Agesilaus

But the time chosen for it proves that this expedition was made from anger more than from careful calculation. For the treaty of peace was made at Lacedaemon on the fourteenth of the month Scirophorion, and on the fifth of Hecatombaeon the Lacedaemonians were defeated at Leuctra,—an interval of twenty days. In that battle a thousand Lacedaemonians fell, besides Cleombrotus the king, and around him the mightiest of the Spartans.

Among these, they say, was Cleonymus, the beautiful son of Sphodrias,[*](Cf. chapter xxv. 1. ) who was thrice struck down in front of his king, as many times rose again to his feet, and died there, fighting the Thebans.

Now that the Lacedaemonians had met with an unexpected reverse, and the Thebans with an unlooked-for success surpassing that of any other Hellenes at strife with Hellenes, the high conduct of the defeated city was no less to be envied and admired than that of the victorious city.

Xenophon says[*](Symposium, i. 1.) that in the case of noble men, there is much that is worth recording even in what they say and do at their wine and in their sports, and he is right; and it is no less, but even more, worth while to observe carefully the decorum with which noble men speak and act in the midst of adversity. The city was holding a festival and was full of strangers; for the gymnopaediae were in progress and choirs of boys were competing with one another in the theatre; then came the messengers of calamity from Leuctra.