Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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.)