Agesilaus

For he believed that at one stroke he would repay the Egyptian for his good offices to Sparta, would again set free the Greeks in Asia, and would chastise the Persian for his former hostility, and for demanding now, when he professed to be an ally of Sparta, that her claim to Messene should be given up.

However, when this suitor for his assistance failed to give him the command Agesilaus felt that he had been grossly deceived, and was in doubt what he ought to do. At this juncture first a portion of the Egyptian troops, operating as a separate army, revolted from the king, and then the rest of his forces deserted him. The king left Egypt and fled in terror to Sidon in Phoenicia, while the Egyptians split up into two parties, and each chose its own king.

Agesilaus now realised that if he helped neither king, neither of them would pay the Greeks their wages, neither would provide a market, and the conqueror, whichever he proved to be, would be hostile, but if he co-operated with one of them, that one, being under an obligation to him, would in all probability adopt a friendly attitude. Accordingly, having decided which of them showed the stronger signs of being a friend to the Greeks, he took the field with him. He inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy of the Greeks, and helped to establish his rival; and so having made him the friend of Sparta, and having received a[*](362 B.C.) great sum of money in addition, he sailed home, though it was mid-winter, with all haste, in order that the state might be in a position to take action against her enemies in the coming summer.

Such, then, is the record of my hero’s deeds, so far as they were done before a crowd of witnesses. Actions like these need no proofs; the mere mention of them is enough and they command belief immediately. But now I will attempt to show the virtue that was in his soul, the virtue through which he wrought those deeds and loved all that is honourable and put away all that is base.

Agesilaus had such reverence for religion, that even his enemies considered his oaths and his treaties more to be relied on than their own friendship with one another: for there were times when they shrank from meeting together,[*](The text here is quite uncertain: there is a gap in the manuscripts after φιλίαν.) and yet would place themselves in the power of Agesilaus. And lest anyone should think this statement incredible, I wish to name the most famous among them. Spithridates the Persian, for example, knew that

Pharnabazus was negotiating for a marriage with the Great King’s daughter, and intended to take his, Spithridates’, daughter as a concubine. Regarding this as an outrage, he delivered himself, his wife, his children and all that he had into Agesilaus’ hands. Cotys, ruler of the Paphlagonians, who had disobeyed

the command of the Great King, though it was accompanied with the symbol of friendship,[*](The right hand, often mentioned as a pledge of good faith or friendship.) feared that he would be seized and either be fined heavily or even put to death; but he too, trusting in the armistice with Agesilaus, came to his camp and having entered into alliance elected to take the field at Agesilaus’ side with a thousand horse and two thousand targeteers.