Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/88

70 bassy to the coast of Asia and negotiations for money with the revolted satraps, alluded to in an obscure passage of Xenophon (Agesilaus, 2.26, 27): and, in performance perhaps of some stipulation then made. he crossed, in the spring of 361, with a body of Lacedaemonian mercenaries into Egypt. Here, after displaying much of his ancient skill, he died, while preparing for his voyage home, in the winter of 361-60, after a life of above eighty years and a reign of thirty-eight. His body was embalmed in wax, and splendidly buried at Sparta.

Referring to our sketch of Spartan history, we find Agesilaus shining most in its first and last period, as commencing and surrendering a glorious career in Asia, and as, in extreme age, maintaining his prostrate country. From Coroneia to Leuctra we see him partly unemployed, at times yielding to weak motives, at times joining in wanton acts of public injustice. No one of Sparta's great defeats, but some of her bad policy belongs to him. In what others do, we miss him; in what he does, we miss the greatness and consistency belongings to unity of purpose and sole command. No doubt he was hampered at home; perhaps, too, from a man withdrawn, when now near fifty, from his chosen career, great action in a new one of any kind could not be looked for. Plutarch gives among numerous apophthegmata his letter to the ephors on his recall : " We have reduced most of Asia, driven back the barbarians, made arms abundant in Ionia. But since you bid me, according to the decree, come home, I shall fellow my letter, may perhaps be even before it. For my comniand is not mine, but my country's and her allies'. And a commander then commands truly according to right when he sees his own commander in the laws and ephors, or others holding office in the state." Also, an exclamation on hearing of the battle of Corinth : "Alas for Greece! she has killed enough of her sons to have conquered all the barbarians." Of his courage, temperance, and hardiness, many instances are given : to these he added, even in excess, the less Spartan qualities of kindliness and tenderness as a father and a friend. Thus we have the story of his riding across a stick with his children; and to gratify his son's affection for Cleonymus, son of the culprit, he saved Sphodrias from the punishment due, in right and policy, for his incursion into Attica in 378. So too the appointment of Peisander. [PEISANDER.] A letter of his runs, " If Nicis is innocent, acquit him for that ; if guilty, for my sake; any how acquit him." From Spartan cupidity and dishonesty, and mostly, even in public life, from ill faith, his character is clear. In person he was small, mean-looking, and lame, on which last ground objection had been made to his accession, an oracle, curiously fulfilled, having warned Sparta of evils awaiting her under a "lame sovereignty" In his reign, indeed, her fall took place, but not through him. Agesilaus himself was Sparta's most perfect citizen and most consummate general; in many ways perhaps her greatest man. (Xen. Hell. 3.3, to the end, Agesilaus ; Diod. xiv. xv; Paus. 3.9, 10; Plut. and C. Nepos, in vita ; Plut. Apophthegm.)

AGESILA'US (Ἀγησίλαος), a Greek historian, who wrote a work on the early history of Italy (Ἰταλικά), fragments of which are preserved in Plutarch (Parallela, p. 312), and Stobaeus. (Florileg, 9.27, 54.49, 65.10, ed, Gaisf.)

AGESI'LOCHUS or HEGESI'LOCHUS (Ἀγεσίλοχος, Ἀγησίλοχος, Ἡγησίλοχος), was the chief magistrate (Prytanis) of the Rhodians, on the breaking out of the war between Rome and Perseus in B. C. 171, and recommended his countrymen to espouse the side of the Romans. He was sent as ambassador to Rome in B. C. 169, and to the consul Aemilius Paullus in Macedonia, B. C. 168. (Plb. 27.3, 28.2, 14, 29.4.)

AGESl'MBROTUS, commander of the Rhodian fleet in the war between the Romans and Philip, king of Macedonia, B. C. 200-197. (Liv. 31.46, 32.16, 32.)

AGESI'POLIS I. (Ἀγησίπολις), king of Sparta, the twenty-first of the Agids beginning with Eurysthenes, succeeded his father Pausanias, while yet a minor, in B. C. 394, and reigned fourteen years. He was placed under the guardianship of Aristodemus, his nearest of kin. He came to the crown just about the time that the confederacy (partly brought about by the intrigues of the Persian satrap Tithraustes), which was formed by Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos, against Sparta, rendered it necessary to recall his colleague, Agesilaus II., from Asia; and the first military operation of his reign was the expedition to Corinth, where the forces of the confederates were then assembled. The Spartan army was led by Aristodemnus, and gained a signal victory over the allies. (Xen. Hell. 4.2.9.) In the year B. C. 390 Agesipolis, who had now reached his majority, was entrusted with the command of an army for the invasion of Argolis. Having procured the sanctions of the Olympic and Delphic gods for disregarding any attempt which the Argives might make to stop his march, on the pretext of a religious truce, he carried his ravages still farther than Agesilaus had done in B. C. 393; but as he suffered the aspect of the victims to deter him from occupying a permanent post, the expedition yielded no fruit but the plunder. (Xen. Hell. 4.7.2-6; Paus. 3.5.8.) In B. C. 385 the Spartans, seizing upon some frivolous pretexts, sent an expedition against Mantincia, in which Agesipolis undertook the command, after it had been declined by Agesilaus. In this expedition the Spartans were assisted by Thebes, and in a battle with the Mantineans, Epaminondas and Pelopidas, who were fighting side by side, narrowly escaped death. He took the town by diverting the river Ophis, so as to lay the low grounds at tlie foot of the walls under water. The basements, being made of unbaked bricks, were unable to resist the action of the water. The walls soon began to totter, and the Mantineans were forced to surrender. They were admitted to terms on condition that the population should be dispersed among the four hamlets, out of which it had been collected to form the capital. The democratical leaders were permitted to go into exile. (Xen. Hell. 5.2.1-7; Paus. 8.8.5; Diod. 15.5, &c.; Plut. Pel. 4; Isocr. Paneg. p. 67a, De Pace, p. 179c.) Early in B. C. 382, an embassy came to Sparta from the cities of Acanthus and Apollonia, requesting assistance against the Olynthians, who were endeavouring to compel them to join their confederacy. The Spartans granted it, but were not at first very successful. After the defeat and death of Teleutias in the second campaign (B. C. 381) Agesipolis took the command. He set out in 381, but did not begin operations till the spring of 380. He then acted with great vigour, and took Torone