Xenophon’s Agesilaus, Summary Automatic translate

The pamphlet "Agesilaus" was written by the ancient Greek historian and general Xenophon sometime after 360 BC. This work is an encomium — a eulogy — dedicated to the Spartan king Agesilaus II, the author’s friend and patron. The text’s most important feature is its apologetic nature: Xenophon doesn’t simply recount a biography, but creates an idealized image of the monarch, embodying the highest virtues of a Spartan citizen and ruler.

Origin and accession to the throne

The narrative opens with a statement about the difficulty of adequately praising such a distinguished man. Agesilaus’s lineage goes back to Heracles himself, and this genealogy is unbroken, with his ancestors being kings descended from kings. Sparta, unlike other states where tyrannies, democracies, and oligarchies alternated, preserved royal power unshakable.

Even before his accession, Agesilaus showed signs of future valor. After the death of King Agis, a succession dispute arose between Leotychides, son of Agis, and Agesilaus, son of Archidamus. The city ruled in favor of Agesilaus, deeming him impeccable in birth and virtue. The selection of the most worthy citizens in favor of Agesilaus served as proof of his superiority even before his reign began.

Campaign in Asia

Having barely assumed power, Agesilaus faced the threat of a Persian invasion. The Persian king was gathering a massive force, and the Spartan volunteered to cross to Asia to preempt the attack. He requested only thirty Spartiates, two thousand neodamodes (new citizens), and six thousand allies. His goal was either to make peace or to carry the war into barbarian territory.

In Asia, the satrap Tissaphernes swore to Agesilaus that he would grant autonomy to the Greek cities if a truce were concluded until the return of the Persian king’s envoys. Agesilaus swore to honor the truce. However, Tissaphernes broke his oath and requested reinforcements. The Spartan king, aware of this, continued to honor the treaty, thereby demonstrating his piety and exposing the Persian as a perjurer before gods and men.

When Tissaphernes, having gathered his army, ordered the Greeks to withdraw from Asia, Agesilaus gladly accepted the challenge. He deceived the satrap’s expectations: instead of marching into Caria, where the terrain was unsuitable for cavalry, which the Greeks lacked, he headed for Phrygia. Tissaphernes transferred the infantry to Caria and the cavalry to the Maeander Valley, but Agesilaus swiftly marched through the cities of Phrygia, capturing rich booty.

Cavalry organization and the Battle of Sardis

Recognizing the need for cavalry to counter Pharnabazus’s cavalry, Agesilaus resorted to a ruse. He obliged the wealthiest residents of local cities to provide horsemen, allowing those who provided a horse, weapons, and a mercenary not to serve personally. This generated such enthusiasm, it was as if the condemned were seeking substitutes for their death.

In the spring, he staged large-scale military exercises in Ephesus, establishing rewards for the best units. The city became a war workshop: the hippodromes were filled with cavalry, the gymnasiums with hoplites, and the artisans ceaselessly forged weapons. To boost the soldiers’ morale, Agesilaus ordered barbarian prisoners sold naked. Seeing their white, effeminate bodies, the Spartans realized that fighting them was no more difficult than fighting women.

Tissaphernes again expected an attack on Caria, but Agesilaus advanced on Sardis. On the fourth day of the campaign, the Persian cavalry appeared. The Spartan king, without waiting for the enemy infantry, attacked. The Greek phalanx and light infantry, supported by cavalry, routed the Persians. The enemy fled, their camp captured. As a result of this victory, the Persian king executed Tissaphernes, sending Tithraustes to replace him.

Return to Hellas

At the height of his power and the leader of not only the Greeks but also many Asians, Agesilaus received orders from the ephors to return to the aid of his homeland. He obeyed immediately, renounced personal glory and wealth for the sake of Sparta. The Asian Greeks mourned his departure as a father.

Agesilaus covered a distance that took Xerxes a year to cover in less than a month. In Thessaly, local tribes, allies of the Boeotians, attempted to delay him. Using tactical cunning to reorganize his cavalry, he routed the famed Thessalian cavalry with his own forces, which he had formed himself, and erected a trophy at Mount Nartakios.

Battle of Coronea

On the Boeotia border, the Thebans, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, and Locrians lined up against the Spartans. Agesilaus, with an army no less numerous, engaged in open battle on the plain of Coronea.

The battle began in profound silence. As they approached, the Thebans charged with a cry. The Argives, facing the Spartans, fled to Mount Helicon. On the other flank, the Thebans broke through Agesilaus’s allies and reached the baggage train. Agesilaus could have let them pass to attack from the rear, but he chose to meet the enemy face to face. A brutal clash ensued, shield to shield. The bloody battle ended with some Thebans breaking through to the mountains, but victory remained Spartan.

Even wounded, Agesilaus demonstrated piety: upon learning that eighty of the enemy had taken refuge in the temple, he ordered them left alone and allowed them to leave. The next morning, he marshaled his army, and the Thebans requested a truce to bury the fallen, thereby admitting defeat.

Corinthian War and Later Campaigns

Returning home, Agesilaus continued his military campaign. He launched a campaign against Argos and Corinth, capturing the Long Walls leading to Lechaeum. Later, learning that the Corinthians were storing livestock in Piraeus, he deceived them into believing he was attacking the city, while he himself captured the undefended Piraeus and all its supplies.

In response to the Achaeans’ request, he invaded Acarnania, where he routed the enemy in the mountainous terrain, storming the heights. He later returned the exiles to Phlius and launched two campaigns into Boeotia, devastating Theban lands and overcoming ditches and palisades.

After the Spartans’ defeat at Leuctra (in which Agesilaus did not participate), the enemy, uniting with the Arcadians and Eleans, invaded Laconia. Agesilaus, despite Sparta’s lack of walls, managed to defend the city, occupying advantageous positions and refusing to be provoked into entering the open field, where the enemy’s numerical superiority would have been fatal.

Service in Egypt

In his old age, around eighty, Agesilaus traveled to Egypt at the request of King Tachos, who promised him command of the entire army in the war against Persia. The Spartan hoped to punish the Persians for their dictatorship over Messene. However, Tachos deceived him, not granting him the promised authority.

When dissension broke out in the Egyptian army and it deserted, Tachos fled. Agesilaus was faced with a choice between two contenders for the throne. He supported the one who seemed more loyal to the Greeks (Nectanebus), defeated his enemy, and helped establish himself in power. Having received enormous funds for Sparta, he hurried home in the middle of winter to prepare the city for the summer campaign.

The Virtues of Agesilaus

Xenophon moves from a description of the deeds to an analysis of the king’s soul.

• Piety: Agesilaus honored his oaths so much that even his enemies trusted him more than each other. Spithridates and Cotys sided with him, trusting in his honesty. Even Pharnabazus openly declared during negotiations that if the king appointed him commander-in-chief, he would fight against Agesilaus, knowing the Spartan would not break the truce.
• Justice: He never appropriated what belonged to others, but willingly gave away his own. Having received his brother Agis’s inheritance, he gave half of it to poor relatives on his mother’s side.
• Temperance: The Tsar shunned drunkenness as madness, and gluttony as laziness. He served double portions at feasts, leaving nothing extra for himself. For him, sleep was merely a means of relaxation, not a pleasure; his bed was the simplest. He endured heat and cold better than anyone else.
• Chastity: In love with Spithridates’ son Megabates, he refused to kiss the youth when he attempted to greet him. Agesilaus confessed that overcoming such temptation was more important to him than turning everything he looked at into gold.

Wisdom and Patriotism

In military affairs, Agesilaus combined cunning in dealing with enemies with stern honesty toward his friends. He knew how to be unpredictable, turning night into day for swift marches.

His patriotism was absolute. He obeyed the laws of his fatherland so zealously that no one dared to think of disobedience. Unlike others, he did not rejoice in victories over the Greeks. Upon hearing of the enemy’s heavy losses at Corinth, he merely sighed, "Woe to Hellas!" regretting that those who had fallen could have vanquished all the barbarians of Asia. He refused to storm Greek cities, preferring to bring them to their senses with gentleness, believing that the destruction of his fellow tribesmen weakened Hellas in the face of the barbarians.

He despised the Persian king, rejecting his offer of personal friendship, declaring that friendship with the monarch was possible only through friendship with Sparta and Hellas.

Simplicity and grandeur

Agesilaus was accessible to everyone, his doors always open. In his daily life, he maintained the ancient Spartan simplicity. The doors of his house were the same as those installed by his ancestor Aristodemus. His daughter rode in simple chariots, like everyone else. He convinced his sister Cynisca to breed chariot horses so that her victory at the Olympics would prove that it was an achievement of wealth, not masculine prowess.

Xenophon concludes that Agesilaus’s reputation is beyond reproach. He was fearsome to his enemies, but gentle with his friends. He pursued noble goals while his body could serve his spirit, and his old age proved more powerful than the youth of others. He died returning from Egypt, benefiting his city to his last breath.

"His body was brought to Sparta, and this king was awarded eternal honor in his homeland."