Plutarch, Agis and Cleomenes, ed. Bernadotte Perrin, Agis.18

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[1] ἡ μὲν Χιλωνὶς τοιαῦτα ποτνιωμένη τό τε πρόσωπον ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐπέθηκε τοῦ Κλεομβρότου, καί τὸ βλέμμα διεφθαρμένον καί συντετηκὸς ὑπὸ λύπης περιήνεγκεν εἷς τοὺς παρόντας. ὁ δὲ Λεωνίδας διαλεχθεὶς τοῖς φίλοις τὸν μὲν Κλεόμβροτον ἐκέλευσεν ἀναστάντα φεύγειν, τῆς δὲ παιδὸς μένειν ἐδεῖτο καί μὴ καταλιπεῖν ἑαυτόν οὕτω φιλοῦντα καί δεδωκότα χάριν τὴν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῇ σωτηρίαν.

[2] οὐ μὴν ἔπεισεν, ἀλλʼ ἀνισταμένῳ τῷ ἀνδρὶ θάτερον τῶν παιδίων ἐγχειρίσασα, θάτερον δʼ Ἀναλαβοῦσα καί προσκυνήσασα τὸν βωμὸν τοῦ¹ θεοῦ συνεξῆλθεν, ὥστε εἰ μὴ πάνυ διεφθαρμένος ἦν ὑπὸ κενῆς δόξης ὁ Κλεόμβροτος, εὐτύχημα ἂν ἡγήσατο τὴν φυγὴν αὑτῷ τῆς βασιλείας μεῖζον εἶναι διὰ τὴν γυναῖκα.
μεταστησάμενος δὲ τὸν Κλεόμβροτον ὁ Λεωνίδας καὶ τοὺς πρώτους ἐφόρους ἐκβαλὼν τῆς ἀρχῆς, ἑτέρους δὲ ποιησάμενος, εὐθὺς ἐπεβούλευε τῷ Ἄγιδι.

[3] καί πρῶτον μὲν ἔπειθεν αὐτὸν ἀναστῆναι καὶ συμβασιλεύειν, ὡς δεδωκότων συγγνώμην τῶν πολιτῶν συνεξηπατῆσθαι γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀγησιλάου νέον ὄντα καί φιλότιμον. ἐκείνου δὲ ὑφορωμένου καί κατὰ χώραν μένοντος αὐτὸς μὲν ἐπαύσατο φενακίζων καί κατειρωνευόμενος, Ἀμφάρης δὲ καί Δαμοχάρης καί Ἀρκεσίλαος ἀναβαίνοντες εἰώθεσαν αὐτῷ διαλέγεσθαι· καί ποτε καί παραλαβόντες ἐπὶ λουτρὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἱεροῦ κατήγαγον καί λουσάμενον πάλιν εἷς τὸ ἱερὸν κατέστησαν.

[4] καί ἦσαν πάντες μὲν αὐτῷ συνήθεις, ὁ δὲ Ἀμφάρης καί κεχρημένος² ἔναγχος ἱμάτια καί ποτήρια τῶν πολυτελῶν παρὰ τῆς Ἀγησιστράτας ἐπεβούλευε διὰ ταῦτα τῷ βασιλεῖ καί ταῖς γυναιξὶν ὡς ἀποστερήσων. καί μάλιστά γε αὐτὸς ὑπακοῦσαι τῷ Λεωνίδᾳ λέγεται καί παροξῦναι τοὺς ἐφόρους, ὧν καί αὐτὸς εἷς ἦν.

Agis and Cleomenes. Plutarch. ed. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. 1921.

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Current edition Perseus

Ἄγις καὶ Κλεομένης (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. X. Perrin, Bernadotte, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921.)

Translations (1)

Agis and Cleomenes Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. X. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921.) — Agis.18 focus

[1] Uttering such supplications Chilonis rested her face upon the head of Cleombrotus and turned her eyes, all melted and marred with grief, upon the bystanders. Then Leonidas, after conference with his friends, bade Cleombrotus leave his asylum and go into exile, but begged his daughter to remain, and not to abandon him, since he loved her so much, and had made her a free gift of her husband’s life.

[2] He could not persuade her, however, but when her husband rose to go she put one of her children in his arms, took up the other one herself, and went forth in his company after an obeisance to the altar of the god; so that if Cleombrotus had not been wholly corrupted by vain ambition, he would have considered that exile was a greater blessing for him than the kingdom, because it restored to him his wife.
After removing Cleombrotus from his asylum, Leonidas expelled the officiating ephors from their office, appointed others in their place, and at once began to lay plots against the life of Agis.

[3] To begin with, he tried to persuade Agis to leave his asylum and share the royal power with him, assuring Agis that the citizens had pardoned him, because, being a young man and ambitious, he had been one of those whom Agesilaüs had completely deceived. But Agis continued to be suspicious and would not leave his asylum. So Leonidas himself stopped trying to cheat and play tricks upon him, but Amphares, Damochares, and Arcesilaüs did not. They were wont to go up to the temple and verse with Agis; and once they actually took him in charge and brought him down from the temple for a bath, and after he had bathed, restored him again to the temple.

[4] They were all comrades of his, but Amphares had also borrowed recently some costly vestures and beakers from Agesistrata, and therefore plotted to destroy the king and the women, that he might not have to return what he had borrowed. And he, certainly, more than anyone else, as we are told, followed the counsels of Leonidas and embittered the ephors, of whom he was one, against Agis.

[1] This greatly increased the reputation and power of Cleomenes. For the ancient kings of Sparta, in spite of numerous efforts, were not able to secure the abiding allegiance of Argos; and the most formidable of generals, Pyrrhus, although he fought his way into the city, could not hold it, but was slain there, and a great part of his army perished with him.¹

[2] Therefore men admired the swiftness and intelligence of Cleomenes; and those who before this had mocked at him for imitating, as they said, Solon and Lycurgus in the abolition of debts and the equalization of property, were now altogether convinced that this imitation was the cause of the change in the Spartans.

[3] For these were formerly in so low a state and so unable to help themselves, that Aetolians invaded Laconia and took away fifty thousand slaves. It was at this time, we are told, that one of the elder Spartans remarked that the enemy had helped Sparta by lightening her burden.

[4] But now only a little time had elapsed, and they had as yet barely resumed their native customs and reentered the track of their famous discipline, when, as if before the very eyes of Lycurgus and with his cooperation, they gave abundant proof of valour and obedience to authority, by recovering the leadership of Hellas for Sparta and making all Peloponnesus their own again.

Notes on the current edition

Agis and Cleomenes

1. τοῦ θεοῦ Coraës, Bekker, and Ziegler, after Bryan; τῆς θεοῦ.

2. καὶ κεχρημένος Coraës and Bekker delete καί.

Plutarch Agis and Cleomenes Agis.18

ed. Bernadotte Perrin

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