by Xenophon
AGESILAUS
CHAPTER 1
I am well aware of the difficulty of writing a tribute to Agesilaus that [1] does justice to his virtue and reputation, but all the same the attempt has to be made. It would be wrong for a man’s perfect goodness to condemn him to receiving no acclaim, however inadequate!
First, then, on the nobility of his lineage, could one find more [2] telling or excellent evidence than the fact that even today people count the generations of illustrious ancestors – no ordinary citizens, but kings and the sons of kings – who constitute his descent from Heracles?1 Nor could one find fault with them by claiming that, [3] although they were kings, the state they ruled over was an insignificant one. No, the supreme regard in which their line is held in their fatherland is matched by the pre-eminent position their state occupies in Greece, and so they were not the first citizens of a second-rate country, but leaders among leaders. Both the country and lineage of [4] Agesilaus also merit joint acclaim because the community never let envy of his ancestors lead them to attempt to put an end to their rule and the kings never lusted after more power than they originally received at their accession. That is why, as is apparent, no other government – whether it was a democracy, an oligarchy, a tyranny or a kingship – has enjoyed unbroken continuity, while this one alone, his ancestral kingship, has had a continuous existence.2
Moreover, it is clear that Agesilaus was considered worthy of the [5] throne even before his reign began, because after the death of King Agis, when the throne was disputed between Leotychidas (on the grounds that he was the son of Agis) and Agesilaus (on the grounds that he was the son of Archidamus), the state judged Agesilaus to be the more suitable candidate, thanks to his lineage and his virtue, and they accordingly chose him as their king.3 And what further evidence is needed of his virtue as far as the period before he ascended to the throne is concerned, than the fact that he was judged worthy of the highest office4 in the most powerful state by the best of men?
[6] I will next give an account of all the things he achieved during his reign, because in my opinion there is no better way to gain insight into his character than by considering his deeds.5
Agesilaus was no longer* a young man at the time of his accession to the throne. His reign was not far advanced when the news arrived that the Persian king was mustering a huge fleet and land army to [7] attack Greece. In the course of the ensuing debate, as the Spartans and their allies tried to decide what to do, Agesilaus said that if they gave him thirty Spartiates, 2,000 ex-Helots6 and a contingent of 6,000 allied troops, he would cross over to Asia and try to negotiate a peace – or, if the Persian’s mind was set on war, he guaranteed to keep him [8] too busy to attack the Greeks.7 This immediately earned him a great deal of admiration from all quarters. In the first place, there was his desire to pay the Persian back for his earlier invasion of Greece by crossing over to Asia;8 then there were his preference for taking the war to the enemy rather than waiting for him to attack and his intention that the cost of the war should fall on the Persians, not the Greeks;9 but the best aspect of his plan, to people’s minds,10 was the possibility of making Asia rather than Greece the prize of the war.
[9] No clearer demonstration could be given of the kind of commander he proved to be, once he had been assigned the army and had sailed [10] off to Asia, than a narrative of his achievements.11 His first action on arriving in Asia was as follows. Tissaphernes swore an oath to Agesilaus to the effect that, if Agesilaus would honour a truce until the return of the couriers whom he, Tissaphernes, had dispatched to the Persian king, he would see that the Greek cities in Asia regained their independence and were handed over to him.12 Agesilaus, in his turn, swore to keep the truce without treachery and set a term of three months for the completion of Tissaphernes’ side of the bargain.13 [11] Tissaphernes, however, immediately broke his oath; instead of arranging for an end to hostilities, he asked the Persian king to send him a sizeable army, over and above the one he already had. Although Agesilaus found out what was going on, he continued to abide by the truce. This, then, seems to me to constitute his first fine achievement: [12] he exposed Tissaphernes as a perjurer, so making him universally distrusted, and revealed himself by contrast to be the kind of man who not only approves and sanctions oaths, but also honours his agreements, thereby making everyone, both Greeks and non-Greeks, enter confidently into agreements with him whenever he wanted.
With the arrival of the fresh army, Tissaphernes arrogantly threatened [13] Agesilaus with war, unless he left Asia. All Agesilaus’ staff, including the Spartans who were there, openly expressed the dismay they felt at the thought that the forces available to Agesilaus were weaker than the Persian king’s resources – but Agesilaus looked positively radiant as he told the delegation to convey his profound thanks to Tissaphernes for having failed to keep his word, because the upshot was that he had earned the gods’ hostility and made them allies of the Greeks. Next, Agesilaus lost no time in ordering his troops [14] to pack up their gear in preparation for going to war, and in warning the communities on his route to Caria to have supplies ready for him. He also told the Ionian, Aeolian and Hellespontine Greeks by dispatch to send reinforcements to him at Ephesus.
Tissaphernes’ strategy was based on considering that Agesilaus had [15] no cavalry and that the terrain of Caria was not suitable for cavalry manoeuvres, and on the supposition that Agesilaus was angry with him personally for his deception. Having come to the conclusion that Agesilaus’ real target in Caria was his domain, he sent the whole of his infantry over there, while bringing his cavalry round to the plain of the River Meander. He thought that he had the capacity to crush the Greeks with his mounted troops before they reached bad cavalry country. Agesilaus, however, immediately went in the opposite direction [16] and marched on Phrygia instead of Caria. He proceeded to conscript into his army any forces he encountered during his march and to reduce the cities, and his surprise attacks gained him huge quantities of booty.
Further evidence of Agesilaus’ accomplishment as a military commander [17] was found in the fact that, once war had been declared and deception therefore became just and fair, he showed Tissaphernes to be a mere child at deception. His friends also apparently benefited [18] financially from his sound advice at this point. He had captured so much property that goods were selling for next to nothing, so he told his friends to buy things up, explaining that he would soon be taking his army down to the coast. He told the quartermasters responsible for selling the booty to give the goods away, while keeping a record of their current market value; this enabled all his friends to gain huge quantities of valuable property without putting any money down in [19] advance and without causing any loss to the army funds. Moreover, whenever deserters came* to the king, as one might expect they would, and offered to show him where there was some property to be taken, he made sure that it was his friends who were responsible for taking possession of these goods too, so that at one and the same time they could increase both their profits and their reputations. The immediate result of this was that his friendship was ardently wooed by large numbers of people.14
[20] Agesilaus appreciated that a devastated and depopulated land would be unable to support an army for long, whereas an inhabited and cultivated land would be a permanent source of nourishment, so he took care to win some of his enemies over with leniency, as well as [21] defeating others by force of arms. It was a frequent injunction of his to his men not to treat prisoners-of-war as criminals to be punished,15 but as human beings to be guarded; and if he ever noticed, when shifting camps, that any small children had been abandoned by the dealers (who would commonly try to sell the children because they doubted that they would be able to support them and feed them), he [22] took care that they were rounded up and taken off somewhere.16 He also gave orders that any prisoners who were abandoned because of their old age were to be provided for, to prevent their being killed by dogs or wolves. Consequently, he came to be regarded with goodwill not just
by those who heard about this behaviour of his, but even by his prisoners-of-war. Whenever he brought a community over to his side, he refused to let the inhabitants serve him as slaves serve their masters and required from them only the obedience due to a ruler from free subjects; and his kindness gained him control even of strongholds which were impervious to brute force.
Now, since Pharnabazus and his cavalry were making it impossible [23] for him to fight on the plains, even in Phrygia,17 he decided that he had to equip himself with a troop of cavalry or else be condemned to wage a fugitive’s war. He therefore drew up a list of the richest men from all the communities there who could maintain a horse, and [24] announced that if any of them supplied a horse, arms and armour, and a reliable man, he would be exempt from military service. In this way he gained their commitment to the project – the kind of wholehearted commitment that comes with looking for someone to die in one’s place! 18 He also charged certain communities with providing cavalry units, the idea being that horse-breeding communities would in all probability find it simple to come up with self-assured horsemen. This too was considered a tour de force, in the sense that no sooner had he gained a troop of cavalry than it was a potent and effective unit.19
Early the following spring,20 he assembled his entire army at Ephesus. [25] In order to motivate their training, he offered the cavalry contingents a prize for expertise on horseback and the heavy infantry contingents a prize for physical fitness. He also offered the light infantry units21 and the bowmen prizes for displaying excellence at their particular jobs. And so you could have seen the gymnasia crammed with men at their exercises, the horse-track filled with cavalrymen on horseback, and the javelineers and bowmen shooting at the target pillar.22 In fact, [26] he made the whole city where he was a remarkable sight. The city square was so filled with all kinds of armour and horses for sale, and every single bronze-smith, carpenter, ironsmith, leather-worker and engraver was so busy working on weapons of war, that you would literally have thought the city a workshop of war.23 And the sight of [27] Agesilaus at the head of his men as they came garlanded from the gymnasia and dedicated their chaplets to Artemis24 would have put heart into anyone, since every aspect of a situation where men are showing reverence to the gods, practising the arts of war and cultivating obedience to authority is naturally bound to raise good hopes.25
Another thing he did was tell the auctioneers to offer any barbarians [28] captured by his raiders for sale naked, the idea being that contempt for the enemy fuels strength for battle. So the sight of their pale, overweight and unfit bodies (because barbarians never used to strip and always relied on some kind of transport) made his men think that the forthcoming war would be just like having to fight women.
He also told his men that he would very soon be taking them by the shortest route to the best parts of the region, where he could have them directly prepare their bodies and minds for the coming conflict. [29] Now, Tissaphernes judged this announcement to be another deliberate decoy, and thought that this time Agesilaus really was going to invade Caria. So he sent his infantry over there, just as he had before, and stationed his cavalry on the plain of the Meander. Agesilaus meant no deceit, however; he kept to the terms of his announcement and went straight to the district of Sardis. For three days he made his way through territory devoid of enemy troops, which enabled his men to stock up with plenty of supplies.
[30] On the fourth day, however, the enemy cavalry arrived. While the officer in charge of the baggage train crossed the River Pactolus and made camp, as instructed by his commander, the actual cavalry caught sight of the Greek camp-followers, who were spread out in search of plunder, and killed a fair number of them. Once Agesilaus realized what was happening, he ordered his horsemen to mount a rescue operation. When the Persians saw these reinforcements coming, they regrouped and took up a position confronting the Greeks. All their [31] cavalry units – huge numbers of men – were involved in this. This was the point at which Agesilaus realized that he was at full strength, while the enemy was still without their infantry; it seemed the right time to join battle, if possible.26 As soon as he had offered up a sacrifice,27 he led his men in battle array against the cavalry formation. The heavy-armed troops from the ten youngest year-groups had orders to rush in and close with the enemy, while the light infantry were to lead the charge. He also ordered his cavalrymen to attack with the knowledge that he was backing them up with all the rest of [32] the army. It was the crack Persian troops who received the Greek cavalry attack, but they fell back in the face of the all-out shock of the assault. Some of them were cut down there and then in the river, while the rest fled. The Greeks set out in pursuit and captured the Persian camp as well. The light infantry began to turn to pillage, as one might have expected, but Agesilaus had his men form a circular camp, enclosing both their own and the enemy’s property.28
News reached him that mutual recriminations over what had happened [33] were keeping the enemy in disarray, so he immediately set out against Sardis. On arriving there, he proceeded to burn and ransack the outskirts of the city, and at the same time he also issued a proclamation to the effect that those who wanted freedom would find him their ally, while those who claimed Asia as their own would find her liberators ready to decide the issue by trial of arms.29 However, since no one came out to confront him, he set about his [34] campaign from then on with confidence. He began to see Greeks who had previously been forced to abase themselves being regarded with respect by their former oppressors; he made those who had actually expected to enjoy the honours due to the gods incapable of even looking a Greek in the eye;30 he made his friends’ land safe from incursions, while picking his enemies’ land so clean that in two years he consecrated more than 100 talents to the god at Delphi as a tithe of his booty.31
The Persian king, however, had Tissaphernes beheaded, because [35] he blamed him for these setbacks to his power, and sent Tithraustes down to the coast instead. But subsequently the Persians’ affairs began to look even more bleak, while Agesilaus’ went from strength to strength. Every tribe and nation sent envoys to seek his friendship, and a number of places longed for freedom so much that they went so far as to rebel against Persia and seek his protection instead, with the result that Agesilaus found himself becoming the leader not only of Greeks but even of large numbers of non-Greeks.
He behaved in these circumstances in a way that deserves an [36] extraordinary degree of admiration. He was now the ruler of a great many communities on the mainland, and a great many of the Aegean islands too, since the state had attached the fleet to his command as well; his fame and power were on the increase, there was nothing to stop him doing as he wanted with all the advantages available to him, and on top of everything he was intending and hoping to overthrow the empire which had in the past invaded Greece.32 Nevertheless, he did not succumb to any of these temptations, and when he was summoned by the authorities at home to return to help his fatherland, he obeyed the state’s command as readily as if he had in fact been standing in the Ephors’ office all alone before the five of them.33 So he made it perfectly clear that he preferred his fatherland to the whole world, old loyalties to newly acquired friends, risky but honourable and just gains to risk-free but shameful ones.
[37] How else could one describe another achievement of his during the period of his command except as the mark of a king who deserves our admiration? He found the communities he left Sparta to rule over torn by feuds because of the political turmoil engendered by the collapse of the Athenian empire, but as long as he was personally present he managed to get them to reach political unanimity and live in prosperity without the inhabitants having to resort to banishing [38] and executing one another.34 That is why the Asian Greeks were saddened by his departure; they felt they were losing not just a ruler, but a father and a comrade. And at the finish they showed that the friendship they were offering was no sham, because they volunteered to help him protect Sparta, and did so even though they knew that they would b
e up against an enemy who was at least their equal. Anyway, this brought his exploits in Asia to an end.
CHAPTER 2
[1] His route once he had crossed the Hellespont was identical to the one taken by the Persian king with his vast army, through the territory of the same peoples, and yet Agesilaus covered in less than a month the distance which took the Persians a year, because he had no intention [2] of being too late to help his fatherland. In Thessaly (that is, after he had passed through Macedon), the people of Larissa, Crannon, Scotousa and Pharsalus, who were allies of the Boeotians – in fact the whole Thessalian population apart from those who happened to be in exile at the time – kept tailing him and harassing him. For a while he had his men adopt a hollow-square formation while on the move, with half the cavalry up in front and the other half in the rear, but the Thessalians’ attacks on the rearguard hindered his progress, so he sent all the horsemen except his personal entourage round from the van to support the rear.
When the two armies were at battle stations facing each other, the [3] Thessalians thought better of engaging heavy infantry with their cavalry, so they turned and began gradually to withdraw.1 Agesilaus’ army followed them, but very circumspectly. Agesilaus realized that both sides were making mistakes, so he sent his own personal unit of hardy horsemen up to the front with instructions to tell the others to join them in a full-blooded pursuit and not to let the Thessalians turn and make a stand. Those of the Thessalians who tried to wheel round to face the unexpected charge – as not all of them did – were caught with their horses side on to the attack and were captured. Only the [4] Pharsalian cavalry commander, Polycharmus, succeeded in rallying his unit. He and his entourage died fighting, and at this the Thessalian army fled in complete disarray. Those who avoided death or capture did not stop running until they reached Mount Narthacium. That [5] day Agesilaus commemorated the victory by setting up a trophy between Pras and Narthacium, and stayed on the battlefield, relishing having defeated people who particularly prided themselves on their horsemanship with a cavalry force of his own devising.