Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/377

 AGESIPOLIS INVADES ARGOS. 355 one of tl vir cities, nor would he consent to prolong the war until seed-time, notwithstanding earnest solicitation from the Achasans, whom he pacified by engaging to return the next spring. He was, indeed, in a difficult and dangerous country, had not his retreat been facilitated by the compliance of the JEtolians ; who calculated (though vainly) on obtaining from him the recovery of Naupaktus, then held (as well as Kalydon) by the Achaeans. 1 Partial as the success of this expedition had been, however, it inflicted sufficient damage on the Akarnanians to accomplish its purpose. On learn- ing that it was about to be repeated in the ensuing spring, they sent envoys to Sparta to solicit peace ; consenting to abstain from hostilities against the Achaeans, and to enrol themselves as mem- bers of the Lacedaemonian confederacy. 2 It was in this same year that the Spartan authorities resolved on an expedition against Argos, of which Agesipolis, the other king, took the command. Having found the border sacrifices fa vorable, and crossed the frontier, he sent forward his army to Phlius, where the Peloponnesian allies were ordered to assemble ; but he himself first turned aside to Olympia, to consult the oracle of Zeus. It had been the practice of the Argeians, seemingly on more than one previous occasion, 3 when an invading Lacedaemonian army was approaching their territory, to meet them by a solemn message, intimating that it was the time of some festival (the Kar- neiiwi, or other) held sacred by both parties, and warning them not to violate the frontier during the holy truce. This was in point of fact nothing better than a fraud ; for the notice was sent, not at the moment when the Karneian festival (or other, as the case might be) ought to come on according to the due course of seasons, but at any time when it might serve the purpose of arresting a Lacedaemonian invasion. But though the duplicity of the Arge- ians was thus manifest, so strong were the pious scruples of the Spartan king, that he could hardly make up his mind to disregard the warning. Moreover, in the existing confusion of the calendar, there was always room for some uncertainty as to the question, 1 Diodor. xv, 73. s Xen. Hellen. iv, 6, 1-14 ; iv, 7, 1. 3 Xen. Hellen. iv, 7, 3. Oi  dwrjaoftevoi /co. , tirefnjjav, uairep eiudeaai, iffre^avufievovf dvo Kypvuag, vxofe