Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (119 page)

Some time afterwards, finding that the Argives were enjoying the fruits of their land, that they had appropriated Corinth and were finding the war a pleasant occupation, he made an expedition against them. He first laid waste all their territory, then crossed to Corinth by the pass and captured the walls leading to Lechaeum. Having thus unbarred the gates of Peloponnese, he returned home for the festival of Hyacinthus and joined in singing the paean in honour of the god, taking the place assigned to him by the choirmaster.
[18]

After a time, discovering that the Corinthians were keeping all their cattle safe in Peiraeum, and sowing and reaping the crops throughout that district, and — what he thought most serious — that the Boeotians were finding this route convenient for sending support to the Corinthians, with Creusis as their base, he marched against Peiraeum. Seeing that it was strongly guarded, he moved his camp after the morning meal to a position before the capital, as though the city was about to surrender.
[19]
But becoming aware that supports had been hurriedly poured into the city during the night from Peiraeum, he turned about at daybreak and captured Peiraeum, finding it undefended, and everything in it, along with the fortresses that stood there, fell into his hands. Having done this, he returned home.
[20]

After these events, the Achaeans, who were zealous advocates of the alliance, begged him to join them in an expedition against Acarnania ... . And when the Acarnanians attacked him in a mountain pass he seized the heights above their heads with his light infantry, fought an engagement and, after inflicting severe losses on them, set up a trophy; nor did he cease until he had induced the Acarnanians, Aetolians and Argives to enter into friendship with the Achaeans and alliance with himself.
[21]

When the enemy sent embassies desiring peace, Agesilaus opposed the peace until he forced Corinth and Thebes to restore to their homes the citizens who had been exiled on account of their sympathy with the Lacedaemonians. And again later, having led an expedition in person against Phleius, he also restored the Phleiasian exiles who had suffered in the same cause. Possibly some may censure these actions on other grounds, but at least it is obvious that they were prompted by a spirit of true comradeship.
[22]
It was in the same spirit that he subsequently made an expedition against Thebes, to relieve the Lacedaemonians in that city when their opponents had taken to murdering them. Finding the city protected on all sides by a trench and stockade, he crossed the Pass of Cynoscephalae, and laid waste the country up to the city walls, offering battle to the Thebans both on the plain and on the hills, if they chose to fight. In the following year he made another expedition against Thebes, and, after crossing the stockade and trenches at Scolus, laid waste the rest of Boeotia.
[23]

Up to this time he and his city enjoyed unbroken success; and though the following years brought a series of troubles, it cannot be said that they were incurred under the leadership of Agesilaus. On the other hand, after the disaster at Leuctra, when his adversaries in league with the Mantineans were murdering his friends and acquaintances in Tegea, and a coalition of all Boeotia, Arcadia and Elis had been formed, he took the field with the Lacedaemonian forces only, thus disappointing the general expectation that the Lacedaemonians would not even go outside their own borders for a long time to come. It was not until he had laid waste the country of those who had murdered his friends that he returned home once more.
[24]

After this Sparta was attacked by all the Arcadians, Argives, Eleians and Boeotians, who had the support of the Phocians, both the Locrian peoples, the Thessalians, Aenianians, Acarnanians and Euboeans. In addition the slaves and many of the outlander communities were in revolt, and at least as many of the Spartan nobles had fallen in the battle of Leuctra as survived. He kept the city safe notwithstanding, and that though it was without walls, not going out into the open where the advantage would have lain wholly with the enemy, and keeping his army strongly posted where the citizens would have the advantage; for he believed that he would be surrounded on all sides if he came out into the plain, but that if he made a stand in the defiles and the heights, he would be master of the situation.
[25]

After the retirement of the enemy, none will deny that his conduct was marked by good sense. The marching and riding incidental to active service were no longer possible to a man of his years, but he saw that the state must have money if she was to gain an ally anywhere. So he applied himself to the business of raising money. At home he did all that ingenuity could suggest; and, if he saw any prospect of serving the state abroad, shrank from no measures that circumstances called for, and he was not ashamed to go out, not as a general, but as an envoy.
[26]
And even as an envoy he accomplished work worthy of a great general. For instance, Autophradates laying siege to Ariobarzanes, an ally of Sparta, at Assos, took to his heels from fear of Agesilaus. Cotys for his part, besieging Sestos, while it was still in the hands of Ariobarzanes, broke up the siege and made off. With good reason, therefore, might the victorious envoy have set up a trophy once again to record these bloodless successes.
[27]
Again, Mausolus, laying siege to both these places with a fleet of a hundred vessels, was induced, not indeed by fear, but by persuasion, to sail for home. In this affair too his success was admirable; for those who considered that they were under an obligation to him and those who fled before him, both paid. Yet again, Tachos and Mausolus (another of those who contributed money to Sparta, owing to his old ties of hospitality with Agesilaus), sent him home with a magnificent escort.
[28]

Subsequently, when he was now about eighty years of age, he became aware that the king of Egypt was bent on war with Persia, and was possessed of large forces of infantry and cavalry and plenty of money. He was delighted when a summons for help reached him from the Egyptian king, who actually promised him the chief command.
[29]
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.
[30]
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.
[31]
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 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.

3.
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.
[2]

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, 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
[3]
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
[4]
the command of the Great King, though it was accompanied with the symbol of 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.
[5]
And Pharnabazus too came and parleyed with Agesilaus, and made agreement with him that if he were not himself appointed the Persian general, he would revolt from the Great King. “But,” he said, “if I become general, I shall make war on you, Agesilaus, with all my might.” He used this language in full confidence that nothing contrary to the terms of the armistice would happen to him. So great and so noble a treasure has every man, and above all a general, who is upright and trustworthy and is known to be so. So much, then, for the virtue of Piety.

4.
Next comes his Justice in money matters. Of this what proofs can be more convincing than the following? No man ever made any complaint that he had been defrauded by Agesilaus: but many acknowledged that they had received many benefits from him. One who delighted to give away his own for the good of others could not possibly be minded to defraud others at the price of disgrace. For if he had coveted money it would have cost him far less trouble to keep his own than to take what did not belong to him.
[2]
A man who would not leave unpaid debts of gratitude, which are not recoverable in the courts, cannot have been minded to commit thefts that are forbidden by law. And Agesilaus held it wrong not only to repudiate a debt of gratitude, but, having greater means, not to render in return a much greater kindness.
[3]
Again, with what show of reason could embezzlement of public property be charged against a man who bestowed on his fatherland the rewards due to himself? And is it not a striking proof of his freedom from avarice that he was able to get money from others, whenever he wanted, for the purpose of rendering financial assistance to the state or his friends?
[4]
For had he been in the habit of selling his favours or taking payment for his benefactions, no one would have felt that he owed him anything. It is the recipient of unbought, gratuitous benefits who is always glad to oblige his benefactor in return for the kindness he has received and in acknowledgment of the trust reposed in him as a worthy and faithful guardian of a favour.
[5]

Further, is it not certain that the man who by a noble instinct refused to take more and preferred to take less than his just share was far beyond the reach of covetousness? Now when the state pronounced him sole heir to the property of Agis, he gave half of it to his mother’s kinsfolk, because he saw that they were in want; and all Lacedaemon bears witness that my statement is true.
[6]
On receiving from Tithraustes an offer of gifts unnumbered if only he would leave his country, Agesilaus answered: “Among us, Tithraustes, a ruler’s honour requires him to enrich his army rather than himself, and to take spoils rather than gifts from the enemy.”

5.
Again, among all the pleasures that prove too strong for many men, who can mention one to which Agesilaus yielded? Drunkenness, he thought, should be avoided like madness, overeating like idleness. Moreover, he received a double ration at the public meals, but instead of consuming both portions himself, he distributed both and left neither for himself, holding that the purpose of this double allowance to the king was not to provide him with a heavy meal, but to give him the opportunity of honouring whomsoever he would.
[2]
As for sleep, it was not his master, but the servant of his activities; and unless he occupied the humblest bed among his comrades, he could not conceal his shame: for he thought that a ruler’s superiority over ordinary men should be shown not by weakness but by endurance.
[3]

There were things, to be sure, of which he was not ashamed to take more than his share — for instance, the summer’s heat and the winter’s cold: and whenever his army was faced with a hard task, he toiled willingly beyond all others, believing that all such actions were an encouragement to the men. Not to labour the point, Agesilaus gloried in hard work, and showed a strong distaste for indolence.
[4]

His habitual control of his affections surely deserves a tribute of admiration, if worthy of mention on no other ground. That he should keep at arms’ length those whose intimacy he did not desire may be thought only human. But he loved Megabates, the handsome son of Spithridates, with all the intensity of an ardent nature. Now it is the custom among the Persians to bestow a kiss on those whom they honour. Yet when Megabates attempted to kiss him, Agesilaus resisted his advances with all his might — an act of punctilious moderation surely!
[5]
Megabates, feeling himself slighted, tried no more to kiss him, and Agesilaus approached one of his companions with a request that he would persuade Megabates to show him honour once again. “Will you kiss him,” asked his companion, “if Megabates yields?” After a deep silence, Agesilaus gave his reply: “By the twin gods, no, not if I were straightway to be the fairest and strongest and fleetest man on earth! By all the gods I swear that I would rather fight that same battle over again than that everything I see should turn into gold.”
[6]
What opinion some hold in regard to these matters I know well enough; but for my part I am persuaded that many more men can gain the mastery over their enemies than over impulses such as these. No doubt when these things are known to few, many have a right to be sceptical: but we all know this, that the greater a man’s fame, the fiercer is the light that beats on all his actions; we know too that no one ever reported that he had seen Agesilaus do any such thing, and that no scandal based on conjecture would have gained credence; for it was not his
[7]
habit, when abroad, to lodge apart in a private house, but he was always either in a temple, where conduct of this sort is, of course, impossible, or else in a public place where all men’s eyes became witnesses of his rectitude. If I speak this falsely against the knowledge of the Greek world, I am in no way praising my hero; but I am censuring myself.