Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Agesilaus used to say that the inhabitants of Asia Minor were poor freemen, but good slaves. [*](Cf. Moralia, 213 C infra. The remark is attributed to Callicratidas, Moralia, 222 E, infra. Cf. also the similar sentiment recorded in Herodotus, iv. 142.)

Regarding their custom of calling the king of the Persians the Great King, he said, In what respect is he greater than I, unless he is more upright and self-restrained ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 78 D, 213 C, 545 A; Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxiii. (608 F); also Xenophon, Agesilaus, 8. 4. A similar remark of Socrates is found in Plato, Gorgias, 470 E.)

When he was questioned about bravery and uprightness and asked which was the better, he said, We have no need of bravery if we are all upright. [*](Cf. Moralia, 213 C, infra, and Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xiii. (608 F).)

When he was about to break camp in haste by night to leave the enemy’s country, and saw his favourite youth, owing to illness, being left behind all in tears, he said, It is hard to be merciful and sensible at the same time. [*](Cf. Moralia, 209 F, infra, and Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xiii. (603 B).)

Menecrates the physician, who was addressed by the title of Zeus, wrote in a letter to him: Menecrates Zeus to King Agesilaus, health and happiness. Agesilaus wrote in reply: King Agesilaus to Menecrates, health and sanity! [*](The story is repeated in Moralia, 213 A, and in Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxi. (607 E). Aelian, Varia Historia, xii. 51, and Athenaeus, 289 B, say that it was Philip of Macedon who thus replied to Menecrates.)

The Spartans won a victory over the Athenians and their allies at Corinth, [*](In 394 B.C.) and when he learned the number of the enemy ’s dead he exclaimed, Alas for Greece which by her ain hands has destroyed so mony men, in number eneuch to conquer all the barbarians ! [*](Cf. Moralia, 211 E, infra; Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xvi. (604 F); Cornelius Nepos, Agesilaus, 5. 2. The source is probably Xenophon, Agesilaus, 7. 4.)

He received an oracle from Zeus at Olympia such as he wished, and thereupon the Ephors commanded him to ask the Pythian god [*](Apollo, the son of Zeus.) about the same matter. So, when he arrived at Delphi, he asked the god if his opinion was the same as his father’s. [*](Cf. Moralia, 208 F, when the oracle at Dodona is mentioned instead of Olympia. It is probable that this story, which was related of Agesipolis by Xenophon, Hellenica, iv. 7. 2, and by Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 23 (MSS. Hegisippus), has been transferred to Agesilaus.)

In interceding with Hidrieus of Caria for one of his friends he wrote: If Nicias has done no wrong, let him go free; if he has done wrong, let him go as a favour to me; but let him go anyway. [*](Cf. Moralia, 209 E and 807 F; and Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xiii. (603 B).)

Being urged to hear a man who gave an imitation of the nightingale’s voice, he said, I hae heard the bird itsel’ mony a time. [*](Cf. Moralia, 212 F and 213 C, infra Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxi. (607 E); and Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 E).)

After the battle of Leuctra, since the law decrees that all who run away in battle shall lose their citizenship, and the Ephors saw that the State was destitute of men, they, wishing to abrogate this penalty, invested Agesilaus with authority to revise the laws. He came forward into their midst, and ordered that beginning with the morrow all laws should be in full force. [*](Cf. Moralia, 214 B, infra; Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxx. (612 ); Comparison of Agesilaus and Pompey, chap. ii. (662 E); and Polyaenus, Strategemata, ii. 1. 13.)

He was sent as an ally to the king of the Egyptians, and was shut up in camp, together with the king, besieged by hostile forces which many times outnumbered their own. As the enemy were digging a ditch around the encampment, the king urged a sally and a decisive battle, but Agesilaus refused to hinder the enemy in their desire to put themselves on an equal footing with the defending force. When the ends of the ditch almost met, he drew up his men at this gap, and contending with equal numbers against equal numbers won a victory. [*](Cf. Moralia, 214 F, infra; Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxxix. (618 A); Polyaenus, Strategemata, ii. 1. 22; Diodorus, xv. 93.)

When he was dying he gave orders that his friends have no plaster or paint used, for this was the way he spoke of statues and portraits. For, said he, if I have done any noble deed, that is my memorial; but if none, then not all the statues in the world avail. [*](Cf. Moralia, 215 A, infra; Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. ii. (59 F); Xenophon, Agesilaus, ii. 7; Dio Chrysostom, Oration, xxxv. (466 M., 127 R.); Cicero, Letters, v. 12. 7.)