ing that the horse of his secretary Idaeus was
adorned with fine trappings, took them off and gave them to the boy.
Agesilaus never forgot the connection thus formed between them, but in
after days, when the son of Pharnabazus was impoverished and driven
into exile by his brother, he welcomed him to the Peloponnese, and
provided him with protection and a home. He even went so far as to
employ his influence in favour of an Athenian youth to whom the son of
Pharnabazus was attached. This boy had outgrown the age and size of
the boy-runners in the Olympic stadium, and was consequently refused
leave to compete in that race. Upon this the Persian made a special
application to Agesilaus on his behalf; and Agesilaus, willing to do
anything to please his protege, with great difficulty and management
induced the judges to admit the boy as a competitor. This, indeed, was
the character of Agesilaus, disinterested and just in all matters
except in furthering the interests of his friends, in which case he
seems to have hesitated at nothing. A letter of his to Idrilus, the
Karian, runs as follows: "If Nikias be innocent, acquit him; if he be
guilty, acquit him for my sake; but in any case acquit him." Such was
Agesilaus in most cases where his friends were concerned; although in
some few instances he allowed expediency to prevail over affection,
and sacrificed his personal friend to the general advantage, as, for
example, once, when owing to a sudden alarm the camp was being
hurriedly broken up, he left a sick friend behind in spite of his
passionate entreaties, observing as he did so, that it is hard to be
wise and compassionate at the same time. This anecdote has been
preserved by the philosopher Hieronymus.

XIV. Agesilaus was now in the second year of his command in Asia, and
had become one of the foremost men of his time, being greatly admired
and esteemed for his remarkable sobriety and frugality of life. When
away from his headquarters he used to pitch his tent within the
precincts of the most sacred temples, thus making the gods witnesses
of the most private details of his life. Among thousands of soldiers,
moreover, there was scarcely one that used a worse mattress than
Agesilaus. With regard to extremes of heat and cold, he seemed so
constituted as to be able to enjoy whatever weather the gods might
send. It was a pleasant and enjoyable spectacle for the Greek
inhabitants of Asia to see their former tyrants, the deputy gove