon? For this is how the Lacedaemonians describe actors. And again, when he was invited to hear the man who imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying: I have heard the bird herself.[*](Cf. the Lycurgus, xx. 5.)

Again, Menecrates the physician, who, for his success in certain desperate cases, had received the surname of Zeus, and had the had taste to employ the appellation, actually dared to write the king a letter beginning thus: Menecrates Zeus, to King Agesilaüs, greeting. To this Agesilaüs replied: King Agesilaüs, to Menecrates, health and sanity.

While he was lingering in the territory of Corinth, he seized the Heraeum,[*](The refugees in the Heraeum came out and surrendered of their own accord (Xenophon, Hell. iv. 5, 5).) and as he was watching his soldiers carry off the prisoners and booty, messengers came from Thebes to treat for peace. But he had always hated that city, and thinking this an advantageous time also for insulting it, pretended neither to see nor hear its ambassadors when they presented themselves. But his pride soon had a fall;

for the Thebans had not yet departed when messengers came to him with tidings that the Spartan division had been cut to pieces by Iphicrates.[*](At Lechaeum the port of Corinth on the Corinthian gulf in 390 B.C. (Xenophon, Hell. iv. 5, 11-18).) This was the greatest disaster that had happened to the Spartans in a long time; for they lost many brave men, and those men were overwhelmed by targeteers and mercenaries, though they were men-at-arms and Lacedaemonians.

At once, then, Agesilaüs sprang up to go to their assistance, but when he learned that it was all over with them,[*](He had marched till he was well within the plateau of Lechaeum (Xenophon, Hell. iv. 5, 8).) he came back again to the Heraeum, and ordering the Boeotians then to come before him, gave them an audience. But they returned his insolence by making no mention of peace, but simply asking safe conduct into Corinth. Agesilaüs was wroth at this, and said: If you wish to see your friends when they are elated at their successes, you can do so tomorrow in all safety.

And taking them along with him on the next day, he ravaged the territory of the Corinthians, and advanced to the very gates of the city. After he had thus proved that the Corinthians did not dare to resist him, he dismissed the embassy. Then he himself, picking up the survivors of the division that had been cut to pieces, led them back to Sparta, always breaking camp before it was day, and pitching the next camp after it was dark, in order that the hateful and malicious Arcadians might not exult over them.

After this, to gratify the Achaeans, he crossed over with them on an expedition into Acarnania,[*](In 390-389 B.C. (Xenophon, Hell. iv. 6, 3—7, 1).) where he drove away much booty and conquered the Acarnanians in battle. But when the Achaeans asked him to spend the winter there in order to prevent the enemy from sowing their fields, he said he would do the opposite of this; for the enemy would dread the war more if their land was sown when summer came. And this proved true; for when a second expedition against them was announced, they came to terms with the Achaeans.