Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/459

 AGIS. 451 firmed him in it. Lysander had a great authority and credit with the people ; Mandroclidas was esteemed the ablest Greek of his time to manage an affair and put it in train, and, joined with skill and cunning, had a great degree of boldness. Agesilaus was the king's uncle, by the mother's side ; an eloquent man, but covetous and voluptuous, who was not moved by considerations of pub- lic good, but rather seemed to be persuaded to it by his son Hippomedon, whose courage and signal actions in war had gained him a high esteem and great influence among the young men of Sparta, though indeed the true motive was, that he had many debts, and hoped by this means to be freed from them. As soon as Agis had prevailed with his uncle, he en- deavored by his mediation to gain his mother also, who had many friends and followers, and a number of persons in her debt in the city, and took a considerable part in public affairs. At the first proposal, she was very averse, and strongly advised her son not to engage in so difficult and so unprofitable an enterprise. But Agesilaus endeav- ored to possess her, that the thing was not so difficult as she imagined, and that it might, in all likelihood, redound to the advantage of her family ; while the king, her son, besought her not for money's sake to decline assisting his hopes of glory. He told her, he could not pretend to equal other kings in riches, the very followers and me- nials of the satraps and stewards of Seleucus or Ptolemy abounding more in wealth than all the Spartan kings put together ; but if by contempt of wealth and pleasure, by simplicity and magnanimity, he could surpass their lux- ury and abundance, if he could restore their former equality to the Spartans, then he should be a great king indeed. In conclusion, the mother and the grandmother also were so taken, so carried away with the inspiration, as it were, of the young man's noble and generous anibi-