Agesilaus
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Xenophon >> Agesilaus
[3] See "Hell." IV. ii. 7.
[4] Lit. "mora."
I am not going to maintain that he ventured on the engagement in spite
of having far fewer and inferior forces. Such an assertion would only
reveal the senselessness of the general[5] and the folly of the writer
who should select as praiseworthy the reckless imperilling of mighty
interests. On the contrary, what I admire is the fact that he had
taken care to provide himself with an army not inferior to that of his
enemy, and had so equipped them that his cohorts literally gleamed
with purple and bronze.[6] He had taken pains to enable his soldiers
to undergo the fatigue of war, he had filled their breasts with a
proud consciousness that they were equal to do battle with any
combatants in the world, and what was more, he had infused a wholesome
rivalry in those about him to prove themselves each better than the
rest. He had filled all hearts with sanguine expectation of great
blessings to descend on all, if they proved themselves good men. Such
incentives, he thought, were best calculated to arouse enthusiasm in
men's souls to engage in battle with the enemy. And in this
expectation he was not deceived.
[5] Lit. "Agesilaus."
[6] See "Cyrop." VI. iv. 1.
I proceed to describe the battle, for in certain distinctive features
it differed from all the battles of our day. The contending forces met
on the plain of Coronea, Agesilaus and his troops approaching from the
Cephisus, the Thebans and their allies from the slopes of the Helicon.
These masses of infantry, as any eye might see, were of duly balanced
strength, while as near as could be the cavalry on either side was
numerically the same. Agesilaus held the right of his own army, and on
his extreme left lay the men of Orchomenus. On the opposite side the
Thebans themselves formed their own right and the Argives held their
left. While the two armies approached a deep silence prevailed on
either side, but when they were now a single furlong's[7] space apart
the Thebans quickened to a run, and, with a loud hurrah, dashed
forward to close quarters. And now there was barely a hundred yards[8]
between them, when Herippidas, with his foreign brigade, rushed
forward from the Spartan's battle lines to meet them. This brigade
consisted partly of troops which had served with Agesilaus ever since
he left home, with a portion of the Cyreians, besides Ionians,
Aeolians, and their neighbours on the Hellespont. All these took part
in the foward rush of the attack just mentioned, and coming within
spear-thrust they routed that portion of the enemy in front of them.
The Argives did not even wait for Agesilaus and his division, but fled
towards Helicon, and at that moment some of his foreign friends were
on the point of crowning Agesilaus with the wreath of victory, when
some one brought him word that the Thebans had cut through the
division from Orchomenus and were busy with the baggage-train.
Accordingly he at once deployed his division and advanced by
counter-march against them. The Thebans on their side, seeing that
their allies had scattered on Helicon, and eager to make their way
back to join their friends, began advancing sturdily.
[7] Lit. "a stade."
[8] Lit. "three plethra."
To assert that Agesilaus at this crisis displayed real valour is to
assert a thing indisputable, but for all that the course he adopted
was not the safest. It was open to him to let the enemy pass in their
effort to rejoin their friends, and that done to have hung upon their
heels and overmastered their rear ranks, but he did nothing of the
sort: what he did was, to crash front to front against the Thebans.
And so with shields interlocked they shoved and fought and fought and
shoved, dealing death and yielding life. There was no shouting, nor
yet was there even silence, but a strange and smothered utterance,
such as rage and battle vent.[9] At last a portion of the Thebans
forced their way through towards Helicon, but many were slain in that
departure.
[9] Or, "as the rage and fury of battle may give vent to." See
"Cyrop." VII. i. 38-40. A graphic touch omitted in "Hell." IV.
iii. 19.
Victory remained with Agesilaus. Wounded himself, they bore him back
to his own lines, when some of his troopers came galloping up to tell
him that eighty of the enemy had taken refuge with their arms[10]
under cover of the Temple,[11] and they asked what they ought to do.
He, albeit he had received wounds all over him, having been the mark
of divers weapons, did not even so forget his duty to God, and gave
orders to let them go whithersoever they chose, nor suffered them to
be ill-treated, but ordered his bodyguard of cavalry to escort them
out of reach of danger.
[10] I.e. "they had kept their arms."
[11] See Plut. "Ages." xix.; Paus. ix. 34.
And now that the battle had ceased, it was a sight to see where the
encounter took place, the earth bedabbled with gore, the dead lying
cheek by jowl, friend and foe together, and the great shields hacked
and broken to pieces, and the spears snapped asunder, the daggers
lying bare of sheaths, some on the ground, some buried in the bodies,
some still clutched in the dead men's hands. For the moment then,
seeing that it was already late in the day, they dragged together the
corpses of their slain apart from those of the enemy[12] and laid them
within the lines, and took their evening meal and slept; but early
next morning Agesilaus ordered Gylis, the polemarch, to marshal the
troops in battle order and to set up a trophy, while each man donned a
wreath in honour of the god, and the pipers piped. So they busied
themselves, but the Thebans sent a herald asking leave to bury their
dead under cover of a truce. And so it came to pass that a truce was
made, and Agesilaus departed homewards, having chosen, in lieu of
supreme greatness in Asia, to rule, and to be ruled, in obedience to
the laws at home.
[12] Reading, {tous ek ton polemion nekrous}, after Weiske.
It was after this[13] that his attention was drawn to the men of
Argos. They had appropriated Corinth, and were reaping the fruits of
their fields at home. The war to them was a merry jest. Accordingly he
marched against them; and having ravaged their territory throughout,
he crossed over by the pass[14] down upon Corinth and captured the
long walls leading to Lechaeum. And so having thrown open the gates of
Peloponnese he returned home in time for the Hyacinthia,[15] where, in
the post assigned to him by the master of the chorus, he shared in the
performance of the paean in honour of the god.
[13] B.C. 393.
[14] {kata ta stena}. See "Hell." IV. iv. 19. {kata Tenean}, according
to Koppen's emendation.
[15] See Grote, "H. G." v. 208; Herod. ix. 7; "Hell." IV. v. 10.
Later on, it being brought to his notice that the Corinthians were
keeping all their cattle safely housed in the Peiraeum, sowing the
whole of that district, and gathering in their crops; and, which was a
matter of the greatest moment, that the Boeotians, with Creusis as
their base of operations, could pour their succours into Corinth by
this route--he marched against Peiraeum. Finding it strongly guarded,
he made as if the city of Corinth were about to capitulate, and
immediately after the morning meal shifted his ground and encamped
against the capital. Under cover of night there was a rush from
Peiraeum to protect the city, which he was well aware of, and with
break of day he turned right about and took Peiraeum, defenceless as
it lay, capturing all that it contained, with the various fortresses
within; and having so done retired homewards.
After these exploits[16] the Achaeans were urgent for an alliance, and
begged him to join them in an expedition against Acarnania. In the
course of this the Acarnanians attacked him in a defile. Storming the
heights above his head with his light troops,[17] he gave them battle,
and slew many of them, and set up a trophy, nor stayed his hand until
he had united the Acarnanians, the Aetolians, and the Argives,[18] in
friendship with the Achaeans and alliance with himself.
[16] B.C. 390-389?
[17] See "Hell." IV. vi. 9-11, where it is expressly stated that the
action was won by the Spartan hoplites. See Hartman, "An. Xen."
(cap. xi. "De Agesilao libello"), p. 263, for other discrepancies
between the historian and the encomiast.
[18] See perhaps "Hell." IV. iv. 19; vii. 2 foll.
When the enemy, being desirous of peace, sent an embassy, it was
Agesilaus who spoke against the peace,[19] until he had forced the
states of Corinth and of Thebes to welcome back those of them who, for
Lacedaemon's sake, had suffered banishment.
[19] I.e. "of Antalcidas, B.C. 387." See "Hell." V. i. 36; Grote, "H.
G." ix. 537 note.
And still later,[20] again, he restored the exiles of the Phliasians,
who had suffered in the same cause, and with that object marched in
person against Phlius, a proceeding which, however liable to censure
on other grounds, showed unmistakable attachment to his party.[21]
[20] B.C. 383 and 380; see "Hell." V. ii. 10; iii. 10.
[21] See "Hell." V. iii. 16.
Thus, when the adverse faction had put to death those of the
Lacedaemonians then in Thebes, he brought succour to his friends, and
marched upon Thebes.[22] Finding the entire country fenced with ditch
and palisading, he crossed Cynoscephalae[23] and ravaged the district
right up to the city itself, giving the Thebans an opportunity of
engaging him in the plain or upon the hills, as they preferred. And
once more, in the ensuing year,[24] he marched against Thebes, and now
surmounting these palisades and entrenchments at Scolus,[25] he
ravaged the remainder of Boeotia.
[22] B.C. 378.
[23] See "Hell." V. iv. 34 foll.; for the site see Breitenbach, ad
loc.
[24] B.C. 377.
[25] See "Hell." V. iv. 47.
Hitherto fortune had smiled in common upon the king himself and upon
his city. And as for the disasters which presently befell, no one can
maintain that they were brought about under the leadership of
Agesilaus. But the day came when, after the disaster which had
occurred at Leuctra, the rival powers in conjunction with the
Mantineans fell to massacring his friends and adherents[26] in Tegea
(the confederacy between all the states of Boeotia, the Arcadians, and
the Eleians being already an accomplished fact). Thereupon, with the
forces of Lacedaemon alone,[27] he took the field, and thus belied the
current opinion that it would be a long while before the
Lacedaemonians ventured to leave their own territory again. Having
ravaged the country of those who had done his friends to death, he was
content, and returned home.
[26] Or intimates.
[27] B.C. 370. See "Hell."VI. v. 21.
After this Lacedaemon was invaded by the united Arcadians, Argives,
Eleians, and Boeotians, who were assisted by the Phocians, both
sections of the Locrians, the Thessalians, Aenianians, Acarnanians,
and Euboeans; moreover, the slaves had revolted and several of the
provincial cities;[28] while of the Spartans themselves as many had
fallen on the field of Leuctra as survived. But in spite of all, he
safely guarded the city, and that too a city without walls and
bulwarks. Forbearing to engage in the open field, where the gain would
lie wholly with the enemy, he lay stoutly embattled on ground where
the citizens must reap advantage; since, as he doggedly persisted, to
march out meant to be surrounded on every side; whereas to stand at
bay where every defile gave a coign of vantage, would give him mastery
complete.[29]
[28] Lit. "perioecid"; see Plut. "Ages." xxxii. (Clough, iv. 39);
"Hell." VI. v. 32.
[29] Is this parallel to "Hell." VII. v. 10, or "Hell." VI. v. 28?
According to the historian, Agesilaus adopted similar tactics on
both occasions (in B.C. 369 and B.C. 362 alike). The encomiast
after his manner appears to treat them as one. Once and again his
hero "cunctando restituit rem," but it was by the same strategy.
After the invading army had retired, no one will gainsay the sound
sense of his behaviour. Old age debarred him from active service on
foot or horse, and what the city chiefly needed now, he saw, was
money, if she looked to gain allies. To the task therefore of
providing that he set himself. Everything that could be done by
stopping at home he deftly turned his hand to; or when the call arose
and he could better help his country by departure he had no false
pride; he set off on foreign service, not as general, but as
ambassador. Yet on such embassy he achieved acts worthy of the
greatest general. Autophradates[30] was besieging Ariobarzanes,[31]
who was an ally of Sparta, in Assos; but before the face of Agesilaus
he fled in terror and was gone. Cotys,[32] besieging Sestos, which
still adhered to Ariobarzanes, broke up the siege and departed
crestfallen. Well might the ambassador have set up a trophy in
commemoration of the two bloodless victories. Once more, Mausolus[33]
was besieging both the above-named places with a squadron of one
hundred sail. He too, like, and yet unlike, the former two, yielded
not to terror but to persuasion, and withdrew his fleet. These, then,
were surely admirable achievements, since those who looked upon him as
a benefactor and those who fled from before him both alike made him
the richer by their gifts.
[30] Satrap of Lydia.
[31] Satrap of Propontis or Hellespontine Phrygia.
[32] Satrap of Paphlagonia, king of Thrace. Iphicrates married his
daughter. See Grote, "H. G." x. 410.
[33] Satrap of Caria.
Tachos,[34] indeed, and Mausolus gave him a magnificent escort; and,
for the sake of his former friendship with Agesilaus, the latter
contributed also money for the state of Lacedaemon; and so they sped
him home.
[34] King of Egypt.
And now the weight of, may be, fourscore years was laid upon him,[35]
when it came under his observation that the king of Egypt,[36] with
his hosts of foot and horse and stores of wealth, had set his heart on
a war with Persia. Joyfully he learned that he himself was summoned by
King Tachos, and that the command-in-chief of all the forces was
promised to him. By this one venture he would achieve three objects,
which were to requite the Egyptian for the benefits conferred on
Lacedaemon; to liberate the Hellenes in Asia once again; and to
inflict on the Persian a just recompense, not only for the old
offences, but for this which was of to-day; seeing that, while
boasting alliance with Sparta, he had dictatorially enjoined the
emancipation of Messene.[37] But when the man who had summoned him
refused to confer the proffered generalship, Agesilaus, like one on
whom a flagrant deception has been practised, began to consider the
part he had to play. Meanwhile a separate division[38] of the Egyptian
armies held aloof from their king. Then, the disaffection spreading,
all the rest of his troops deserted him; whereat the monarch took
flight and retired in exile to Sidon in Phoenicia, leaving the
Egyptians, split in faction, to choose to themselves a pair of
kings.[39] Thereupon Agesilaus took his decision. If he helped
neither, it meant that neither would pay the service-money due to his
Hellenes, that neither would provide a market, and that, whichever of
the two conquered in the end, Sparta would be equally detested. But if
he threw in his lot with one of them, that one would in all likelihood
in return for the kindness prove a friend. Accordingly he chose
between the two that one who seemed to be the truer partisan of
Hellas, and with him marched against the enemy of Hellas and conquered
him in a battle, crushing him. His rival he helped to establish on the
throne, and having made him a friend to Lacedaemon, and having
acquired vast sums besides, he turned and set sail homewards, even in
mid-winter, hastening so that Sparta might not lie inactive, but
against the coming summer be alert to confront the foe.
[35] Or, "But to pass on, he was already, may be, eighty years of age,
when it came under his observation. . . ."
[36] This same Tachos.
[37] See "Hell." VII. i. 36; iv. 9.
[38] I.e. "the army under Nectanebos." See Diod. xv. 92; Plut. "Ages."
xxxvii. (Clough, iv. 44 foll.)
[39] I.e. "Nectanebos and a certain Mendesian."
III
Such, then, is the chronicle of this man's achievements, or of such of
them as were wrought in the presence of a thousand witnesses. Being of
this sort they have no need of further testimony; the mere recital of
them is sufficient, and they at once win credence. But now I will
endeavour to reveal the excellence indwelling in his soul, the motive
power of his acts, in virtue of which he clung to all things
honourable and thrust aside all baseness.
Agesilaus showed such reverence for things divine that even his
enemies regarded his oaths and solemn treaties as more to be relied on
than the tie of friendship amongst themselves. These same men, who
would shrink from too close intercourse with one another, delivered
themselves into the hands of Agesilaus without fear. And lest the
assertion should excite discredit, I may name some illustrious
examples. Such was Spithridates the Persian, who knew that
Pharnabazus,[1] whilst negotiating to marry the daughter of the great
king, was minded to seize his own daughter unwedded. Resenting such
brutality, Spithridates delivered up himself, his wife, his children,
and his whole power, into the hands of Agesilaus. Cotys[2] also, the
ruler of Paphlagonia, had refused to obey a summons from the king,
although he sent him the warrant of his right hand;[3] then fear came
upon him lest he should be seized, and either be heavily fined or die
the death; yet he too, simply trusting to an armistice, came to the
camp of Agesilaus and made alliance, and of his own accord chose to
take the field with Agesilaus, bringing a thousand horsemen and two
thousand targeteers. Lastly, Pharnabazus[4] himself came and held
colloquy with Agesilaus, and openly agreed that if he were not himself
appointed general-in-chief of the royal forces he would revolt from
the king. "Whereas, if I do become general," he added, "I mean to make
war upon you, Agesilaus, might and main," thus revealing his
confidence that, say what he might, nothing would befall him contrary
to the terms of truce. Of so intrinsic a value to all, and not least
to a general in the field, is the proud possession of an honest and
God-fearing character, known and recognised. Thus far, as touching the
quality of piety.
[1] See "Hell." III. iv. 10; Plut. "Ages." xi. (Clough, iv. 9).
[2] See "Hell." IV. i. 3; Plut. "Ages." xi. (Clough, iv. 13).
[3] Diod. xvi. 34.
[4] See "Hell." IV. i. 37.
IV
To speak next of his justice[1] in affairs of money. As to this, what
testimony can be more conclusive than the following? During the whole
of his career no charge of fraudulent dealing was ever lodged against
Agesilaus; against which set the many-voiced acknowledgmment of
countless benefits received from him. A man who found pleasure in
giving away his own for the benefit of others was not the man to rob
another of his goods at the price of infamy. Had he suffered from this
thirst for riches it would have been easier to cling to what belonged
to him than to take that to which he had no just title. This man, who
was so careful to repay debts of gratitude, where[2] the law knows no
remedy against defaulters, was not likely to commit acts of robbery
which the law regards as criminal. And as a matter of act Agesilaus
judged it not only wrong to forgo repayment of a deed of kindness,
but, where the means were ample, wrong also not to repay such debts
with ample interest.
[1] See Muller and Donaldson, "Hist. Gk. Lit." ii. 196, note 2.
[2] Or, "a state of indebtedness beyond the reach of a tribunal." See
"Cyrop." I. ii. 7.
The charge of embezzlement, could it be alleged, would no less outrage
all reason in the case of one who made over to his country the benefit
in full of grateful offerings owed solely to himself. Indeed the very
fact that, when he wished to help the city or his friends with money,
he might have done so by the aid of others, goes a long way to prove
his indifference to the lure of riches; since, had he been in the
habit of selling his favour, or of playing the part of benefactor for
pay, there had been no room for a sense of indebtedness.[3] It is only
the recipient of gratuitous kindness who is ever ready to minister to
his benefactor, both in return for the kindness itself and for the
confidence implied in his selection as the fitting guardian of a good
deed on deposit.[4]
[3] Or, "no one would have felt to owe him anything."
[4] See "Cyrop." VI. i. 35; Rutherford, "New Phrynichus," p. 312.
Again, who more likely to put a gulf impassable between himself and
the sordid love of gain[5] than he, who nobly preferred to be stinted
of his dues[6] rather than snatch at the lion's share unjustly? It is
a case in point that, being pronounced by the state to be the rightful
heir to his brother's[7] wealth, he made over one half to his maternal
relatives because he saw that they were in need; and to the truth of
this assertion all Lacedaemon is witness. What, too, was his answer to
Tithraustes when the satrap offered him countless gifts if he would
but quit the country? "Tithraustes, with us it is deemed nobler for a
ruler to enrich his army than himself; it is expected of him to wrest
spoils from the enemy rather than take gifts."
[5] Or, "base covetousness."
[6] Or reading, {sun auto to gennaio} (with Breitenbach), "in
obedience to pure generosity." See "Cyrop." VIII. iii. 38.
[7] I.e. Agis. See Plut. "Ages." iv.
V
Or again, reviewing the divers pleasures which master human beings, I
defy any one to name a single one to which Agesilaus was enslaved:
Agesilaus, who regarded drunkenness as a thing to hold aloof from like
madness, and immoderate eating like the snare of indolence. Even the
double portion[1] allotted to him at the banquet was not spent on his
own appetite; rather would be make distribution of the whole,
retaining neither portion for himself. In his view of the matter this
doubling of the king's share was not for the sake of surfeiting, but
that the king might have the wherewithal to honour whom he wished. And
so, too, sleep[2] he treated not as a master, but as a slave,
subservient to higher concerns. The very couch he lay upon must be
sorrier than that of any of his company or he would have blushed for
shame, since in his opinion it was the duty of a leader to excel all
ordinary mortals in hardihood, not in effeminacy. Yet there were
things in which he was not ashamed to take the lion's share, as, for
example, the sun's heat in summer, or winter's cold. Did occasion ever
demaned of his army moil and toil, he laboured beyond all others as a
thing of course, believing that such ensamples are a consolation to
the rank and file. Or, to put the patter compendiously, Agesilaus
exulted in hard work: indolence he utterly repudiated.
[1] See "Pol. Lac." xv. 4. See J. J. Hartman, "An. Xen." 257.
[2] See Hom. "Il." ii. 24, {ou khro pannukhion eudein boulephoron
andra}, "to sleep all night through beseemeth not one that is a
counsellor."--W. Leaf.
And, as touching the things of Aphrodite, if for nothing else, at any
rate for the marvel of it, the self-restraint of the man deserves to
be put on record. It is easy to say that to abstain from that which
excites no desire is but human; yet in the case of Megabates, the son
of Spithridates, he was moved by as genuine a love as any passionate
soul may feel for what is lovely. Now, it being a national custom
among the Persians to salute those whom they honour with a kiss,
Megabates endeavoured so to salute Agesilaus, but the latter with much
show of battle, resisted--"No kiss might he accept."[3] I ask whether
such an incident does not reveal on the face of it the self-respect of
the man, and that of no vulgar order.[4] Megabates, who looked upon
himself as in some sense dishonoured, for the future endeavoured not
to offend in like sort again.[5] Whereupon Agesilaus appealed to one
who was his comrade to persuade Megabates again to honour him with his
regard; and the comrade, so appealed to, demanding, "If I persuade
him, will you bestow on him a kiss?" Agesilaus fell into a silence,
but presently exclaimed: "No, by the Twins, not if I might this very
instant become the swiftest-footed, strongest, and handsomest of
men.[6] And as to that battle I swear by all the gods I would far
rather fight it over again than that everything on which I set my eyes
might turn to gold."[7]
[3] See Plut. "Ages." (Clough, iv. p. 13 foll.)
[4] Reading, {kai lian gennikon}; or, "a refinement of self-respect,"
"a self-respect perhaps even over-sensitive."
[5] Lit. "made no further attempt to offer kisses."
[6] See Plut. "Ages." ii. (Clough, iv. p. 2): "He is said to have been
a little man of a contemptible presence."
[7] See Plut. "Ages." xi. (Clough, iv. p. 14); "Parall. Min." v; Ovid.
"Met." xi. 102 foll.