Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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.)