Agesilaus

Very gentle with friends, he was very formidable to enemies; and while he resisted fatigue obstinately, he yielded most readily to a comrade, though fair deeds appealed more to his heart than fair faces. To moderation in times of prosperity he added confidence in the midst of danger.

His urbanity found its habitual expression not in jokes but in his manner; and when on his dignity, he was never arrogant, but always reasonable; at least, if he showed his contempt for the haughty, he was humbler than the average man. For he prided himself on the simplicity of his own dress and the splendid equipment of his army, on a strict limitation of his own needs and a boundless generosity to his friends.

Added to this, he was the bitterest of adversaries, but the mildest of conquerors; wary with enemies, but very compliant to friends. While ever ensuring security to his own side, he ever made it his business to bring to nought the designs of his enemy.

By his relatives he was described as devoted to his family, by his intimates as an unfailing friend,[*](Xen. Hell. 5.5.45) by those who served him as unforgetful, by the oppressed as a champion, by his comrades in danger as a saviour second to the gods. In one respect, I think, he was unique.

He proved that, though the bodily strength decays, the vigour of good men’s souls is ageless. At any rate, he never wearied in the pursuit of great and noble glory so long as his body could support the vigour of his soul.

What man’s youth, then, did not seem weaker than his old age? For who in his prime was so formidable to his foes as Agesilaus at the very limit of human life? Whose removal brought such welcome relief to the enemy as the death of Agesilaus, despite his years? Who gave such confidence to allies as Agesilaus, though now on the threshold of death? What young man was more regretted by his friends than Agesilaus, though he died full of years?

So complete was the record of his service to his fatherland that it did not end even when he died: he was still a bountiful benefactor of the state when he was brought home to be laid in his eternal resting-place, and, having raised up monuments of his virtue throughout the world, was buried with royal ceremony in his own land.[*](The reference is to the money which Agesilaus had obtained in Egypt, and which was brought to the city with his body. For the burial see Xen. Const. Lac. end.)