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[6] Now although the picked troops of the Argives, though in numbers far inferior, were superior in feats of courage, the king of the Lacedaemonians led the fight and held out firmly against the perils he encountered; and he would have slain all the Argives—for he was resolved to fulfil the promises he had made to his fellow citizens and wipe out, by a great deed, his former ill repute—but he was not allowed to consummate that purpose. For Pharax the Spartan, who was one of the advisers of Agis and enjoyed the highest reputation in Sparta, directed him to leave a way of escape for the picked men and not, by hazarding the issue against men who had given up all hope of life, to learn what valour is when abandoned by Fortune.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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