by Xenophon
2. Thebes… Locrian peoples: The first four of these constituted the Quadruple Alliance formed with Persian diplomatic and financial backing to resist Sparta’s hegemony in Greece. From 395 until the conclusion of the King’s Peace (or Peace of Antalcidas) in 386, they and their allies waged and ultimately lost the Corinthian War. The Aenianians, and the Ozolian (western) and Opuntian (eastern) Locrians (see A History of My Times 4.2.17), were peoples of central Greece. The island of Euboea, off the eastern coast of Attica and Boeotia, was a valuable addition, since its relations with Athens had often not been cordial.
3. wholeheartedly to fighting the enemy: Xenophon too anticipated Napoleon in his – surely correct – estimation of the crucial importance of the morale factor in warfare. Compare his laudation of Agesilaus’ half-brother Teleutias at A History of My Times 5.1.4 – a passage which is also highly revealing of Xenophon’s conception of historiography.
4. the most remarkable battle of modern times: Precisely the same is said at A History of My Times 4.3.16. What seems to have made it unique for Xenophon is that ‘it was a double battle, a sort of knock-out championship for military excellence’ (Cawkwell’s note to A History of My Times, p. 204).
5. the Orchomenians: The great rivals of Thebes for control of the Boeotian confederacy; it suited Sparta’s divide-and-rule imperial policy perfectly to keep the two major Boeotian cities at odds with each other. In 364 Thebes, then at the height of its power, destroyed Orchomenus utterly. Agesilaus, for personal as well as policy reasons, had a peculiar aversion to Thebes, which Xenophon entirely shared (A History of My Times 4.2.18, 6.5.24, 7.5.12, with Cawkwell’s Introduction, pp. 36–7).
6. a stade: A stadion (whence our ‘stadium’) was the rough equivalent of a furlong (220 yards) or 200 metres. The stadion sprint was the earliest and for long the sole event at the Olympics, where the track as laid out in the fourth century measured just over 192 m.
7. three plethra: A plethron was both a square measure and a measure of length, here the latter: 100 Greek feet. Herippidas and his men were thus doing the equivalent of a 100-metre dash, but with the handicap of equipment weighing perhaps 30 kilograms or 60–70 lbs.
8. Cyreians: These mercenaries were so called because they had been recruited originally in 402/1 by Cyrus the Younger of Persia, pretender to the throne occupied by his older full brother known to the Greeks as Artaxerxes II. A version of their story is told in The Persian Expedition; Xenophon was still one of their number at this battle of Coroneia in 394 and therefore fighting against his own native city (see main Introduction).
9. mercenary troops: Presumably with Xenophon himself to the fore among them.
10. they pushed: The mass manoeuvre known as the othismos decided which of the two hoplite lines would break. The large round hoplite shield, normally about a metre wide, was made basically of wood, encircled by a rim of bronze; it was held rigidly on the hoplite’s left arm (regardless of whether he was naturally left-handed) by means of a shieldband (porpax) and gripped on the inside of the rim by a flexible handle (antilabe).
11. the gods: ‘The gods’ here translates the abstract phrase to theion, literally ‘the divine’. For Xenophon’s own intense religiosity, see main Introduction.
12. the polemarch: In technical Spartan parlance the polemarch was the commander of a mora, or regiment; cf. Hiero, chapter 9 note 2 above.
13. the god… their pipes: ‘The god’ is Apollo; the ‘pipes’ were auloi, a reed instrument something like a modern oboe.
14. rejected supreme power… in Sparta: Xenophon’s Agesilaus, like his fictional Cyrus (the Great) in the Cyropaedia, is a legitimate king, utterly unlike the archetypal tyrant or non-responsible despot Hiero of Syracuse.
15. Subsequently: Actually an interval of almost three years (391).
16. the war: That is, the ongoing Corinthian War – see note 2 above. What modern scholars refer to as the Union of Corinth and Argos, Xenophon, who entirely endorses Agesilaus’ viewpoint, represents as the take-over of the former by the latter. The precise legal position is uncertain, although technically it would seem most likely that the two cities concluded an isopolity or ‘equal citizenship’ agreement, whereby citizens of each would be entitled to enjoy the citizen rights of the other when present in that city. The geopolitical consequences, on the other hand, are entirely clear, marking a strategic disaster for Sparta, whose policy in the Peloponnese depended on isolating Argos from its Peloponnesian League alliance.
17. port of Lechaeum: Corinth had two harbours, one on the Saronic Gulf, the other, Lechaeum, on the Corinthian Gulf; the ‘Long Walls’ connecting Corinth to Lechaeum were a small-scale imitation of the Long Walls linking the city of Athens to its port city of Peiraeus, which had been destroyed in 404 but recently rebuilt with Persian financial aid.
18. the Hyacinthia: All Sparta’s major annual religious festivals – the Carnea, Gymnopaediae and Hyacinthia – were devoted to Apollo, whose special ‘hymn of praise’ was known in Greek as the Paean. The Hyacinthia were celebrated at Amyclae, a settlement just a short way south of Sparta town itself but politically counting as a constituent part of the city (A History of My Times 4.5.11).
19. four nations too: The Argives in question here are not the famous Argives of the north-east Peloponnese (see note 16 above) but the Amphilochian Argives of north-west Greece.
20. the enemy: The Quadruple Alliance (note 2 above).
21. later than this: 381–379.
22. other grounds: See main Introduction.
23. their opponents: The action has now moved forward to 378. Thebes has been liberated from a Spartan garrison and has instituted a moderate, for the moment pro-Athenian, democracy. The Spartan garrisoning of Thebes in 382, defended if not instigated by Agesilaus in order to buttress a rabidly pro-Spartan oligarchic junta, was an act of sacrilege, as even Xenophon cannot refrain from emphasizing in his non-encomiastic work (A History of My Times 5.4.1) (see main Introduction); here he prefers to stress the revenge butchery carried out by the anti-Spartans.
24. Agesilaus’ leadership: Xenophon’s sphalmata, ‘setbacks’, is a pretty gross euphemism for defeats that included the decisive Theban victory at Leuctra in 371 (see main Introduction). As with the occupation of Thebes (preceding note), Agesilaus is – questionably, to say the least – exonerated by Xenophon from any direct blame.
25. and Euboea: This is the first invasion of Laconia since that of the Dorians (if indeed ‘invasion’ is the right word for the latter) six or more centuries earlier. Xenophon’s list of invaders at A History of My Times 6.5.23 differs slightly from that given here; note that since 394 (2.6) the Phocians had changed sides, and that Xenophon for once speaks accurately of ‘Boeotians’ (including presumably Orchomenus) not ‘Thebans’.
26. at Leuctra: In A History of My Times (6.5.29) Xenophon preferred to dwell on the ‘slaves’ – that is Helots – who remained loyal to Sparta, rather than those who revolted (see Cawkwell’s notes to A History of My Times 6.5.52, 7.1.27). The ‘dependent towns’ were known technically as Perioeci, or ‘Dwellers round about’; those in revolt here were in northern Laconia, athwart the invasion routes. At Leuctra Sparta lost some 400 citizens out of a total citizen body previously exceeding, though not by much, 1,000, so Xenophon’s ‘at least halved’ is something of an exaggeration.
27. get the better of anyone: One reason why Sparta had not built a city wall (and did not do so until the late third century) was the separate existence of Amyclae (note 18 above); another was its inaccessibility, both geographically and – thanks to the normally secure cordon provided by the Perioeci – geopolitically.
28. raise money: The Greek translated ‘to raise money’ is porizein, the verbal form of poroi, translated later as Ways and Means. By 370 Agesilaus was 75 or thereabouts.
29. and withdrew: Agesilaus was here seeking to exploit the revolts of various of Persia’s western satraps, including Autophradates and Ariobarzanes, from Artaxerxes II. Cotys was king of the
non-Greek Odrysians of Thrace, whom Xenophon had encountered in his mercenary days (Persian Expedition 7.2; see also On Horsemanship 8.6).
30. powers of persuasion: Mausolus (or Maussollus), eponym of the mausoleum, ruled Caria as satrap or under-satrap between 377 and 353. Unlike most satraps, Mausolus was not a Persian but a native Carian.
31. homeward journey: Tachos at any rate later ruled Egypt, or Lower Egypt, one of several ‘pharaohs’ to reign during its long (404–342) period of revolt from Persia.
32. relinquish Messene: Artaxerxes had found Sparta the most convenient Greek state to deal with following the conclusion of the King’s Peace of 386 (named after him). But Leuctra and Sparta’s subsequent troubles encouraged him to switch from supporting Sparta to dealing with the Greeks through Thebes – hence the King’s demand that the Spartans ‘relinquis’ Messene, that is cease from their irredentist campaign to regain control of the newly liberated and refounded city of their ex-Helot ‘slaves’.
33. a great deal of money: The pharaoh to emerge from this internal struggle was Nectanebis II, who – according to Plutarch (Agesilaus 40.1) – heaped Agesilaus with substantial ‘gifts’ for himself and 230 silver talents for the Spartan war-chest.
CHAPTER 3
1. Cotys: Or Otys, or Thys, or Thyus, or Gyes: various ancient sources give various names to the subject of this story.
2. personal assurances: The Greek dexiomata signifies that agreements involving such assurances were sealed by the shaking of right hands; actual models of right hands in bronze might be exchanged as material sumbola (‘tokens’) of the agreement.
3. dealings with him: See chapter 1 note 17.
CHAPTER 4
1. a favour. Cf. The Dinner-party 8.36 (in Penguin Conversations of Socrates).
2. truth of this: Naturally, Agesilaus’ largesse was far from disinterested. For example, he always sent a cloak and an ox to each newly elected member of the Gerousia (Plutarch, Agesilaus 4.6).
CHAPTER 5
1. conferring honour… wanted to: Both kings, whatever their personal or policy differences (see chapter 1 note 2), dined together in the royal ‘mess’ (technically suskanion, or common tent). The royal ‘honour of double portions at meals’ (Spartan Society 14, in Penguin Plutarch on Sparta) applied to the evening meal, daily attendance at which was compulsory for all Spartans (except when back late from hunting or conducting a sacrifice: Plutarch, Lycurgus 12, in Plutarch on Sparta).
2. ordinary citizens: Cf. Cyropaedia 8.2.4.
3. a kiss: Xenophon is probably gilding the lily a bit here – at any rate, one form of proskunesis (see chapter 1 note 30) involved the blowing of a kiss, rather than the planting of it on the lips or cheek of one’s lover. But see also Cyropaedia 1.4.27.
4. two gods: In Sparta the brothers Castor and Polydeuces (Latin Pollux), also known as the Dioscuri or Tyndaridae, were worshipped as gods (as was their sister Helen). Images of them were carried by the Spartans on campaign as good-luck tokens (Herodotus 5.75). For the sake of realism, Xenophon preserves the Spartans’ Doric dialect form of the word for ‘gods’ (sio).
5. to gold: The anecdote caught the imagination of later writers, not only Plutarch (Agesilaus 11.9, Moralia 209d–e) but also the late rhetoricians Maximus of Tyre and Philostratus. Good looks and speed were notoriously not the strong points of the congenitally lame Agesilaus, but for endurance he would have been hard to beat.
6. enemies do: Cf. The Persian Expedition 2.6.28.
7. he does: Cf. Memoirs of Socrates 1.1.11.
CHAPTER 6
1. visible signs… of the fighting: For his many battle scars see 2.13.
2. go through uncontested: The Greek akoniti meant literally ‘without dust’, a technical term derived from the distinctly dust-ridden competitions in wrestling and pancration (all-in wrestling combined with boxing and judo) and extended to other athletic contests.
3. unswerving: Aprophasistos is picked up again significantly in the summation at 11.13. It occurs also in Cavalry Commander 2.9.
4. maidens in its orderliness: A Greek maiden was not supposed to do anything to catch a man’s eye; moreover, the way one walked was, according to Greek physiognomic notions, an index of one’s moral character. Maidenly deportment was supposedly inculcated in Spartan boys by the educational regime prescribed by Lycurgus (Spartan Society 5.3, in Penguin Plutarch on Sparta).
CHAPTER 7
1. old age as an excuse: Not quite true – see A History of My Times 5.4.13 (Agesilaus, then aged about 66, cried off from leading a campaign in 378).
2. coup… the laws: How, indeed – except that in about 400, within a year of Agesilaus’ accession, one Cinadon did attempt a coup (or so Xenophon reports at A History of My Times 3.3.4–11).
3. a catastrophe: This alleged principled ‘panhellenism’ of Agesilaus is of course just so much bunkum and balderdash – see chapter 1 note 32; for his – and Xenophon’s – enmity towards the entirely Greek Thebes, see chapter 2 note 5. Xenophon’s unconventional application of philhellen, ‘supporter of Greece’, to a Greek rather than a non-Greek is also nothing but a rhetorical flourish.
4. the whole Persian army: The Battle of the Nemea River (394) is described at A History of My Times 4.2.9–23, where there is no mention of Agesilaus’ distress on hearing the news at 4.3.1–2.
5. the Persians: Compare and contrast Thucydides 4.80.4, where the Spartans have no compunction in ‘annihilating’ some 2,000 Helots (in about 424).
6. harassing the Persians in any way he could: The implied chronology is at best misleading: Agesilaus sailed for Asia in 396, and the ‘war against other Greeks’, which in A History of My Times 3.5.1–2 Xenophon ascribes to Persian bribery, began only in 395. The apologetic trumpeting of his alleged Persia-hatred is designed to exonerate Agesilaus from the responsibility he surely bore for the conclusion and – especially – the exploitation of the King’s Peace in 386.
CHAPTER 8
1. my friendship: Cf. Plutarch Moralia 213–e. The supposed occasion was some time after the conclusion of the King’s Peace; again, the purpose of the story is apologetic.
2. return home: Aristodemus was great-great-grandson of Heracles (see chapter 1 note 1). The local Spartan version of the ‘Return of the Descendants of Heracles’ myth portrayed Aristodemus as leader when the Heraclids (re) occupied Sparta. ‘Lycurgus’ is said to have forbidden the use of any tool apart from a saw in the making of doors, to discourage ‘extravagance’ (Plutarch, Lycurgus 13, in Penguin Plutarch on Sparta).
3. daughter… public cart: A pupil of Aristotle, Dicaearchus, tried but failed to discover the daughter’s name; Plutarch himself discovered in Sparta’s archives that Agesilaus had had two daughters, named Eupolia and Proauga (Agesilaus 19.10). Travel to Amyclae in the ‘public cart’ was for a religious purpose, to participate in the Hyacinthia festival (2.17).
4. and fear. Xenophon has strayed rather far from the virtue of ‘charm’ (8.1) and back to financial honesty (4.1).
CHAPTER 9
1. their way: For a revealing vignette of Agesilaus at work, see A History of My Times 5.4.28; cf. Plutarch, Agesilaus 4.5.
2. of wealth: Cynisca (‘Puppy’) was probably Agesilaus’ full sister. Xenophon significantly under-reports her achievement: in 396, she was the first woman ever to win the four-horse chariot-race at Olympia, and moreover won it again at the next games of 392. Pausanias 3.15.1, 5.111.5 (Penguin Guide to Greece, vol. 2, pp. 50, 231–2) mentions her commemorative dedication at Olympia and the hero-shrine to her at Sparta.
3. his renown… there is: Similar words and sentiments are found at Hiero 11.5 – 8, especially 11.7; cf. 4.6 and Herodotus 5.111. Contrast Cyropaedia 2.3.7–15.
CHAPTER 10
1. lament: It is in fact mainly an encomium (e.g. chapter 1 note 7) liberally laced with apologia (e.g. chapter 7 note 6).
CHAPTER 11
1. taken refuge: According to Thucydides (History 1.128), the pious Spartans had explained the great earthquak
e and subsequent Helot revolt of the 460s as divine retribution for their having ‘raised up some helot suppliants from the altar of Poseidon, and taken them away and killed them’.
2. a favour: Cf. Cyropaedia 1.27, 4.5.29–33.
3. second kind: For Agesilaus’ concern with his posthumous reputation see 9.7; but without encomia such as Xenophon’s how could he have been sure of leaving to posterity ‘memorials of his character’ (cf. 11.16)? There is surely implied Xenophontic self-reference too in 10.1 (household management) and 11.4 (praise reveals the character of the praiser).
4. invariably… good sense rather than foolish risks: ‘Invariably’? But see 2.12.
5. ageing process: This is perhaps an implied defence of not just Agesilaus but Spartan gerontocracy more generally; Aristotle (Politics 1270b35ff.) challenged the ascription of virtue to members of the Spartan Gerousia and pointed out that the mind as well as the body becomes senile.
6. his fatherland: Agesilaus died aged about 84 in north Africa; his body, embalmed in wax, was brought back to Sparta for the uniquely lavish funeral (‘of a grandeur that seemed to go beyond what a mere man could claim or expect’, was how Xenophon in A History of My Times 3.3.1 described that of Agis II, Agesilaus’ half-brother and Eurypontid predecessor) accorded to Spartan kings. The posthumous benefaction is the ‘great deal of money’ already mentioned (2.31). See also chapter 2 note 33.
HOW TO BE A GOOD CAVALRY COMMANDER
CHAPTER 1
1. the gods: On the indispensability of sacrifice, and the need on occasion for a commander to sacrifice repeatedly, sometimes for several days, until a favourable omen was received, see Agesilaus chapter 1 note 27.