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    Agesilaus
    Agesilaus
    Agesilaus
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Agesilaus

    By Henry Graham Dakyns and Xenophon

    ()

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateSep 1, 1999
    Agesilaus

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      Book preview

      Agesilaus - Henry Graham Dakyns

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Agesilaus, by Xenophon

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Agesilaus

      Author: Xenophon

      Translator: H. G. Dakyns

      Release Date: August 13, 2008 [EBook #1169]

      Last Updated: January 15, 2013

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AGESILAUS ***

      Produced by John Bickers, and David Widger

      AGESILAUS

      By Xenophon

      Translation by H. G. Dakyns

                   Dedicated To

                   Rev. B. Jowett, M.A.

                   Master of Balliol College

                   Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford

                   Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a

                   pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,

                   and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land

                   and property in Scillus, where he lived for many

                   years before having to move once more, to settle

                   in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.

                   The Agesilaus summarises the life of his Spartan

                   friend and king, whom he met after the events of

                   the Anabasis.

      Contents

      PREPARER'S NOTE

           This was typed from Dakyns' series, The Works of Xenophon, a

           four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though

           there is doubt about some of these) is:

           Work                                   Number of books

           The Anabasis                                         7

           The Hellenica                                        7

           The Cyropaedia                                       8

           The Memorabilia                                      4

           The Symposium                                        1

           The Economist                                        1

           On Horsemanship                                      1

           The Sportsman                                        1

           The Cavalry General                                  1

           The Apology                                          1

           On Revenues                                          1

           The Hiero                                            1

           The Agesilaus                                        1

           The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians   2

           Text in brackets {} is my transliteration of Greek text into

           English using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The

           diacritical marks have been lost.

      AGESILAUS

      An Encomium

           The date of Agesilaus's death is uncertain—360 B.C. (Grote,

           H. G. ix. 336); 358 B.C. (Curt. iv. 196, Eng. tr.)

      I

      To write the praises of Agesilaus in language equalling his virtue and renown is, I know, no easy task; yet must it be essayed; since it were but an ill requital of pre-eminence, that, on the ground of his perfection, a good man should forfeit the tribute even of imperfect praise.

      As touching, therefore, the excellency of his birth, what weightier, what nobler testimony can be adduced than this one fact? To the commemorative list of famous ancestry is added to-day the name (1) Agesilaus as holding this or that numerical descent from Heracles, and these ancestors no private persons, but kings sprung from the loins of kings. Nor is it open to the gainsayer to contend that they were kings indeed but of some chance city. Not so, but even as their family holds highest honour in their fatherland, so too is their city the most glorious in Hellas, whereby they hold, not primacy over the second best, but among leaders they have leadership.

      (1) Or, "even to-day, in the proud bead-roll of his ancestry he stands

          commemorated, in numerical descent from Heracles."

      And herein it is open to us to praise both his fatherland and his family. It is notable that never throughout these ages has Lacedaemon, out of envy of the privilege accorded to her kings, tried to dissolve their rule; nor ever yet throughout these ages have her kings strained after greater powers than those which limited their heritage of kingship from the first. Wherefore, while all other forms of government, democracies and oligarchies, tyrannies and monarchies, alike have failed to maintain their continuity unbroken, here, as the sole exception, endures indissolubly their kingship. (2)

      (2) See Cyrop. I. i. 1.

      And next in token of an aptitude for kingship seen in Agesilaus, before even he entered upon office, I note these signs. On the death of Agis, king of Lacedaemon, there were rival claimants to the throne. Leotychides claimed the succession as being the son of Agis, and Agesilaus as the son of Archidamus. But the verdict of Lacedaemon favoured Agesilaus as being in point of family and virtue unimpeachable, (3) and so they set him on the throne. And yet, in this princeliest of cities so to be selected by the noblest citizens as worthy of highest privilege, argues, methinks conclusively, an excellence forerunning exercise of rule. (4)

      (3) For this matter see Hell. III. iii. 1-6; V. iv. 13; Plut.

          Ages. iii. 3  (Cloigh, iv. 3 foll.); Paus. iii. 3.

      (4) See Aristides  (Rhet. 776), who quotes the passage for its

          measured cadence.

      And so I pass on at once to narrate the chief achievements of his reign, since by the light of deeds the character of him who wrought them will, if I mistake not, best shine forth.

      Agesilaus was still a youth (5) when he obtained the kingdom, and he was still but a novice in

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