Agesilaus

As a consequence of this, in the first place, the rest of the Spartans were displeased to find themselves assistants of Lysander rather than counsellors of the king; and, in the second place, Agesilaüs himself:, though he was not an envious man, nor displeased that others should be honoured, but exceedingly ambitious and high-spirited, began to fear that any brilliant success which he might achieve in his undertakings would be attributed to Lysander, owing to popular opinion. He went to work, therefore, in this way.

To begin with, he resisted the counsels of Lysander, and whatever enterprises were most earnestly favoured by him, these he ignored and neglected, and did other things in their stead; again, of those who came to solicit favours from him, he sent away empty-handed all who put their chief confidence in Lysander; and in judicial cases likewise, all those against whom Lysander inveighed were sure to come off victorious, while, on the contrary, those whom he was manifestly eager to help had hard work even to escape being fined.

These things happened, not casually, but as if of set purpose, and uniformly. At last Lysander perceived the reason, and did not hide it from his friends, but told them it was on his account that they were slighted, and advised them to go and pay their court to the king, and to those more influential with him than himself.

Accordingly, since his words and acts seemed contrived to bring odium upon the king, Agesilaüs, wishing to despite him still more, appointed him his carver of meats, and once said, we are told, in the hearing of many: Now then, let these suppliants go off to my carver of meats and pay their court to him.

Lysander, then, deeply pained, said to him: I see, Agesilaüs, that thou knowest very well how to humble thy friends. Yes indeed, said the king, those who wish to be more powerful than I am. Then Lysander said: Well, perhaps these words of thine are fairer than my deeds. Give me, however, some post and place where I shall be of service to thee, without vexing thee.[*](Cf. Lysander, xxiii. 9.)

Upon this he was sent to the Hellespont, and brought over to Agesilaüs from the country of Pharnabazus, Spithridates, a Persian, with much money and two hundred horsemen. He did not, however, lay aside his wrath, but continued his resentment, and from this time on planned how he might wrest the kingdom from the two royal families, and make all Spartans once more eligible to it. And it was thought that he would have brought about a great disturbance in consequence of this quarrel, had not death overtaken him on his expedition into Boeotia.[*](Cf. Lysander, xxiv.-xxviii.)