Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
into his hands, he should come alone into the town, or bring
his army to the place of exercise, called the Cyllarabium,
outside the city, and treat there.
Cleomenes, hearing this, said, that he was unjustly dealt
with; for they ought to have told him so plainly at first,
and not now he was come even to their doors, show their
jealousy, and deny him admission. And writing a letter to
the Achaeans about the same subject, the greatest part of
which was an accusation of Aratus, while Aratus, on the other
side, spoke violently against him to the assembly, he hastily
dislodged, and sent a trumpeter to denounce war against the
Achaeans, not to Argos, but to Aegium, as Aratus writes, that
he might not give them notice enough to make provision for
their defense. There had also been a movement among the
Achaeans themselves, and the cities were eager for revolt;
the common people expecting a division of the land, and a
release from their debts, and the chief men being in many
places ill-disposed to Aratus, and some of them angry and
indignant with him, for having brought the Macedonians into
Peloponnesus. Encouraged by these misunderstandings,
Cleomenes invaded Achaea, and first took Pellene by surprise,
and beat out the Achaean garrison, and afterwards brought
over Pheneus and Penteleum to his side. Now the Achaeans,
suspecting some treacherous designs at Corinth and Sicyon,
sent their horse and mercenaries out of Argos, to have an eye
upon those cities, and they themselves went to Argos, to
celebrate the Nemean games. Cleomenes, advertised of this
march, and hoping, as it afterward fell out, that upon an
unexpected advance to the city, now busied in the solemnity
of the games, and thronged with numerous spectators, he
should raise a considerable terror and confusion amongst
them, by night marched with his army to the walls, and taking
the quarter of the town called Aspis, which lies above the
theater, well fortified, and hard to be approached, he so
terrified them that none offered to resist, but they agreed
to accept a garrison, to give twenty citizens for hostages,
and to assist the Lacedaemonians, and that he should have the
chief command.
This action considerably increased his reputation and his
power; for the ancient Spartan kings, though they many ways
endeavored to effect it, could never bring Argos to be
permanently theirs. And Pyrrhus, the most experienced
captain, though he entered the city by force, could not keep
possession, but was slain himself, with a considerable part
of his army. Therefore they admired the dispatch and
contrivance of Cleomenes; and those that before derided him,
for imitating, as they said, Solon and Lycurgus, in releasing
the people from their debts, and in equalizing the property
of the citizens, were now fain to admit that this was the
cause of the change in the Spartans. For before they were
very low in the world, and so unable to secure their own,
that the Aetolians, invading Laconia, brought away fifty
thousand slaves; so that one of the elder Spartans is
reported to have said, that they had done Laconia a kindness
by unburdening it; and yet a little while after, by merely
recurring once again to their native customs, and reentering
the track of the ancient discipline, they were able to give,
as though it had been under the eyes and conduct of Lycurgus
himself, the most signal instances of courage and obedience,
raising Sparta to her ancient place as the commanding state
of Greece, and recovering all Peloponnesus.
When Argos was captured, and Cleonae and Phlius came over, as
they did at once, to Cleomenes, Aratus was at Corinth,
searching after some who were reported to favor the Spartan
interest. The news, being brought to him, disturbed him very
much; for he perceived the city inclining to Cleomenes, and
willing to be rid of the Achaeans. Therefore he summoned the
citizens to meet in the Council Hall, and slipping away
without being observed to the gate, he mounted his horse that
had been brought for him thither, and fled to Sicyon. And
the Corinthians made such haste to Cleomenes at Argos, that,
as Aratus says, striving who should be first there, they
spoiled all their horses; he adds that Cleomenes was very
angry with the Corinthians for letting him escape; and that
Megistonus came from Cleomenes to him, desiring him to
deliver up the castle at Corinth, which was then garrisoned
by the Achaeans, and offered him a considerable sum of money,
and that he answered, that matters were not now in his power,
but he in theirs. Thus Aratus himself writes. But
Cleomenes, marching from Argos, and taking in the
Troezenians, Epidaurians, and Hermioneans, came to Corinth,
and blocked up the castle, which the Achaeans would not
surrender; and sending for Aratus's friends and stewards,
committed his house and estate to their care and management;
and sent Tritymallus, the Messenian, to him a second time,
desiring that the castle might be equally garrisoned by the
Spartans and Achaeans, and promising to Aratus himself double
the pension that he received from king Ptolemy. But Aratus,
refusing the conditions, and sending his own son with the
other hostages to Antigonus, and persuading the Achaeans to
make a decree for delivering the castle into Antigonus's
hands, upon this Cleomenes invaded the territory of the
Sicyonians, and by a decree of the Corinthians, accepted
Aratus's estate as a gift.
In the meantime, Antigonus, with a great army, was passing
Geranea; and Cleomenes, thinking it more advisable to fortify
and garrison, not the isthmus, but the mountains called Onea,
and by a war of posts and positions to weary the Macedonians,
rather than to venture a set battle with the highly
disciplined phalanx, put his design in execution, and very
much distressed Antigonus. For he had not brought victuals
sufficient for his army; nor was it easy to force a way
through, whilst Cleomenes guarded the pass. He attempted by
night to pass through Lechaeum, but failed, and lost some
men; so that Cleomenes and his army were mightily encouraged,
and so flushed with the victory, that they went merrily to
supper; and Antigonus was very much dejected, being driven,
by the necessity he was in, to most unpromising attempts. He
was proposing to march to the promontory of Heraeum, and
thence transport his army in boats to Sicyon, which would
take up a great deal of time, and require much preparation
and means. But when it was now evening, some of Aratus's
friends came from Argos by sea, and invited him to return,
for the Argives would revolt from Cleomenes. Aristoteles was
the man that wrought the revolt, and he had no hard task to
persuade the common people; for they were all angry with
Cleomenes for not releasing them from their debts as they
expected. Accordingly, obtaining fifteen hundred of
Antigonus's soldiers, Aratus sailed to Epidaurus; but
Aristoteles, not staying for his coming, drew out the
citizens, and fought against the garrison of the castle; and
Timoxenus, with the Achaeans from Sicyon, came to his
assistance.
Cleomenes heard the news about the second watch of the night,
and sending for Megistonus, angrily commanded him to go and
set things right at Argos. Megistonus had passed his word
for the Argives' loyalty, and had persuaded him not to banish
the suspected. Therefore, dispatching him with two thousand
soldiers, he himself kept watch upon Antigonus, and
encouraged the Corinthians, pretending that there was no
great matter in the commotions at Argos, but only a little
disturbance raised by a few inconsiderable persons. But when
Megistonus, entering Argos, was slain, and the garrison could
scarce hold out, and frequent messengers came to Cleomenes
for succors, he, fearing least the enemy, having taken Argos,
should shut up the passes, and securely waste Laconia, and
besiege Sparta itself, which he had left without forces,
dislodged from Corinth, and immediately lost that city; for
Antigonus entered it, and garrisoned the town. He turned
aside from his direct march, and assaulting the walls of
Argos, endeavored to carry it by a sudden attack and then,
having collected his forces from their march, breaking into
the Aspis, he joined the garrison, which still held out
against the Achaeans; some parts of the city he scaled and
took, and his Cretan archers cleared the streets. But when
he saw Antigonus with his phalanx descending from the
mountains into the plain, and the horse on all sides entering
the city, he thought it impossible to maintain his post, and,
gathering together all his men, came safely down, and made
his retreat under the walls, having in so short a time
possessed himself of great power, and in one journey, so to
say, having made himself master of almost all Peloponnesus,
and now lost all again in as short a time. For some of his
allies at once withdrew and forsook him, and others not long
after put their cities under Antigonus's protection. His
hopes thus defeated, as he was leading back the relics of his
forces, messengers from Lacedaemon met him in the evening at
Tegea, and brought him, news of as great a misfortune as
that which he had lately suffered, and this was the death of
his wife, to whom he was so attached, and thought so much of
her, that even in his most successful expeditions, when he
was most prosperous, he could not refrain, but would ever now
and then come home to Sparta, to visit Agiatis.
This news afflicted him extremely, and he grieved, as a young
man would do, for the loss of a very beautiful and excellent
wife; yet he did not let his passion disgrace him, or impair
the greatness of his mind, but keeping his usual voice, his
countenance, and his habit, he gave necessary orders to his
captains, and took the precautions required for the safety of
Tegea. Next morning he came to Sparta, and having at home
with his mother and children bewailed the loss, and finished
his mourning, he at once devoted himself to the public
affairs of the state.
Now Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, promised him assistance, but
demanded his mother and children for hostages. This, for
some considerable time, he was ashamed to discover to his
mother; and though he often went to her on purpose, and was
just upon the discourse, yet he still refrained, and kept it
to himself; so that she began to suspect, and asked his
friends, whether Cleomenes had something to say to her, which
he was afraid to speak. At last, Cleomenes venturing to tell
her, she laughed aloud, and said, "Was this the thing that
you had so often a mind to tell me, and were afraid? Make
haste and put me on shipboard, and send this carcass where it
may be most serviceable to Sparta, before age destroys it
unprofitably here." Therefore, all things being provided for
the voyage, they went by land to Taenarus, and the army
waited on them. Cratesiclea, when she was ready to go on
board, took Cleomenes aside into Neptune's temple, and
embracing him, who was much dejected, and extremely
discomposed, she said, "Go to, king of Sparta; when we come
forth at the door, let none see us weep, or show any passion
that is unworthy of Sparta, for that alone is in our own
power; as for success or disappointment, those wait on us as
the deity decrees." Having thus said, and composed her
countenance, she went to the ship with her little grandson,
and bade the pilot put at once out to sea. When she came to
Egypt, and understood that Ptolemy entertained proposals and
overtures of peace from Antigonus, and that Cleomenes, though
the Achaeans invited and urged him to an agreement, was
afraid, for her sake, to come to any, without Ptolemy's
consent, she wrote to him, advising him to do that which was
most becoming and most profitable for Sparta, and not, for