King of Sparta
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A Spartan king whose battlefield courage couldn't save him from his own diplomatic blindness. Agesilaus II presided over Sparta's brief moment as supreme power in Greece, then watched Thebes shatter it at Leuctra in 371 BC, ending an empire he'd been too rigid to preserve.
Agesilaus became king of Sparta around 400 BC, stepping into command just as Sparta emerged victorious from the Peloponnesian War. For two decades he was the main actor in Spartan hegemony over Greece, brave in combat but fatally lacking the diplomatic instincts the moment demanded. As Thebes grew stronger, his inflexibility turned liability: the Theban victory at Leuctra in 371 BC broke Sparta's supremacy and reduced it to a secondary power for the remainder of his reign. He ruled until around 360 BC, his legacy preserved in starkly opposed accounts—his friend Xenophon wrote both a sweeping h…
Sourced, dated quotes from Agesilaus II
Observing that a certain malefactor bore torture with remarkable firmness, he said, “What a great rogue he must be, whose courage and constancy are bestowed on crime alone!
When asked what boys should learn, he replied, “That which they will use when men.
From this course of life, we reap liberty.
When asked why they wore their hair long, he replied, “Because of all personal ornaments it costs the least.
Having kept at a distance the enemies of Sparta, he could say, “No Spartan woman has ever seen the smoke of the enemy’s camp.
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