Agesilaus

While his forces were assembling at Geraestus,[*](In the spring of 396 B.C.) Agesilaüs himself went to Aulis with his friends and spent the night. As he slept, he thought a voice came to him, saying: King of the Lacedaemonians, thou art surely aware that no one has ever been appointed general of all Hellas together except Agamemnon, in former times, and now thyself, after him. And since thou commandest the same hosts that he did, and wagest war on the same foes, and settest out for the war from the same place, it is meet that thou shouldst sacrifice also to the goddess the sacrifice which he made there before he set sail.

Almost at once Agesilaüs remembered the sacrifice of his own daughter[*](Iphigeneia. Cf. Euripides, Iph. Aul., 1540 ff. (Kirchhoff).) which Agamemnon had there made in obedience to the soothsayers. He was not disturbed, however, but after rising up and imparting his vision to his friends, declared that he would honour the goddess with a sacrifice in which she could fitly take pleasure, being a goddess, and would not imitate the cruel insensibility of his predecessor. So he caused a hind to be wreathed with chaplets, and ordered his own seer to perform the sacrifice, instead of the one customarily appointed to this office by the Boeotians.

Accordingly, when the Boeotian magistrates heard of this, they were moved to anger, and sent their officers, forbidding Agesilaüs to sacrifice contrary to the laws and customs of the Boeotians. These officers not only delivered their message, but also snatched the thigh-pieces of the victim from the altar.[*](Cf. Xenophon, Hell. iii. 4, 3 f. ) Agesilaüs therefore sailed away in great distress of mind; he was not only highly incensed at the Thebans, but also full of ill-boding on account of the omen. He was convinced that his undertakings would be incomplete, and that his expedition would have no fitting issue.

As soon as he came to Ephesus, the great dignity and influence which Lysander enjoyed were burdensome and grievous to him. The doors of Lysander were always beset with a throng, and all followed in his train and paid him court, as though Agesilaüs had the command in name and outward appearance, to comply with the law, while in fact Lysander was master of all, had all power, and did everything.[*](Cf. Xenophon, Hell. iii. 4, 7.)