Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
common body. And to effect this was the one object of all
his many commanderships and his long political course; as he
thought this the only means to make them a match for their
foreign enemies. Pretty nearly all the rest agreed to his
proposals, only the Lacedaemonians, the Eleans, and as many
of the Arcadians as inclined to the Spartan interest,
remained unpersuaded. And so as soon as Leonidas was dead,
he began to attack the Arcadians, and wasted those especially
that bordered on Achaea, by this means designing to try the
inclinations of the Spartans, and despising Cleomenes as a
youth, and of no experience in affairs of state or war. Upon
this, the ephors sent Cleomenes to surprise the Athenaeum,
near Belbina, which is a pass commanding an entrance into
Laconia and was then the subject of litigation with the
Megalopolitans. Cleomenes possessed himself of the place,
and fortified it, at which action Aratus showed no public
resentment, but marched by night to surprise Tegea and
Orchormenus. The design failed, for those that were to
betray the cities into his hands, turned afraid; so Aratus
retreated, imagining that his design had been undiscovered.
But Cleomenes wrote a sarcastic letter to him, and desired to
know, as from a friend, whither he intended to march at
night; and Aratus answering, that having heard of his design
to fortify Belbina, he meant to march thither to oppose him,
Cleomenes rejoined, that he did not dispute it, but begged to
be informed, if he might be allowed to ask the question, why
he carried those torches and ladders with him.
Aratus laughing at the jest, and asking what manner of youth
this was, Damocrates, a Spartan exile, replied, "If you have
any designs upon the Lacedaemonians, begin before this young
eagle's talons are grown." Presently after this, Cleomenes,
encamping in Arcadia with a few horse and three hundred foot,
received orders from the ephors, who feared to engage in the
war, commanding him home; but when upon his retreat Aratus
took Caphyae, they commissioned him again. In this
expedition he took Methydrium, and overran the country of the
Argives; and the Achaeans, to oppose him, came out with an
army of twenty thousand foot and one thousand horse, under
the command of Aristomachus. Cleomenes faced them at
Pallantium, and offered battle, but Aratus, being cowed by
his bravery, would not suffer the general to engage, but
retreated, amidst the reproaches of the Achaeans, and the
derision and scorn of the Spartans, who were not above five
thousand. Cleomenes, encouraged by this success, began to
speak boldly among the citizens, and reminding them of a
sentence of one of their ancient kings, said, it was in vain
now that the Spartans asked, not how many their enemies were,
but where they were. After this, marching to the assistance
of the Eleans, whom the Achaeans were attacking, falling upon
the enemy in their retreat near the Lycaeum, he put their
whole army to flight, taking a great number of captives, and
leaving many dead upon the place; so that it was commonly
reported amongst the Greeks that Aratus was slain. But
Aratus, making the best advantage of the opportunity,
immediately after the defeat marched to Mantinea, and before
anybody suspected it, took the city, and put a garrison into
it. Upon this, the Lacedaemonians being quite discouraged,
and opposing Cleomenes's designs of carrying on the war, he
now exerted himself to have Archidamus, the brother of Agis,
sent for from Messene, as he, of the other family, had a
right to the kingdom ; and besides, Cleomenes thought that
the power of the ephors would be reduced, when the kingly
state was thus filled up, and raised to its proper position.
But those that were concerned in the murder of Agis,
perceiving the design, and fearing that upon Archidamus's
return they should be called to an account, received him on
his coming privately into town, and joined in bringing him
home, and presently after murdered him. Whether Cleomenes
was against it, as Phylarchus thinks, or whether he was
persuaded by his friends, or let him fall into their hands,
is uncertain; however, they were most blamed, as having
forced his consent.
He, still resolving to new model the state, bribed the ephors
to send him out to war; and won the affections of many others
by means of his mother Cratesiclea, who spared no cost and
was very zealous to promote her son's ambition; and though of
herself she had no inclination to marry, yet for his sake,
she accepted, as her husband, one of the chiefest citizens
for wealth and power. Cleomenes, marching forth with the
army now under his commend, took Leuctra, a place belonging
to Megalopolis; and the Achaeans quickly coming up to resist
him with a good body of men commanded by Aratus, in a battle
under the very walls of the city some part of his army was
routed. But whereas Aratus had commanded the Achaeans not to
pass a deep watercourse, and thus put a stop to the pursuit,
Lydiadas, the Megalopolitan, fretting at the orders, and
encouraging the horse which he led, and following the routed
enemy, got into a place full of vines, hedges, and ditches;
and being forced to break his ranks, began to retire in
disorder. Cleomenes, observing the advantage, commanded the
Tarentines and Cretans to engage him, by whom, after a brave
defense, he was routed and slain. The Lacedaemonians, thus
encouraged, fell with a great shout upon the Achaeans, and
routed their whole army. Of the slain, who were very many,
the rest Cleomenes delivered up, when the enemy petitioned
for them; but the body of Lydiadas he commanded to be brought
to him; and then putting on it a purple robe, and a crown
upon its head, sent a convoy with it to the gates of
Megalopolis. This is that Lydiadas who resigned his power as
tyrant, restored liberty to the citizens, and joined the city
to the Achaean interest.
Cleomenes, being very much elated by this success, and
persuaded that if matters were wholly at his disposal, he
should soon be too hard for the Achaeans, persuaded
Megistonus, his mother's husband, that it was expedient for
the state to shake off the power of the ephors, and to put
all their wealth into one common stock for the whole body;
thus Sparta, being restored to its old equality, might aspire
again to the command of all Greece. Megistonus liked the
design, and engaged two or three more of his friends. About
that time, one of the ephors, sleeping in Pasiphae's temple,
dreamed a very surprising dream; for he thought he saw the
four chairs removed out of the place where the ephors used to
sit and do the business of their office, and one only set
there; and whilst he wondered, he heard a voice out of the
temple, saying, "This is best for Sparta." The person
telling Cleomenes this dream, he was a little troubled at
first, fearing that he used this as a trick to sift him, upon
some suspicion of his design, but when he was satisfied that
the relater spoke truth, he took heart again. And carrying
with him those whom he thought would be most against his
project, he took Heraea and Alsaea, two towns in league with
the Achaeans, furnished Orchomenus with provisions, encamped
before Mantinea, and with long marches up and down so
harassed the Lacedaemonians, that many of them at their own
request were left behind in Arcadia, while he with the
mercenaries went on toward Sparta, and by the way
communicated his design to those whom he thought fittest for
his purpose, and marched slowly, that he might catch the
ephors at supper.
When he was come near the city, he sent Euryclidas to the
public table, where the ephors supped, under pretense of
carrying some message from him from the army; Therycion,
Phoebis, and two of those who had been bred up with
Cleomenes, whom they call mothaces, followed with a few
soldiers; and whilst Euryclidas was delivering his message to
the ephors, they ran upon them with their drawn swords, and
slew them. The first of them, Agylaeus, on receiving the
blow, fell and lay as dead; but in a little time quietly
raising himself, and drawing himself out of the room, he
crept, without being discovered, into a little building which
was dedicated to Fear, and which always used to be shut, but
then by chance was open; and being got in, he shut the door,
and lay close. The other four were killed, and above ten
more that came to their assistance; to those that were quiet
they did no harm, stopped none that fled from the city, and
spared Agylaeus, when he came out of the temple the next day.
The Lacedaemonians have not only sacred places dedicated to
Fear, but also to Death, Laughter, and the like Passions.
Now they worship Fear, not as they do supernatural powers
which they dread, esteeming it hurtful, but thinking their
polity is chiefly kept up by fear. And therefore, the
ephors, Aristotle is my author, when they entered upon their
government, made proclamation to the people, that they should
shave their mustaches, and be obedient to the laws, that the
laws might not be hard upon them, making, I suppose, this
trivial injunction, to accustom their youth to obedience even
in the smallest matters. And the ancients, I think, did not
imagine bravery to be plain fearlessness, but a cautious fear
of blame and disgrace. For those that show most timidity
towards the laws, are most bold against their enemies; and
those are least afraid of any danger who are most afraid of a
just reproach. Therefore it was well said that
A reverence still attends on fear;
and by Homer,
Feared you shall be, dear father, and revered;
and again,
In silence fearing those that bore the sway;
for the generality of men are most ready to reverence those
whom they fear. And, therefore, the Lacedaemonians placed
the temple of Fear by the Syssitium of the ephors, having
raised that magistracy to almost royal authority.
The next day, Cleomenes proscribed eighty of the citizens,
whom he thought necessary to banish, and removed all the
seats of the ephors, except one, in which he himself designed
to sit and give audience; and calling the citizens together,
he made an apology for his proceedings, saying, that by
Lycurgus the council of Elders was joined to the kings, and
that that model of government had continued a long time, and
no other sort of magistrates had been wanted. But
afterwards, in the long war with the Messenians, when the
kings, having to command the army, found no time to
administer justice, they chose some of their friends, and
left them to determine the suits of the citizens in their
stead. These were called ephors, and at first behaved
themselves as servants to the kings; but afterwards, by
degrees, they appropriated the power to themselves and
erected a distinct magistracy. An evidence of the truth of
this was the custom still observed by the kings, who, when
the ephors send for them, refuse, upon the first and the
second summons, to go, but upon the third, rise up and attend
them. And Asteropus, the first that raised the ephors to
that height of power, lived a great many years after their
institution. So long, therefore, he continued, as they
contained themselves within their own proper sphere, it had
been better to bear with them than to make a disturbance.
But that an upstart, introduced power should so far subvert
the ancient form of government as to banish some kings,
murder others, without hearing their defense, and threaten
those who desired to see the best and most divine
constitution restored in Sparta, was not to be borne.
Therefore, if it had been possible for him, without
bloodshed, to free Lacedaemon from those foreign plagues,
luxury, sumptuosity, debts, and usury, and from those yet
more ancient evils, poverty and riches, he should have