AGIS, SON OF ARCHIDAMUS 1
Once upon a time the Ephors said to Agis the son of Archidamus, ‘Take the young men and march against the country of this man here. He will himself guide you to its citadel.’ ‘And how, sirs,’ said Agis, ‘is it right to entrust so many youths to a man who is betraying his own country ?’ 2
Being asked what form of instruction was most in vogue in Sparta, he said, ‘Knowledge of how to rule and to be ruled.’ 3
He said that the Spartans did not ask c how many are the enemy,' but ' where are they ? ' 4
When, at Mantineia, he was not permitted to risk a decisive battle with the enemy, who outnumbered his men, he said, ‘He who would rule over many must fight with many.’ 5
When someone inquired how many Spartans there were, he said, ‘Enough to keep all bad men away.’ 6
As he was going about among the walls of the Corinthians and observed that they were high and [p. 289] towering and vast in extent, he said, ‘What women live in that place ?’ 7
When a lecturer said, ‘Speech is the most important thing of all,’ he retorted, ‘Then if you are silent, you are of no worth at all !’
When the Argives, after their defeat, met him again with greater boldness, and he saw that his allies were greatly perturbed, he said, ‘Do not be afraid, men; for when we who are victorious are frightened, what do you think those vanquished by us are doing ?’
In answer to the ambassador from Abdera, who, after winding up a long discourse, asked him what report he should make to his people at home, he said, ‘Report that during all the time you wanted to speak I listened in silence.’ 8
When some commended the people of Elis because they were very just in conducting the Olympic games, he said, ‘What great or marvellous accomplishment is it if they practise justice on one day only in four years ?’ 9
In answer to those who said that some members of the other royal house 10 were jealous of him he said, ‘So then, their own ill fortune will make them miserable and, besides that, the good fortune of myself and of my friends.’
When someone proffered the advice that they ought to give a passage-way to those of the enemy who were fleeing, 11 he said, ‘ And how, if we do not [p. 291] fight those who because of cowardice are fleeing, shall we fight those who because of bravery stand their ground ?’
When someone brought forward a plan, for the freedom of the Greeks, which, while not lacking idealism, was difficult to put into practice, he said, ‘Your words, my friend, need the backing of power and money.’ 12
When someone said that Philip would make Greece forbidden ground to them, he said, ‘It is quite enough, my friend, for us to go and come within the confines of our own land.’ 13
An ambassador who had come from Perinthus to Sparta made a long harangue; and when he had stopped speaking and asked Agis what report he should make to the people of Perinthus, Agis said, ‘What else except that it was hard for you to stop speaking, and that I said nothing ?’ 14
He came alone on an embassy to Philip, and when Philip exclaimed, ‘ What is this ? Have you come all alone ?’, he said, ‘Yes, for I came to only one man.’ 15
When one of the elderly men said to him in his old age, inasmuch as he saw the good old customs falling into desuetude, and other mischievous prae tices creeping in, that for this reason everything was getting to be topsy-turvy in Sparta, Agis said humorously, ‘Things are then but following a logical course if that is what is happening; for when I was a boy, I used to hear from my father that everything was topsy-turvy among them; and my father said that, [p. 293] when he was a boy, his father had said this to him; so nobody ought to be surprised if conditions later are worse than those earlier, but rather to wonder if they grow better or remain approximately the same.’ 16
Being asked how one could be a free man all his life, he said, ‘By feeling contempt for death.’ 17