Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/87

Rh the work itself, assign it to the age of Lysippus. Miller thinks the intensity of suffering depicted, and the somewhat theatrical air which pervades the group, shews that it belongs to a later age than that of Phidias. Lessing and Thiersch on the other hand, after subjecting the passage of Pliny to an accurate examination, have come to the conclusion, that Agesander and the other two artists lived in the reign of Titus, and sculptured the group expressly for that emperor ; and this opinion is pretty generally acquiesced in. In addition to many other reasons that might be mentioned, if space permitted, if the Laocoon had been a work of antiquity, we can hardly understand how Pliny should have ranked it above all the works of Phidias, Polycletus, Praxiteles, and Lysippus. But we can account for his exaggerated praise, if the group was modern and the admiration excited by its execution in Rome still fresh. Thiersch has written a great deal to shew that the plastic art did not decline so early as is generally supposed, but continued to flourish in full vigour from the time of Phidias uninterruptedly down to the reign of Titus. Pliny was deceived in saying that the group was sculptured out of one block, as the lapse of time has discovered a join in it. It appears from an inscription on the pedestal of a statue found at Nettuno (the ancient Antium) that Athenodorus was the son of Agesander. This makes it not unlikely that Polydorus also was his son, and that the father executed the figure of Laocoon himself, his two sons the remaining two figures. (Lessing, Laokoon ; Winckelmann, Gesch. d. Kunst, 10.1, 10; Thiersch, Epochen d. bild. Kunst. p. 318, &c.; Müller, Archäologie d. Kunst, p. 152.)

AGESA'NDRIDAS (Ἀγησανδρίδας), the son of Agesander (comp. Thuc. 1.139), the commander of the Lacedaemonian fleet sent to protect the revolt of Euboea in B. C. 411, was attacked by the Athenians near Eretria, and obtained a victory over them. (Thuc. 8.91, 94, 95.)

AGESI'ANAX (Ἀγησιάναξ), a Greek poet, of whom a beautiful fragment descriptive of the moon is preserved in Plutarch. (De facie in orb. lunae, p. 920.) It is uncertain whether the poem to which this fragment belonged was of an epic or didactic character.

AGE'SIAS (Ἀγησίας), one of the lambidae, and an hereditary priest of Zeus at Olympia, gained the victory there in the mule race, and is celebrated on that account by Pindar in the sixth Olympic ode. Böckh places his victory in the 78th Olympiad. the 78th Olympiad.

AGESIDA'MUS (Ἀγησίδαμος), son of Archestratus, an Epizephyrian Locrian, who conquered, when a boy in boxing in the Olympic games. His victory is celebrated by Pindar in the 10th and 11th Olympic odes. The scholiast places his victory in the 74th Olympiad. He should not be confounded with Agesidamus, the father of Chromius, who is mentioned in the Nemean odes. (1.42, 9.99.)

AGESILA'US. [AGESANDER.]

AGESILA'US I. (Ἀγησίλαος), son of Doryssus, sixth king of the Agid line at Sparta, excluding Aristodemus, according to Apollodorus, reigned forty-four years, and died in 886 B. C. Pausanias makes his reign a short one, but contemporary with the legislation of Lycurgus. (Paus. 3.2.3; Clinton, Fasti, i. p. 335.) AGESILA'US II., son by his second wife, Eupolia, of Archidamus II., succeeded his half-brother, Agis II. as nineteenth king of the Eurypontid line; excluding, on the ground of spurious birth, and by the interest of Lysander, his nephew, Leotychides. [LEOTYCHIDES.] His reign extends from 398 to 361 B. C., both inclusive; during most of which time he was, in Plutarch's words, "as good as thought commander and king of all Greece," and was for the whole of it greatly identified with his country's deeds and fortunes. The position of that country, though internally weak, was externally, in Greece, down to 394, one of supremacy acknowledged : the only field of its ambition was Persia; from 394 to 387, the Corinthian or first Theban war, one of supremacy assaulted: in 387 that supremacy was restored over Greece, in the peace of Antalcidas, by the sacrifice of Asiatic prospects : and thus more confined and more secure, it became also more wanton. After 378, when Thebes regained her freedom, we find it again assailed, and again for one moment restored, though on a lower level, in 371; then overthrown for ever at Leuctra, the next nine years being a struggle for existence amid dangers within and without. Of the youth of Agesilaus we have no detail, beyond the mention of his intimacy with Lysander. On the throne, which he ascended about the age of forty, we first hear of him in the suppression of Cinadon's conspiracy. [CINADON.] In his third year (396) he crossed into Asia, and after a short campaign, and a winter of preparation, he in the next overpowered the two satraps, Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus; and, in the spring of 394, was encamped in the plain of Thebe, preparing to advance into the heart of the empire, when a message arrived to summon him to the war at home. He calmly and promptly obeyed; expressing however to the Asiatic Greeks, and doubtless himself indulging, hopes of a speedy return. Marching rapidly by Xerxes' route, he met and defeated at Coroneia in Boeotia the allied forces. In 393 he was engaged in a ravaging invasion of Argolis, in 392 in one of the Corinthian territory, in 391 he reduced the Acarnanians to submission; but, in the remaining years of the war, he is not mentioned. In the interval of peace, we find him declining the command in Sparta's aggression on Mantineia; but heading, from motives, it is said, of private friendship, that on Phlius; and openly justifying Phoebidas' seizure of the Cadmeia. Of the next war, the first two years he commanded in Boeotia, more however to the enemy's gain in point of experience, than loss in any other; from the five remaining he was withdrawn by severe illness. In the congress of 371 an altercation is recorded between him and Epaminondas; and by his advice Thebes was peremptorily excluded from the peace, and orders given for the fatal campaign of Leuctra. In 370 we find him engaged in an embassy to Mantineia, and reassuring the Spartans by an invasion of Arcadia; and in 369 to his skill, courage, and presence of mind, is to be ascribed the maintenance of the unwalled Sparta, amidst the attacks of four armies, and revolts and conspiracies of Helots, Perioeci, and even Spartans. Finally, in 362, he led his countrymen into Arcadia; by fortunate information was enabled to return in time to prevent the surprise of Sparta, and was, it seems, joint if not sole commander at the battle of Mantineia. To the ensuing winter must probably be referred his em-