Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II (Ancient Greek: Ἀγησίλαος Agēsílāos; 445/4 – 360/59 BC) was king of Sparta from c. 400 to c. 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC).
Quotes
[edit]- Παρακαλούμενος δὲ πάλιν ἀκοῦσαι τοῦ τὴν ἀηδόνα μιμουμένου, παρῃτήσατο φήσας, “Αὐτᾶς ἄκουκα.”
- When he was invited to hear the man who imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying: "I have heard the bird herself."
- Plutarch, Life of Agesilaus, 21, 5 (tr. Bernadotte Perrin, 1917)
- Καίτοι τῷ λόγῳ πανταχοῦ τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἀπέφαινε πρωτεύειν τῶν ἀρετῶν· ἀνδρείας μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν ὄφελος εἶναι, μὴ παρούσης δικαιοσύνης, εἰ δὲ δίκαιοι πάντες γένοιντο, μηδὲν ἀνδρείας δεήσεσθαι.
- He was always declaring that justice was the first of the virtues; for valour was of no use unless justice attended it, and if all men should be just, there would be no need of valour.
- Plutarch, Life, 23, 5 (tr. Perrin)
- Compare: Winston Churchill, in Collier's (27 June 1931) p. 49, col. 2
- Τοῦ δὲ ἰατροῦ Μενεκράτους, ἐπεὶ κατατυχὼν ἔν τισιν ἀπεγνωσμέναις θεραπείαις Ζεὺς ἐπεκλήθη, φορτικῶς ταύτῃ χρωμένου τῇ προσωνυμίᾳ καὶ δὴ καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἐπιστεῖλαι τολμήσαντος οὕτως· “Μενεκράτης Ζεὺς βασιλεῖ Ἀγησιλάῳ χαίρειν,” ἀντέγραψε· “Βασιλεὺς Ἀγησίλαος Μενεκράτει ὑγιαίνειν.”
- Menecrates the physician, who, for his successes in certain desperate cases, had received the surname of Zeus, and had the bad taste to employ the appellation, actually dared to write the king a letter beginning thus: "Menecrates Zeus, to King Agesilaüs, greeting." To this Agesilaüs replied: "King Agesilaüs, to Menecrates, health and sanity."
- Plutarch, Life, 21, 5 (tr. Perrin)
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
[edit]
- Quotes reported in Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men, edited by Samuel Arthur Bent, 6th ed. (Boston, MA: Ticknor and Co, 1887) pp. 3-5
- Observing that a certain malefactor bore torture with remarkable firmness, he said, “What a great rogue he must be, whose courage and constancy are bestowed on crime alone!”
- When asked what boys should learn, he replied, “That which they will use when men.”
- Plutarch, Laconic Apothegms
- From this course of life, we reap liberty.
- To one who wondered at the poor attire and fare of the Spartans.
- When asked why they wore their hair long, he replied, “Because of all personal ornaments it costs the least.”
- Having kept at a distance the enemies of Sparta, he could say, “No Spartan woman has ever seen the smoke of the enemy’s camp.”
- He showed the citizens in arms to one who asked why Sparta had no walls, with the words, “These are the walls of Sparta.” He used to say that “cities should be walled with the courage of the inhabitants.”
- Plutarch, Life
- When asked where the boundaries of Sparta were, he replied, “On the points of our spears.”
- Being shown a well-walled city, and asked if it were not a fine thing; “For women,” he answered, “not men, to live in.” Thus Agis II, observing the high and strong walls of Corinth, asked, “What women live there?”
- Laconic Apothegms
- When asked what good the laws of Lycurgus had brought to Sparta, he replied, “Contempt of pleasure;” and in answer to the question how he acquired his great reputation for bravery, “By contemning death.” Agis II made the same answer when asked how a man could be always free.
- Youth, thy words need an army.
- To a Megarian talking boastfully of his city. Also told of Lysander.—Plutarch, Life
- When a well-contrived but difficult plan to free Greece was proposed to Agis II, he replied, “Friend, thy words need an army and a treasure.”
- Laconic Apothegms
- Shakespeare says, “The phrase would be more germane to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides.”—Hamlet, V. 2
- Laconic Apothegms
- Accepting an inferior seat at a public dancing, Agesilaus said, “It is not the places which grace men, but men the places.”
- Compare: Walter Scott, Rob Roy, “Where Macgregor sits, there is the head of the table.”
- To one commending the skill of a certain orator in magnifying petty matters, the king replied, “I do not think that shoemaker a good workman who makes a great shoe for a little foot.”
- On his death-bed, charging his friends that no fiction or counterfeit (so he called statues) should be made of him, Agesilaus said, “If I have done any honorable exploit, that is my monument; but if I have done none, all your statues will signify nothing.”
- Epaminondas declared on his death-bed that his victories of “Leuctra and Mantinea are daughters enough to keep my name alive.” Alexander I of Russia, declined a monument to commemorate his military exploits, with the words, “May a monument be erected to me in your hearts, as it is to you in mine;” an echo of the sentiment of the Czar Peter III, refusing a golden statue, “If by good government I could raise a memorial in my people’s hearts, that would be the statue for me.” “They offer me a statue,” said Bonaparte, when First Consul, “but I must look at the pedestal: they may make it a prison.”
Quotes about Agesilaus
[edit]- Ἐπεὶ δὲ κατέπλευσεν εἰς τὴν Αἴγυπτον, εὐθὺς οἱ πρῶτοι τῶν βασιλικῶν ἡγεμόνων καὶ διοικητῶν ἐβάδιζον ἐπὶ ναῦν θεραπεύοντες αὐτόν. ἦν δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων Αἰγυπτίων σπουδή τε μεγάλη καὶ προσδοκία διὰ τοὔνομα καὶ τὴν δόξαν τοῦ Ἀγησιλάου, καὶ συνετρόχαζον ἅπαντες ἐπὶ τὴν θέαν. ὡς δὲ ἑώρων λαμπρότητα μὲν καὶ κατασκευὴν οὐδεμίαν, ἄνθρωπον δὲ πρεσβύτην κατακείμενον ἔν τινι πόᾳ παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν, εὐτελῆ καὶ μικρὸν τὸ σῶμα, τραχὺ καὶ φαῦλον ἱμάτιον ἀμπεχόμενον, σκώπτειν αὐτοῖς καὶ γελωτοποιεῖν ἐπῄει, καὶ λέγειν ὅτι τοῦτο ἦν τὸ μυθολογούμενον "ὠδίνειν ὄρος, εἶτα μῦν ἀποτεκεῖν".
- As soon as he landed in Egypt, the chief captains and governors of the king came down to meet him and pay him honour. There was great eagerness and expectation on the part of the other Egyptians also, owing to the name and fame of Agesilaüs, and all ran together to behold him. But when they saw no brilliant array whatever, but an old man lying in some grass by the sea, his body small and contemptible, covered with a cloak that was coarse and mean, they were moved to laughter and jesting, saying that here was an illustration of the fable, "a mountain is in travail, and then a mouse is born."
- Plutarch, Life, 36, 4-5; in Athenaeus, p616D, it is Tachos himself who makes this jest upon Agesilaüs, who replies in anger: "Some day you will think me a lion." (tr. Perrin)
