approve of your son's deeds, you shall suffer with him." At these words Agesistrata rose and offered her neck to the halter, saying, "I only pray that this may be for the good of Sparta."
XXI. When the sad news was known throughout the city, and the three corpses brought out of the prison, the terror which was inspired did not prevent the citizens from manifesting their sorrow at the deed, and their hatred of Leonidas and Amphares. No such wicked or cruel deed, they declared, had been committed in Sparta since the Dorians settled in Peloponnesus. The very enemies of the Lacedæmonians generally seemed unwilling to lay violent hands on their kings when they met them in battle, and turned aside through reverence of their exalted position.
For this reason, in all the battles which the Lacedæmonians had fought against the Greeks before the era of Philip of Macedon, only one king, Kleombrotus, had fallen on the field of Leuktra; for though the Messenians aver that Theopompus, a king of Lacedæmon, was slain by Aristomenes, the Lacedæmonians deny it, and say that he was only wounded. This matter is doubtful, but Agis was the first king who was put to death by the Ephors in Lacedæmon, because he had conceived a noble design and one which was worthy of Sparta. He was of an age when men's shortcomings deserve to be pardoned; and deserves to be blamed by his friends more than by his enemies, because with an ill-judged clemency he spared the life of Leonidas, and trusted in the professions of the rest of his political enemies.
LIFE OF KLEOMENES.
I. After the death of Agis, as has been related, Leonidas was not able to seize the person of his brother Archidamus, who at once fled out of the country, but he brought the wife of Agis with her newly-born child out of her house, and forcibly married her to his own son Kleomenes, who was scarcely come to an age for marriage, because he was unwilling for her to marry any one else. Indeed Agiatis was the daughter of Gylippus, and heiress to a great estate. She was thought to be the most beautiful woman of her time in all Greece, and was of a noble disposition. It is said that she made many entreaties not to be forced into a second marriage, but that after her union with Kleomenes, although she continued to hate his father Leonidas, she made a good and affectionate wife to the young man, who became passionately fond of her, and sympathised with her loving remembrance of Agis, so that he would often ask her to tell him about her late husband, and used to listen with rapt attention while she explained the designs and projects of Agis. For Kleomenes was as eager for honour, and had as noble a mind as Agis himself, and was equally moderate and simple in his way of life; but he lacked the other's discreet and gentle temper, and was of a stirring and vehement nature, eager to embark on any honourable enterprise. He thought it the most glorious position of all to rule over an obedient people; but he took pride also in bending disobedient subjects to his will, and forcibly compelling them to move in the path of honour.
II. He was far from satisfied with the state of things at Sparta, where the citizens had given themselves up to luxurious repose, while the king Leonidas cared nothing for public affairs, so long as he was able to gratify his own love of extravagance and self-indulgence. Public virtue was entirely gone, and no man cared to profit his country, but only himself. As for discipline, orderly training of the young, hardiness of body, and equality, all these things had perished with Agis, and it was not safe even to speak of them. We are told that while yet a lad Kleomenes was instructed in the principles of the Stoic philosophy by Sphærus of Borysthenes,[7] who visited Lacedæmon and gave excellent instruction there to the young. This Sphærus was one of the aptest pupils of Zeno of Kitium,[8] and he seems to have admired the manly spirit of Kleomenes and to have encouraged him in the pursuit of honour.
The ancient hero Leonidas, when asked what he thought of Tyrtæus, is said to have answered, "He is good at exciting the minds of the youth."
Indeed they became filled with enthusiasm by the poems of Tyrtæus, and fought with reckless daring in battle: and so also the Stoic philosophy often renders brave and fiery natures over-daring and venturesome, and yields the best fruit when applied to a grave and gentle nature.
III. When after the death of Leonidas, Kleomenes succeeded to the throne, he found the state utterly disorganised, for the rich took no part in politics, and cared for nothing but their own pleasure and profit, while the miserable condition of the poor caused them to fight without spirit in the wars, and to neglect the proper training of their children. He himself was a king only in name, as the Ephors had engrossed all real power. Under these circumstances he at once began to revolve schemes of reform in his mind, and began to sound the opinion of his intimate friend Xenares, by enquiring of him what sort of a king Agis had been, and in what manner, and with what associates he had made his attempts at reform. Xenares at first very willingly gave him a complete narrative of the whole transaction; but as he saw that Kleomenes listened with intense interest, and was deeply excited by the recital of Agis's designs, to which he was never weary of listening, Xenares at last angrily reproached him with not being in his right mind, and at last broke off all intercourse with him. He did not, however, tell any one the reason of their being at variance, but declared that Kleomenes knew well what it was. Kleomenes, after meeting with this rebuff from Xenares, imagining that every one else would be of the same mind, determined to concert his own measures alone. As he thought that there was more chance of effecting reforms during war than in time of peace, he involved Sparta in a war with the Achæans, for which they themselves furnished the pretext. Aratus, the chief of the Achæans, had always desired to unite the whole of the Peloponnesus in one confederacy, and in all his long political career had steadily kept this object in view, as he thought that thus, and thus alone, the people of Peloponnesus would be able to defend themselves against external foes.
Nearly all the tribes of Peloponnesus joined his confederacy except the Lacedæmonians, the people of Elis, and such of the Arcadians as were under Lacedæmonian influence. On the death of Leonidas, Aratus began to make plundering expeditions into the territory of the Arcadians, especially those near the Achæan frontier, in order to see what steps the Lacedæmonians would take; for he despised Kleomenes as a young and inexperienced man.
IV. Upon this the Ephors first sent Kleomenes to occupy the temple of Athena, near Belbina. This place was situated in a mountain pass leading into Laconia, and it was claimed by the citizens of Megalopolis as belonging to their territory. Kleomenes seized the pass and fortified it, to which Aratus offered no objection, but endeavoured by a night march to surprise the cities of Tegea and Orchomenes. However, the hearts of the traitors within the walls failed them, and so Aratus led his army back, hoping that his object had not been discovered.
Kleomenes, by way of jest, now wrote him a letter affecting to enquire of him in the most friendly terms where he had been to in the night. He answered that he had heard that Kleomenes was about to erect fortifications at Belbina, and had marched to prevent his doing so. To this Kleomenes answered that he was satisfied that this had been Aratus's intention. "But," he continued, "if you do not mind, please tell me why you brought scaling ladders and torches with you." Aratus laughed at this home-thrust, and enquired what sort of a youth Kleomenes might be. Damochares, the Lacedæmonian exile, answered, "If you mean to do anything against the Lacedæmonians, you must make haste and do it before this young gamecock's spurs are grown." After this the Ephors ordered Kleomenes, who was encamped in Arcadia with a few horsemen and three hundred foot, to retire, as they feared to go to war. But since, as soon as he had withdrawn, Aratus captured the city of Kaphyæ, they sent him back again. He captured Methydrium, and overran Argolis, upon which the Achæans sent an army of twenty thousand foot and a thousand horse, under the command of Aristomachus, to attack him. Kleomenes met them near Pallantium, and was eager to fight, but Aratus, alarmed at his daring, would not permit the Achæan general to fight, and drew off his forces, incurring thereby the anger of the Achæans, and the ridicule and contempt of the Lacedæmonians, who only amounted to one-fifth of the enemy's numbers. This affair gave Kleomenes great self-confidence, and parodying a saying of one of the ancient kings, he said to his countrymen that it was useless nowadays for the Lacedæmonians to ask either how many their enemies were, or where they were.[9] V. Shortly after, as the Achæans were making war against the Eleans, Kleomenes was sent to aid the latter, and met with the army of the Achæans returning home, near the mountain called Lykæum. He attacked their forces, and utterly routed them, killing many and capturing numbers of prisoners, so that a report spread throughout Greece that Aratus himself had perished. But Aratus, turning the disaster to good account, immediately after the defeat marched to Mantinea, and as no one expected him, captured the city and placed a strong garrison in it.
This completely disheartened the Lacedæmonians, who desired to recall Kleomenes and put an end to the war. Kleomenes now sent to Messene and invited back Archidamus, the brother of Agis, who ought to have been on the throne as the representative of the other royal family, imagining that if there were two kings reigning at Sparta at the same time, the power of the Ephors would be weakened. However, the party who had previously murdered Agis perceived this, and as they feared that if Archidamus returned to Sparta he would make them pay the penalty of their crimes, they welcomed him back and assisted him to make a secret entry into the city, but immediately afterwards assassinated him, either against the will of Kleomenes, as we are told by Phylarchus, or else with his connivance, in consequence of the representations of his friends. They indeed bore the chief blame in the matter, as they were thought to have forced Kleomenes into consenting to the murder.
VI. Kleomenes, determined to carry out his designs of reform, now proceeded to bribe the Ephors into sending him out on a new military expedition. He also won over a considerable number of supporters among the citizens by means of the lavish expenditure and influence of his mother Kratesiklea, who, though averse to a second marriage, is said to have married one of the leading men in Sparta in order to further her son's interests.
Kleomenes now took the field at the head of his army, and captured a small town within the territory of Megalopolis, named Leuktra.[10] The Achæans under Aratus promptly came up, and a battle was fought under the walls of the town, in which part of the army of Kleomenes was defeated.
Aratus however refused to follow up his advantage, and kept the main body of the Achæans motionless behind the bed of a torrent. Enraged at his inaction, Lydiades of Megalopolis charged at the head of the cavalry under his own command, but got entangled in the pursuit of the enemy in ground which was cut up by walls and watercourses. Seeing him thrown into disorder, Kleomenes sent his Tarentine and Cretan troops to attack him, by whom Lydiades, fighting bravely, was overpowered and slain. The Lacedæmonians now recovered their spirits, and with loud shouts attacked the Achæans and completely defeated them. Many were slain, and their corpses were given up to the enemy for burial, with the exception of that of Lydiades, which Kleomenes ordered to be brought to himself. He then attired it in a purple robe, placed a garland upon its head, and sent it to the city of Megalopolis. This was that Lydiades who had been despot of Megalopolis, but who abdicated his throne, restored liberty to his countrymen, and brought the city to join the Achæan league.
VII. After this victory Kleomenes became inspired with fresh confidence, and was convinced that if he only were allowed undisputed management he would easily conquer the Achæans. He explained to his step-father Megistonous that the time had at length come for the abolition of the Ephors, the redistribution of property, and the establishment of equality among the citizens, after which Sparta might again aspire to recover her ancient ascendancy in Greece. Megistonous agreed, and communicated his intentions to two or three of his friends. It chanced that at this time one of the Ephors who was sleeping in the temple of Pasiphæ dreamed an extraordinary dream, that in the place where the Ephors sat for the dispatch of business he saw four chairs removed, and one alone remaining, while as he wondered he heard a voice from the shrine say "This is best for Sparta." When the Ephor related this dream to Kleomenes, he was at first much alarmed, and feared that the man had conceived some suspicion of his designs, but finding that he was really in earnest recovered his confidence. Taking with him all those citizens whom he suspected to be opposed to his enterprise, he captured Heræa and Alsæa, cities belonging to the Achæan league, revictualled Orchomenus, and threatened Mantinea. By long marches and counter-marches he so wearied the Lacedæmonians that at last at their own request he left the greater part of them in Arcadia, while he with the mercenaries returned to Sparta. During his homeward march he revealed his intentions to those whom he considered to be most devoted to his person, and regulated his march so as to be able to fall upon the Ephors while they were at their evening meal.
VIII. When he drew near to the city, he sent Eurykleidas into the dining-room of the Ephors, on the pretence of bringing a message from the army. After Eurykleidas followed Phoebis and Therukion, two of the foster-brothers of Kleomenes, called _mothakes_[11] by the Lacedæmonians, with a few soldiers. While Eurykleidas was parleying with the Ephors, these men rushed in with drawn swords and cut them down. The president, Agylæus, fell at the first blow and appeared to be dead, but contrived to crawl out of the building unobserved into a small temple, sacred to Fear, the door of which was usually closed, but which then chanced to be open. In this he took refuge and shut the door. The other four were slain, and some few persons, not more than ten, who came to assist them. No one who remained quiet was put to death, nor was any one prevented from leaving the city. Even Agylæus, when he came out of his sanctuary on the following day, was not molested.
IX. The Lacedæmonians have temples dedicated not only to Fear, but to Death, and Laughter, and the like. They honour Fear, not as a malevolent divinity to be shunned, but because they think that the constitutions of states are mainly upheld by Fear. For this reason, Aristotle tells us that the Ephors, when they enter upon their office, issue a proclamation ordering the citizens to shave the moustache and obey the laws, that the laws might not be hard upon them. The injunction about shaving the moustache is inserted, I imagine, in order to accustom the young to obedience even in the most trivial matters. It seems to me that the ancient Spartans did not regard bravery as consisting in the absence of fear, but in the fear of shame and dread of dishonour; for those who fear the laws most are the bravest in battle; and those who most fear disgrace care least for their own personal safety. The poet was right who said "Where there is fear, is reverence too;" and Homer makes Helen call Priam "My father-in-law dear, Whom most of all I reverence and fear;" while he speaks of the Greek army as obeying "Its chiefs commands in silence and with fear."
Human nature, indeed, leads most men to reverence those whom they fear; and this is why the Lacedæmonians placed the temple of Fear close to the dining-hall of the Ephors, because they invested that office with almost royal authority.
X. On the following morning Kleomenes published a list containing the names of eighty citizens, whom he required to leave the country, and removed the chairs of the Ephors, except one, which he intended to occupy himself. He now convoked an assembly, and made a speech justifying his recent acts. In the time of Lykurgus, he said, the kings and the senate shared between them the supreme authority in the State; and for a long time the government was carried on in this manner without any alteration being required, until, during the long wars with Messene, as the kings had no leisure to attend to public affairs, they chose some of their friends to sit as judges in their stead, and these persons acted at first merely as the servants of the kings, but gradually got all power into their own hands, and thus insensibly established a new power in the State. A proof of the truth of this is to be found in the custom which still prevails, that when the Ephors send for the king, he refuses to attend at the first and second summons, but rises and goes to them at the third. Asteropus, who first consolidated the power of the Ephors, and raised it to the highest point, flourished in comparatively recent times, many generations after the original establishment of the office. If, he went on to say, the Ephors would have behaved with moderation, it would have been better to allow them to remain in existence; but when they began to use their ill-gotten power to destroy the constitution of Sparta, when they banished one king, put another to death without trial, and kept down by terror all those who wished for the introduction of the noblest and most admirable reforms, they could no longer be borne. Had he been able without shedding a drop of blood to drive out of Lacedæmon all those foreign pests of luxury, extravagance, debt, money-lending, and those two more ancient evils, poverty and riches, he should have accounted himself the most fortunate of kings, because, like a skilful physician, he had painlessly performed so important an operation upon his country: as it was, the use of force was sanctioned by the example of Lykurgus, who, though only a private man, appeared in arms in the market-place, and so terrified King Charilaus, that he fled for refuge to the altar of Athena. He, however, being an honest and patriotic man, soon joined Lykurgus, and acquiesced in the reforms which he introduced, while the acts of Lykurgus prove that it is hard to effect a revolution without armed force, of which he declared that he had made a most sparing use, and had only put out of the way those who were opposed to the best interests of Lacedæmon. He announced to the rest of the citizens that the land should be divided among them, that they should be relieved from all their debts, and that all resident aliens should be submitted to an examination, in order that the best of them might be selected to become full citizens of Sparta, and help to defend the city from falling a prey to Ætolians and Illyrians for want of men to defend her.
XI. After this he himself first threw his inheritance into the common stock, and his example was followed by his father-in-law Megistonous, his friends, and the rest of the citizens. The land was now divided, and one lot was assigned to each of those whom he had banished, all of whom he said it was his intention to bring back as soon as order was restored. He recruited the numbers of the citizens by the admission of the most eligible of the Perioeki to the franchise, and organised them into a body of four thousand heavy armed infantry, whom he taught to use the sarissa, or Macedonian pike which was grasped with both hands, instead of the spear, and to sling their shields by a strap instead of using a handle. He next turned his attention to the education and discipline of the youth, in which task he was assisted by Sphærus. The gymnasia and the common meals were soon re-established, and the citizens, for the most part willingly, resumed their simple Laconian habits of living. Kleomenes, fearing to be called a despot, appointed his own brother, Eukleidas, as his colleague. Then for the first time were two kings of the same family seen at once in Sparta.
XII. As Kleomenes perceived that Aratus and the Achæans thought that while Sparta was passing through so perilous a crisis her troops were not likely to leave the country, he thought that it would be both a spirited and a useful act to display the enthusiasm of his army to the enemy. He invaded the territory of Megalopolis, carried off a large booty, and laid waste a large extent of country. Finding a company of players on their road from Messene, he took them prisoners, caused a theatre to be erected in the enemy's country, and offered them forty minæ for a performance for one day, at which he himself attended as a spectator, not that he cared for the performance, but because he wished to mock at his enemies, and to show by this studied insult the enormous superiority of which he was conscious. At this period his was the only army, Greek or foreign, which was not attended by actors, jugglers, dancing-girls, and singers; but he kept it free from all licentiousness and buffoonery, as the younger men were nearly always being practised in martial exercises, while the elders acted as their instructors; and when they were at leisure they amused themselves with witty retorts and sententious Laconian pleasantries. The great value of this kind of discipline is described at greater length in the life of Lykurgus.
XIII. In everything Kleomenes himself acted as their teacher, and example, offering his own simple, frugal life, so entirely free from vulgar superfluities, as a model of sobriety for them all to copy; and this added greatly to his influence in Greece. For when men attended the courts of the other kings of that period they were not so much impressed by their wealth and lavish expenditure as they were disgusted by their arrogant, overbearing manners; but when they met Kleomenes, who was every inch a king, and saw that he wore no purple robes, did not lounge on couches and litters, and was not surrounded by a crowd of messengers, doorkeepers, and secretaries, so as to be difficult of access, but that he himself, dressed in plain clothes, came and shook them by the hand, and conversed with them in a kindly and encouraging tone, they were completely fascinated and charmed by him, and declared that he alone was a true descendant of Herakles. His dinner was usually served upon a very small Laconian table with three couches,[12] but if he were entertaining ambassadors or foreigners two additional couches were added, and his servants somewhat improved his dinner, not by adding to it made-dishes and pastry, but by serving a greater abundance of food and a more liberal allowance of wine. Indeed he blamed one of his friends, when he heard that when entertaining foreigners at dinner he had placed before them black broth and barley cakes: for he said that in such matters, and when entertaining strangers, it was not well to be too rigidly Spartan. After the table was removed a tripod was brought in which supported a bronze bowl full of wine, two silver pateræ, that held each about a pint, and a number of very small silver cups, from which any one drank who wished, for Kleomenes never forced men to drink against their will. No recitations were performed for the amusement of the guests; for he himself would lead the conversation and entertain them over their wine, partly by asking questions of them and partly by relating anecdotes to them: for he well knew both how to make serious subjects interesting, and to be pleasant and witty without giving offence. He was of opinion that the habit of other princes, of tempting men into their service by presents and bribes, was both clumsy and wicked; but he thought it peculiarly befitting a king to influence and captivate men's minds by the charm of his conversation, and was wont to say that a friend differed only from a mercenary soldier in that a man wins the one by the influence of his character and his conversation, and the other by his money.
XIV. First of all the people of Mantinea made overtures to him. They admitted him to their city by night, aided him to drive out the Achæan garrison, and placed themselves unreservedly in his hands. He, however, restored them to the enjoyment of their own laws and original constitution, and marched away the same day to Tegea. Shortly afterwards by a circuitous march through Arcadia he arrived before the Achæan city of Pheræ, desiring either to fight a battle with the Achæans, or to make Aratus incur the disgrace of retreating and leaving him in possession of the country: for although Hyperbates was nominally in command, all real power over the Achæans was in the hands of Aratus. The Achæans took the field with their entire force, and encamped at Dymæ, near the temple called Hekatombæon. When Kleomenes arrived here he was unwilling to establish himself between the hostile city of Dymæ and the army of the Achæans, and challenged them, forced them to fight, and completely routed their phalanx. He killed many, took a large number of prisoners, and then, marching to Langon, drove out the Achæan garrison, and restored the city to the Eleans.
XV. As the Achæan power was now quite broken, Aratus, who was usually elected general every other year, refused to take office, and excused himself when they besought him to do so: a dishonourable act, when the times became more stormy, to desert the helm, and give up his power to another. Kleomenes at first used very moderate language to the Achæan ambassadors, but sent others ordering them to acknowledge him for their sovereign, and promising that if they did so he would do them no further hurt, and would at once restore the prisoners and fortresses which he had taken. As the Achæans were willing to accept these terms they invited Kleomenes to a conference at Lerna. It happened, however, that Kleomenes, after a long march, drank a quantity of cold water, which caused him to bring up much blood, and to lose his voice. In consequence of this, although he sent back the most distinguished of his prisoners, he was obliged to postpone the conference, and went home to Lacedæmon.
XVI. This mischance ruined Greece, which even now might have recovered herself, and avoided falling into the hands of the insolent and rapacious Macedonians. For Aratus, either because he distrusted and feared Kleomenes, or else because he grudged him his success, and thought that after he had for thirty-three years been chief of the Achæans, it was not to be endured that a young man should overthrow him, and enter into the fruit of his labours, at first tried to oppose the Achæans when they offered to come to terms with the Lacedæmonians; but as they would not listen to him, because they were cowed by the boldness of Kleomenes, and also admitted the justice of the Lacedæmonian claim to be the leading state in Peloponnesus, as their ancestral right, he adopted a course which was a disgraceful one for any Greek, but especially so for him, and one which was most unworthy of his former political life. He determined to invite Antigonus into Greece, and to fill the Pelopennesus with those very Macedonians whom he himself when a lad had chased out of the country by his capture of the Acro-Corinthus, although he was regarded with suspicion by all the kings, and was at variance with them all, and though he had already accused this very Antigonus himself of every conceivable crime in his "Memoirs," which are still extant. Yet he himself has stated that he suffered much, and risked much to free Athens from a Macedonian garrison; though now he led these very men with arms in their hands into his own native country, and up to his own paternal hearth. He thought that Kleomenes, a descendant of Herakles, a king of Sparta, who had restored the simple ancient Dorian constitution of Lykurgus, as one tightens the relaxed strings of a lyre, to bring it into tune, was unworthy to be accounted the ruler of Sikyon and Tritæa; and in his eagerness to avoid the rough Spartan cloak, and the Spartan barley bread, and that with which he especially charged Kleomenes, the destruction of wealth and the encouragement of poverty, threw himself and all Achæa with him, into the arms of the Macedonians, with all their diadems and their purple robes and their habits of oriental despotism. That he might avoid acting under the orders of Kleomenes, he was content to offer sacrifice at festivals in honour of Antigonus, and himself to place a garland upon his head, and to lead the pæan in praise of a man wasted and emaciated by consumption.
And this I write, not from any desire to depreciate Aratus, for in many respects he proved himself a truly great and patriotic man, but rather out of pity for the weakness of human nature, which will not allow even the most eminent persons to present us with the spectacle of an entirely unblemished virtue.
XVII. When the Achæans again assembled at Argos to hold a conference there, and Kleomenes started to go thither from Tegea, men's minds were full of hope that peace would be finally established. But Aratus, who had already settled the main points of his treaty with Antigonus, and feared that Kleomenes would either by persuasion or force bring the assembly over to his views, sent to him demanding either that he should take three hundred hostages for his safety and come to the conference alone, or else meet them with his army outside the walls at the gymnasium called the Kyllarabium. Kleomenes on hearing this said that he had not been properly treated; for Aratus ought to have warned him of this at once, not have waited till he was almost at the gates of Argos and then expressed suspicions of his honesty of purpose and driven him away. He sent a letter to the assembled Achæans, containing bitter invectives against Aratus, and as Aratus replied by maligning him in a public oration, he broke up his camp and sent a herald with a declaration of war, not to Argos, according to Aratus, but to Ægium, in order to take the Achæans by surprise. The Achæan cities were all ripe for revolt, as the populace hoped for a redistribution of the land and cancelling of debts if they joined the Spartans, while the leading men were all jealous of the power and influence of Aratus, and some of them hated him as the traitor who was bringing the Macedonians into Peloponnesus. Relying upon the prevalence of this feeling Kleomenes invaded Achaia, took Pellene by surprise, and drove out the garrison and the Achæan inhabitants. Soon afterwards he captured the cities of Pheneus and Penteleum.
The Achæans of Corinth and Sikyon now began to fear that his partisans were plotting to deliver up those cities to him, and in consequence sent their cavalry and foreign mercenaries away from Argos to guard those towns, while they themselves proceeded to Argos to hold the Nemean festival there. Kleomenes, rightly judging that his appearance at a time when the city was full of a disorderly crowd of people who were come to attend the feasts and games would produce great confusion, marched up to the walls by night, seized the place called the 'Shield,' which is just above the theatre, and is very difficult of access, and so terrified the citizens that no one attempted to offer any resistance. They willingly agreed to admit a Spartan garrison, to give twenty of their chief men as hostages for their loyalty, and to become the allies of the Lacedæmonians, acknowledging their supremacy.
XVIII. This exploit added not a little to the reputation and power of Kleomenes. None of the ancient kings of Sparta could ever make themselves masters of Argos, although they often attempted to do so; and even that most brilliant general King Pyrrhus, though he forced his way into the city, could not take it, but perished, and with him a great part of his army. For these reasons, the skill and audacity of Kleomenes were the more admired: and those who had before ridiculed his attempts to bring back the days of Solon and Lykurgus by the cancelling of debts and redistribution of land, now became entirely convinced that these measures had been the cause of the revival of Sparta. The Spartans before this had been so feeble and helpless, that the Ætolians invaded Laconia and carried off a booty of fifty thousand slaves, on which occasion it is said that an old Spartan observed that the enemy had greatly benefited Laconia by relieving it from its burdens. Yet a short time after this, by the restoration of their former constitution, and by re-establishing the ancient system of training, they made as magnificent a display of discipline and valour as if Lykurgus himself were alive and at the head of affairs, for they gained for Sparta the first place in Greece, and won the whole of Peloponnesus by the sword.
XIX. The submission of Argos to Kleomenes was soon followed by that of Phlius and Kleonæ. During these events Aratus was at Corinth, busily engaged in searching for the partisans of the Lacedæmonians. When the news of the fall of these cities reached Corinth, as he observed that the city of Corinth was eager to join Kleomenes and leave the Achæan league, he summoned the citizens to meet in the public assembly, and himself made his way unperceived to the gate. He had already sent his horse thither, and mounting, fled to Sikyon. The Corinthians now hurried to Argos to surrender their city to Kleomenes; in such haste, writes Aratus in his 'Memoirs,' that they foundered all their horses. Kleomenes reproached them for allowing Aratus to escape, but shortly afterwards sent Megistonous to him, asking him to hand over the citadel of Corinth, which was in possession of an Achæan garrison, and offering him a large sum of money. He answered that the course of affairs was not in his power, but that he was rather in theirs. These particulars we have extracted from Aratus's own writings. Kleomenes now marched from Argos to Corinth, receiving on the way the submission of Troezene, Epidaurus, and Hermione. As the garrison refused to surrender the citadel, he built a rampart round it, and sending for the friends and representatives of Aratus, bade them take charge of his house and property during his absence. He now sent the Messenian Tritymallus to Aratus, with instructions to propose to him that the garrison of Acro-Corinthus should be composed partly of Spartan and partly of Achæan troops, while he himself privately offered him double the amount of the pension which he received from King Ptolemy of Egypt. However, as Aratus refused to listen to his overtures, but sent his own son with the other hostages to