nreasonable display of his pride; yet
Agesilaus might have discovered some better method of correcting the
faults of so great a man. Indeed, in my opinion they were both equally
blinded by the same passion for personal aggrandizement, so that the
one forgot the power of his prince, and the other could not bear with
the shortcomings of his friend.

IX. Tissaphernes was at first afraid of Agesilaus, and began to treat
with him about setting free the Greek cities on the Ionian coast from
the power of the king of Persia. Afterwards, however, he imagined that
the force at his disposal justified him in breaking off these
negotiations, and he declared war, to the great delight of Agesilaus.
Great expectations had indeed been formed in Greece of the army of
Agesilaus, and it was thought a strange thing that ten thousand Greeks
under Xenophon should march through Persia to the sea, and defeat the
king of Persia's troops as often as they pleased, while Agesilaus, the
commander of the Lacedaemonians, the leading people in Greece, who were
all-powerful both by sea and land, should accomplish nothing. He now
revenged himself on the faithless Tissaphernes for his perjury by an
equal piece of deceit, and gave out that he was about to march into
Karia. When, however, the Persian army was assembled there, he
proceeded north-wards to Phrygia, where he took many cities, and
gained much plunder, pointing out to his friends that although to
solemnly plight one's word and then to break it is wrong, yet that to
out-manoeuvre one's enemies is not only lawful, but profitable and
glorious. Being, however, deficient in cavalry, and warned by the omen
of a victim being found with an imperfect liver, he retired to
Ephesus, and there collected a cavalry force, giving rich men the
alternative of either serving themselves in his army, or of furnishing
a horse soldier instead. Many preferred to do so, and Agesilaus soon
possessed a force of warlike cavalry in the place of worthless foot
soldiers; for those who did not wish to serve personally hired men who
were willing to fight, and those who could not ride hired those who
could. Just so did Agamemnon act very wisely in receiving a valuable
mare, and thereby allowing a rich man to purchase his discharge from
military service. Agesilaus now gave orders that the heralds who
conducted the sale of captives by auction, should strip them of their
clothes, and put them up for sale in a state of perfect nudity