Agis

The following summer the Peloponnesians and their allies proceeded as far as the Isthmus for the invasion of Attica, under the command of Agis son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians;

About the same period of the spring, before the corn was ripe, the Peloponnesians and their allies made an incursion into Attica, under the conduct of Agis son of Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians;

for the Lacedaemonians and Agis their king thought that the affair of Pylus closely affected them;

During these days also, and while Thrasyllus was in Athens, Agis made a raid from Decelea up to the very walls of the city;

Meanwhile Agis, who could see from Decelea great numbers of grain-ships sailing in to Piraeus, said that it was useless for his troops to be trying all this long time to shut off the Athenians from access to their land, unless one should occupy also the country from which the grain was coming in by sea;

When Agis saw this, he withdrew in haste, and some few of his rear line were killed by the Athenian light troops.

Hippodamus, when Agis was joined in command with Archidamus, being sent with Agis to Sparta to look after affairs there, said, But shall I not die a more glorious death fighting valiantly in defence of Sparta?

And therefore Agis the king, when after a long absence he returned from the camp (the Athenians were beaten in the expedition), willing to sup at home with his wife once, sent a servant for his allowance;

Eudamidas, the son of Archidamus and brother of Agis, seeing Xenocrates, now grown old, philosophizing in the Academy with some of his acquaintance, asked what old man that was.

For instance, when King Agis, on returning from an expedition in which he had been victorious over the Athenians, wished to sup at home with his wife, and sent for his rations, the polemarchs refused to send them to him;

King Agis, accordingly, when a certain Athenian decried the Spartan swords for being so short, and said that jugglers on the stage easily swallowed them, replied:

And Agis, when certain ones were praising the Eleians for their just and honourable conduct of the Olympic games, said:

It was during the reign of Agis that Alcibiades came from Sicily as an exile to Sparta, and he had not been long in the city when he incurred the charge of illicit intercourse with Timaea, the wife of the king.

Notwithstanding this, after the death of Agis, Lysander, who by this time had subdued the Athenians at sea and was a man of the greatest influence in Sparta, tried to advance Agesilaüs to the throne, on the plea that Leotychides was a bastard and had no claim upon it.

On this account Alcibiades withdrew from Sparta, being in fear of Agis;

but Agis was certainly the first king of Sparta to be put to death by the ephors.

Agis, therefore, thinking it a noble achievement, as it was, to equalize and restore to full numbers the body of citizens, began to sound the inclinations of people.

For already many people were aware of the arrest, and there was a noisy throng at the door and many torches, and the mother and grandmother of Agis were there, with cries and prayers that the king of the Spartans should have a hearing and a trial before the citizens.

For while Agis the king was away on his campaigns, Alcibiades corrupted Timaea his wife, so that she was with child by him and made no denial of it.

He would thus either thwart and humble Agis, if the king kept entirely quiet, or would fight a fight that was sacred and approved by the gods, in behalf of the greatest and holiest interests, in full sight of his native city, and with all his fellow citizens eye-witnesses of his valor.

And since Leotychides had been born at the end of this period, Agis declared that he was no child of his.

Then he landed in Attica and saluted Agis, who came down in person from Deceleia to meet him, and displayed to the land forces there the strength of his fleet, with the mien of one who sailed where he pleased and was master of the sea.

After he had spent some little time in this business, and had sent messengers to Lacedaemon to report that he was sailing up with two hundred ships, he made a junction in Attica with the forces of Agis and Pausanias, the kings, believing that he would speedily capture the city.

Now Agis, as they tell us, being convinced by a computation of time that his wife had not conceived by him, ignored Leotychides, and manifestly repudiated him up to the last.

King Agis said, The Lacedaemonians are not wont to ask how many, but where the enemy are.

AGIS THE YOUNGER.

And I imagine that even Lampido, daughter of Leotychides and wife of Archidamus and mother of Agis, who have all been kings, would wonder in the same way, when she compared her people’s resources, at your intention of having a contest with her son despite your bad upbringing.

For when the Achaeans were bent on an engagement with the Aetolians in front of Megara, and Agis the king of the Lacedaemonians was come up with an army and joined in urging the Achaeans on to battle, Aratus opposed this counsel, and in spite of much vilification and much scoffing abuse for weakness and cowardice would not abandon, because of any seeming disgrace, which he judged to be for the gen …

Agis and Cleomenes, on the other hand, though they were sons of fathers who had adopted opposite principles to theirs, and found their country in a wretched plight and full of distempers, did not suffer these things to blunt the edge of their zeal for what was noble.

but in the case of the Greeks, Agis would not kill a single citizen, and therefore died what one might almost call a voluntary death, and Cleomenes, after setting out to avenge himself for insults and wrongs, found the occasion unfavourable and with a good courage slew himself.

he was baffled by Agesilaüs, and broke his promise to the citizens about the redistribution of lands, and in a word abandoned and left unfinished the designs which he had deliberately formed and announced, owing to a lack of courage due to his youth.

Why truly, replied the man, I must confess, I am not a little troubled to observe, that all you great men who are descended from Jupiter take a strange delight in flatterers and buffoons;

Agis the Lycian, but bold Valerus, true to his valiant breeding, hurled him down;

For on the death of King Agis there was a struggle for the throne between Leotychidas, as the son of Agis, and Agesilaus, as the son of Archidamus.

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;