Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
brought greater glory to Thebes than ever was acquired by any other
of the Grecian republics, in their civil wars against each other.
The behavior, notwithstanding, of the Spartans, though beaten, was
as great, and as highly to be admired, as that of the Thebans. And
indeed, if, as Xenophon says, in conversation good men even in
their sports and at their wine let fall many sayings that are worth
the preserving; how much more worthy to be recorded, is an
exemplary constancy of mind, as shown both in the words and in the
acts of brave men, when they are pressed by adverse fortune! It
happened that the Spartans were celebrating a solemn feast, at
which many strangers were present from other countries, and the
town full of them, when this news of the overthrow came. It was
the gymnopaediae, and the boys were dancing in the theater, when
the messengers arrived from Leuctra. The Ephors, though they were
sufficiently aware that this blow had ruined the Spartan power, and
that their primacy over the rest of Greece was gone for ever, yet
gave orders that the dances should not break off, nor any of the
celebration of the festival abate; but privately sending the names
of the slain to each family, out of which they were lost, they
continued the public spectacles. The next morning, when they had
full intelligence concerning it, and everybody knew who were slain,
and who survived, the fathers, relatives, and friends of the slain
came out rejoicing in the market-place, saluting each other with a
kind of exultation; on the contrary, the fathers of the survivors
hid themselves at home among the women. If necessity drove any of
them abroad, they went very dejectedly, with downcast looks, and
sorrowful countenances. The women outdid the men in it; those
whose sons were slain, openly rejoicing, cheerfully making visits
to one another, and meeting triumphantly in the temples; they who
expected their children home, being very silent, and much troubled.
But the people in general, when their allies now began to desert
them, and Epaminondas, in all the confidence of victory, was
expected with an invading army in Peloponnesus, began to think
again of Agesilaus's lameness, and to entertain feelings of
religious fear and despondency, as if their having rejected the
sound-footed, and having chosen the halting king, which the oracle
had specially warned them against, was the occasion of all their
distresses. Yet the regard they had to the merit and reputation of
Agesilaus, so far stilled this murmuring of the people, that
notwithstanding it, they entrusted themselves to him in this
distress, as the only man that was fit to heal the public malady,
the arbiter of all their difficulties, whether relating to the
affairs of war or peace. One great one was then before them,
concerning the runaways (as their name is for them) that had fled
out of the battle, who being many and powerful, it was feared that
they might make some commotion in the republic, to prevent the
execution of the law upon them for their cowardice. The law in
that case was very severe; for they were not only to be debarred
from all honors, but also it was a disgrace to intermarry with
them; whoever met any of them in the streets, might beat him if he
chose, nor was it lawful for him to resist; they in the meanwhile
were obliged to go about unwashed and meanly dressed, with their
clothes patched with divers colors, and to wear their beards half
shaved half unshaven. To execute so rigid a law as this, in a case
where the offenders were so many, and many of them of such
distinction, and that in a time when the commonwealth wanted
soldiers so much as then it did, was of dangerous consequence.
Therefore they chose Agesilaus as a sort of new lawgiver for the
occasion. But he, without adding to or diminishing from or any
way changing the law, came out into the public assembly, and said,
that the law should sleep for today, but from this day forth be
vigorously executed. By this means he at once preserved the law
from abrogation, and the citizens from infamy; and that he might
alleviate the despondency and self-distrust of the young men, he
made an inroad into Arcadia, where carefully avoiding all fighting,
he contented himself with spoiling the territory, and taking a
small town belonging to the Mantineans, thus reviving the hearts of
the people, letting them see that they were not everywhere
unsuccessful.
Epaminondas now invaded Laconia, with an army of forty thousand,
besides light-armed men and others that followed the camp only for
plunder, so that in all they were at least seventy thousand. It
was now six hundred years since the Dorians had possessed Laconia,
and in all that time the face of an enemy had not been seen within
their territories, no man daring to invade them; but now they made
their entrance, and burnt and plundered without resistance the
hitherto untouched and sacred territory, up to Eurotas, and the
very suburbs of Sparta; for Agesilaus would not permit them to
encounter so impetuous a torrent, as Theopompus calls it, of war.
He contented himself with fortifying the chief parts of the city,
and with placing guards in convenient places, enduring meanwhile
the taunts of the Thebans, who reproached him by name as the
kindler of the war, and the author of all that mischief to his
country, bidding him defend himself if he could. But this was not
all; he was equally disturbed at home with the tumults of the city,
the outcries and running about of the old men, who were enraged at
their present condition, and the women, yet worse, out of their
senses with the clamors, and the fires of the enemy in the field.
He was also himself afflicted by the sense of his lost glory; who
having come to the throne of Sparta when it was in its most
flourishing and powerful condition, now lived to see it laid low in
esteem, and all its great vaunts cut down, even that which he
himself had been accustomed to use, that the women of Sparta had
never seen the smoke of the enemy's fire. As it is said, also,
that when Antalcidas once being in dispute with an Athenian about
the valor of the two nations, the Athenian boasted, that they had
often driven the Spartans from the river Cephisus, "Yes," said
Antalcidas, "but we never had occasion to drive you from Eurotas."
And a common Spartan of less note, being in company with an Argive,
who was bragging how many Spartans lay buried in the fields of
Argos, replied, "None of you are buried in the country of Laconia."
Yet now the case was so altered, that Antalcidas, being one of the
Ephors, out of fear sent away his children privately to the island
of Cythera.
When the enemy essayed to get over the river, and thence to attack
the town, Agesilaus, abandoning the rest, betook himself to the
high places and strong-holds of it. But it happened, that Eurotas
at that time was swollen to a great height with the snow that had
fallen, and made the passage very difficult to the Thebans, not
only by its depth, but much more by its extreme coldness. Whilst
this was doing, Epaminondas was seen in the front of the phalanx,
and was pointed out to Agesilaus, who looked long at him, and said
but these words, "O, bold man!" But when he came to the city, and
would have fain attempted something within the limits of it that
might raise him a trophy there, he could not tempt Agesilaus out of
his hold, but was forced to march off again, wasting the country as
he went.
Meanwhile, a body of long discontented and bad citizens, about two
hundred in number, having got into a strong part of the town called
the Issorion, where the temple of Diana stands, seized and
garrisoned it. The Spartans would have fallen upon them instantly;
but Agesilaus, not knowing how far the sedition might reach, bade
them forbear, and going himself in his ordinary dress, with but one
servant, when he came near the rebels, called out, and told them,
that they mistook their orders; this was not the right place; they
were to go, one part of them thither, showing them another place in
the city, and part to another, which he also showed. The
conspirators gladly heard this, thinking themselves unsuspected of
treason, and readily went off to the places which he showed them.
Whereupon Agesilaus placed in their room a guard of his own; and
of the conspirators he apprehended fifteen, and put them to death
in the night. But after this, a much more dangerous conspiracy was
discovered of Spartan citizens, who had privately met in each
other's houses, plotting a revolution. These were men whom it was
equally dangerous to prosecute publicly according to law, and to
connive at. Agesilaus took counsel with the Ephors, and put these
also to death privately without process; a thing never before known
in the case of any born Spartan.
At this time, also, many of the Helots and country people, who were
in the army, ran away to the enemy, which was matter of great
consternation to the city. He therefore caused some officers of
his, every morning before day, to search the quarters of the
soldiers, and where any man was gone, to hide his arms, that so the
greatness of the number might not appear.
Historians differ about the cause of the Thebans' departure from
Sparta. Some say, the winter forced them; as also that the
Arcadian soldiers disbanding, made it necessary for the rest to
retire. Others say, that they stayed there three months, till they
had laid the whole country waste. Theopompus is the only author
who says that when the Boeotian generals had already resolved upon
the retreat, Phrixus, the Spartan, came to them, and offered them
from Agesilaus ten talents to be gone, so hiring them to do what
they were already doing of their own accord. How he alone should
come to be aware of this, I know not; only in this all authors
agree, that the saving of Sparta from ruin was wholly due to the
wisdom of Agesilaus, who in this extremity of affairs quitted all
his ambition and his haughtiness, and resolved to play a saving
game. But all his wisdom and courage was not sufficient to recover
the glory of it, and to raise it to its ancient greatness. For as
we see in human bodies, long used to a very strict and too
exquisitely regular diet, any single great disorder is usually
fatal; so here one stroke overthrew the whole State's long
prosperity. Nor can we be surprised at this. Lycurgus had formed
a polity admirably designed for the peace, harmony, and virtuous
life of the citizens; and their fall came from their assuming
foreign dominion and arbitrary sway, things wholly undesirable, in
the judgment of Lycurgus, for a well-conducted and happy State.
Agesilaus being now in years, gave over all military employments;
but his son Archidamus, having received help from Dionysius of
Sicily, gave a great defeat to the Arcadians, in the fight known by
the name of the Tearless Battle, in which there was a great
slaughter of the enemy, without the loss of one Spartan. Yet this
victory, more than anything else, discovered the present weakness
of Sparta; for heretofore victory was esteemed so usual a thing
with them, that for their greatest successes, they merely
sacrificed a cock to the gods. The soldiers never vaunted, nor did
the citizens display any great joy at the news; even when the great
victory, described by Thucydides, was obtained at Mantinea, the
messenger that brought the news had no other reward than a piece of
meat, sent by the magistrates from the common table. But at the
news of this Arcadian victory, they were not able to contain
themselves; Agesilaus went out in procession with tears of joy in
his eyes, to meet and embrace his son, and all the magistrates and
public officers attended him. The old men and the women marched