ments, that I may rejoice with you when you have
killed, within my arms, the man to whom you gave me for a wife? Either
Cleombrotus must appease you by mine and my children's tears, or he must
suffer a punishment greater than you propose for his faults, and shall
see me, whom he loves so well, die before him. To what end should I
live, or how shall I appear among the Spartan women, when it shall so
manifestly be seen that I have not been able to move to compassion
either a husband or a father? I was born, it seems, to participate in
the ill fortune and in the disgrace, both as a wife and a daughter, of
those nearest and dearest to me. As for Cleombrotus, I sufficiently
surrendered any honorable plea on his behalf when I forsook him to
follow you; but you yourself offer the fairest excuse for his
proceedings, by showing to the world that for the sake of a kingdom it
is just to kill a son-in-law and be regardless of a daughter.' Chilonis,
having ended this lamentation, rested her face on her husband's head,
and looked round with her weeping and woe-begone eyes upon those who
stood before her.

"Leonidas, touched with compassion, withdrew a while to advise with his
friends; then, returning, bade Cleombrotus leave the sanctuary and go
into banishment; 'Chilonis,' he said, 'ought to stay with him, it not
being just that she should forsake a father whose affection had granted
to her the life of a husband.' But all he could say would not prevail.
She rose up immediately, and taking one of her children in her arms,
gave the other to her husband, and making her reverence to the altar of
the deity, went out and followed him. So that, in a word, if Cleombrotus
were not utterly blinded by ambition, he would surely choose to be
banished with so excellent a woman rather than without her to possess a
kingdom."

Having disposed of Cleombrotus, Leonidas next proceeded to consider how
he might entrap Agis. Agis, however, held his sanctuary until he was
finally betrayed by the treachery of three pretended friends, Amphares,
Damochares, and Arcesilaus. He was led off to prison and executed.

Plutarch says: "Immediately after he was dead, Amphares went out of the
prison gate, where he found Agesistrata, who, believing him still the
same friend as before, threw herself at his feet. He gently raised her
up, and assured her she need not fear any further violence or danger of
death for her son, and that, if she pleased, she might go in and se