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.)

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.)

Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, on seeing the missile shot by a catapult, which had been brought then for the first time from Sicily, cried out, Great Heavens ! Man’s valour is no more ! [*](Cf. Moralia, 219 A, infra.)

The Younger Agis, referring to the assertion of Demades that jugglers use the Spartan swords for

When the Ephors ordered him to turn over soldiers to a traitor to lead, he said that he did not entrust another’s men to the man that betrayed his own. [*](Attributed to Agis II. in Moralia, 215 C.)

Somebody promised to give to Cleomenes cocks that would die fighting, but he retorted, No, don’t, but give me those that kill fighting. [*](Cf. Moralia, 224 B, infra, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xx. (52 E).)

When Paedaretus was not chosen to be one of the three hundred, [*](Cf. Herodotus, vii. 205, and viii. 124; Thucydides, v. 72; Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta, 4.3.) an honour which ranked highest in the State, he departed, cheerful and smiling, with the remark that he was glad if the State possessed three hundred citizens better than himself. [*](Cf. Moralia, 231 B, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxv. (55 C).)

When Damonidas was assigned to the last place in the chorus by the director, he said, Good ! You have discovered a way by which even this place may come to be held in honour. [*](Cf. Moralia, 149 A and 219 E. A similar remark is attributed to Agesilaus in Moralia, 208 D, and the idea is also accredited to Aristippus by Diogenes Laertius, ii. 73. )

Nicostratus, the general of the Argives, [*](At the time of ARchidamus III., 261-338 B.C.) was urged by Archidamus to betray a certain stronghold, his reward to be a large sum of money and marriage with any Spartan woman he wished, save only the royal family; but his reply was that Archidamus was not descended from Heracles, for Heracles, as he went about, punished the bad men, but Archidamus made the good men bad.

Eudamidas, seeing Xenocrates, already well on in years, discussing philosophy with his pupils in the Academy, and being informed that he was seeking after virtue, said, And when will he make use of it? [*](Cf. Moralia, 220 D.)

At another time, after he had listened to a philosopher who argued that the wise man is the only good general, he said,The speech is admirable, but the speaker has never been amid the blare of trumpets. [*](Ibid., 220 D infra.)

Antiochus, when he was an ephor, heard that Philip had given to the Messenians their land, whereupon he asked whether Philip had also given them the power to prevail in fighting to keep it. [*](Repeated Ibid., 217 F.)

Antalcidas, retorting to the Athenian who called the Spartans unlearned, said, At any rate,

When another Athenian said to him, You cannot deny that we have many a time put you to rout from the Cephisus, he said, But we have never put you to rout from the Eurotas ! [*](Cf. Moralia, 217 D and 810 F, Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xxxi. (613 D). The Cephisus was a river near Athens, and the Eurotas a river near Sparta.)

When a lecturer was about to read a laudatory essay on Heracles, he said, Why, who says anything against him ? [*](Cf. Moralia, 217 D.)