Apophthegmata Laconica

Agesilaus the Great was once chosen by lot to be master of ceremonies at an evening party, and, when he was asked by the slave who poured the wine how much wine he should serve to each man, Agesilaus said, If much wine has been provided, as much as each one asks for; but if only a little, then give to all equally.

When a malefactor endured tortures without flinching, Agesilaus said, What an out-and-out

When someone praised an orator for his ability in making much of small matters, Agesilaus said that a shoemaker is not a good craftsman who puts big shoes on a small foot. [*](Cf.Moralia, 224 C, infra, and Cicero, De oratore, i. 54 (231).)

When someone said to him, You have agreed, and kept repeating the same thing, Agesilaus said, Yes, of course, if it is right; but if not, then I said so, but I did not agree. And when the other added, But surely kings ought to carry out whatsoe’er they confirm by the royal assent, [*](Adapted from Homer, Il. i. 527.) Agesilaus said, No more than those who approach kings ought to ask for what is right and say what is right, trying to hit upon the right occasion and a request fitting for kings to grant.

Whenever he heard people blaming or praising, he thought it was no less necessary to inform himself about the ways of those who spoke than of those about whom they spoke. [*](In almost the same words, but with a diffrent turn of the thought, in Xenophon, Agesilaus, 11. 4.)

When he was still a boy, at a celebration of the festival of the naked boys the director of the dance assigned him to an inconspicuous place; and he obeyed, although he was already destined to be king, [*](Plutarch in his Life of Agesilaus, chaps. i. and ii. (596 A and 597 B), says that Agesilaus was brought up as a private citizen and di not become king until after the death of Agis.) saying, Good! I shall show that it is not the places that make men to be held in honour, but the men the places. [*](Cf.Moralia, 149 A. In 219, infra the remark is attributed to Damonidas, and Diogenes Laertius, ii. 73, assigns it to Aristippus.)

When a physician prescribed for him an overelaborate

As he was standing at the altar of Athena of the Brazen House sacrificing a heifer, a louse bit him; but he did not turn a hair, and, picking it off, he cracked it openly before the eyes of all, saying, By Heaven, it is a pleasure to kill the plotter even at the altar.

At another time he saw a mouse being dragged from a hole by a boy who had hold of him, and the mouse turned and bit the hand that held him and escaped; whereupon Agesilaus called the attention of the bystanders to this, and said, When the smallest animal thus defends itself against those who do it wrong, consider what it becomes men to do. [*](Cf. the similar story about Brasidas in Moralia, 79 E, 190 B, and 219 C.)

Desiring to bring about the war against the Persian for the sake of setting free the Greeks living in Asia, he consulted the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, and when the god bade him to go on, he reported the answer to the Ephors. And they bade him go to Delphi and ask the same question. Accordingly he proceeded to the prophetic shrine and put his question in this form: Apollo, are you of the same opinion as your father? And Apollo concurring, Agesilaus was chosen, and began the campaign. [*](Cf.Moralia, 191 B, supra, and the note.)

Tissaphernes, at the outset, in fear of Agesilaus, made a treaty, agreeing that the king should leave him the Greek cities free and independent, but, after sending for a great army from the king, he

Finding himself inferior in horsemen, he retreated to Ephesus, and there made proclamation to the men of means that they should each provide a horse and a man, and thus gain their own release from service. As a result there were collected, in a very short time, both horses and capable men in place of wealthy cowards.[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. ix. (600 D); Xenophon, Hellenica, iii. 4. 15, and Agesilaus, 1. 24.) Agesilaus said he was emulating Agamemnon; for Agamemnon accepted a good mare and released from service a base man of wealth. [*](Cf.Moralia, 32 F. The reference is to Homer, Il. xxiii. 296 ff.)

When, in obedience to his orders that the prisoners of war be sold naked, those charged with selling the spoils so offered them, there were many buyers for the clothing, but as for the prisoners’ bodies, altogether white and soft because of their indoor life, the buyers derided them as useless and worthless. And Agesilaus, stepping up, said, These are the things for which you fight, and these are the men whom you fight. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. ix. (600 E); Xenophon, Hellenica, iii. 4. 19. Agesilaus, 1. 28: Polyaenus ii. 1. 5; Athenaeus, 550 E.)

Having routed Tissaphernes in the Lydia n country and slain a great many of his men, he proceeded to overrun the king’s country. The king sent money to him, and in return asked for a cessation of hostilities, but Agesilaus said that the State alone had the power to make peace, and that it gave him more pleasure to enrich his soldiers than to be rich himself, and that he thought it a grand thing that the Greeks did not accept gifts from the enemy, but took spoils instead. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. x. (601 A-B), where the remark is made to Tithraustes, who was sent by the king to supplant Tissaphernes. Cf. also Xenophon, Hellenica, iii. 4. 25, and Agesilaus 4.6.)

When Megabates, Spithridates’ son, who was most fair of form, came near to him as if to greet him with a kiss because the boy felt that he was held in aiFection by Agesilaus, Agesilaus drew back. And when the boy stopped coming to see him, Agesilaus asked for him; whereupon his friends said that he had only himself to blame, because he shrank from coming within kissing distance of the fair one, and if he would not act the coward, the boy would come again. Agesilaus, reflecting by himself for no brief time in uninterrupted silence, finally said, There is no need of our trying to persuade him; for I feel that I had rather be above such things than to take by storm the most populous city of our opponents, since it is better to preserve one’s own liberty than to deprive others of theirs. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xi. (602 A); Moralia, 31 C (81 A); Xenophon, Agesilaus, 5, 4-5.)

In almost all matters he was exact in observing the law, but in anything affecting his friends he thought that too rigid justice in dealings with them

Such, then, was Agesilaus in his friends’ behalf in most matters; but there are instances when, in meeting a critical situation, he showed more regard for the general weal. At any rate, on a time when camp was being broken in some disorder, and Agesilaus was leaving behind his loved one who was ill, and the loved one implored him and called him back with tears, Agesilaus, turning round, exclaimed, How hard it is to be merciful and sensible at the same time! [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xiii. (603 C); Moralia, 191 A, supra. )

The mode of living which he followed personally was in no wise better than that of his associates. He refrained always from overeating and from heavy drinking. Sleep he treated, not as a master, but as governed at all times by what he had to do; and such was his attitude towards heat and cold that he alone was able to make good use of the different seasons; and in his tent, which was in the midst of his soldiers, he had no better bed than anybody else. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus, chap. xiv. (603); Xenophon, Agesilaus, 5. 2-3, and 9. 5; Cornelius Nepos, xvii., Agesilaus, 5. 2.)

He was continually saying that the commander ought rightly to be superior to the privates not in soft living and luxury, but in endurance and courage. [*](Cf. Xenophon, Agesilaus, 5. 2.)

At any rate, when someone inquired what advantage the laws of Lycurgus had brought to Sparta, he said, Contempt for pleasures.