Agesilaus

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.)

Thus ambitious natures in a commonwealth, if they do not observe due bounds, work greater harm than good. For even though Lysander was troublesome, as he was, in gratifying his ambition unseasonably, still, Agesilaüs must surely have known another and more blameless way of correcting a man of high repute and ambition when he erred. As it was, it seems to have been due to the same passion that the one would not recognize the authority of his superior, nor the other endure the being ignored by his friend and comrade.