Lives by Plutarch - 8 - Agesilaus
Agesilaus
Quote
"Is he any greater a man than me? Only if he is more just."
Notes
Agesilaus is the second son of a Spartan king. He isn't expected to be king, so he gets a normal Spartan education with other citizen Spartans.
He has a deformity in his leg, but he is the first one to make fun of himself for it. He isn't ashamed by it.
His older brother, Agis, is the king when Alcibiades comes and sleeps with his (Agis') wife, who then bears an illegitimate son. So when Agis dies, the people want Agesilaus to take over being king, and he does.
The Spartan government divides power between the ephors (elders) and the kings. Agesilaus works hard to win the favour of the ephors and gain their respect. He treats everyone well, including his enemies, and the ephors start getting nervous about how popular he is.
A new war with Persia breaks out and another Spartan commander, Lysander, starts rivaling Agesilaus in reputation and power, so he undermines Lysander at every opportunity. Lysander makes a plot to push back but he gets killed in battle before he can do anything. Agesilaus eventually leads Sparta to victory against Persia.
He develops an alliance with Pharnabazus and he falls in love with their king's son. He even gets nervous when accepting a kiss from him.
Agesilaus goes out on more military campaigns but then he has to come back to help with a new war breaking out within Greece. The Greeks are impressed at his humility and modest way of life. Even after traveling so many different places, he wasn't influenced by foreign customs.
There is a movement to establish a universal peace throughout Greece and they all meet in Sparta to discuss it. But the talks break down with the Thebans, who Agesilaus hated, so he declares a new war against them. But Sparta is defeated in this war.
A lot of people are upset with Agesilaus in Sparta now. Oracles are speaking against him, too. He stays on as king, but he is weak. Lots of people are trying to bring him down, and he has them executed without trial. Soldiers are defecting to the enemy as well.
There are new peace talks in Greece, but Sparta exclude themselves in the hopes of conquering some new territory. Agesilaus offers himself as commander for Egypt and he has some successes there. But he's old and finally dies while sailing back home.
Agesilaus was a strong king and an influential man, but he has the unfortunate reputation of presiding over the fall of Sparta from power, though it can't be entirely blamed on him. "The Spartan constitution was perfectly designed for promoting moral excellence, peace, and unanimity, but they made it support an empire and a position of supremacy won by force, which, in Lycurgus' opinion, made no contribution at all to the prosperity of a state, and so they fell."
Extras
Spartan government had conflict built into it by design.
"The natural scientists believe that if discord and strife were to disappear from the universe, the heavenly bodies would come to a standstill and the concord of everything with everything else would mean the end of creation and change. Similarly, it seems that the Laconian lawgiver injected an element of conflict and rivalry into his constitution as a stimulus towards virtue, since he wanted good men to find some point of difference always arising between them, so that they were constantly competing among themselves."