parta, and Cleomenes marched out against him. He retreated, and
Cleomenes in great joy put his troops in mind how in old times the
Spartans never asked how many were the foe, but only where they were.
Then he followed the Achaians and gained a great victory; indeed there
was a doubt at first whether Aratus were not slain; but he had marched
off with the remnant of the army, and next was heard of as having taken
Mantinea.

This displeased the Ephors, and they called Cleomenes back. He hoped to
be stronger by the aid of his fellow-king, and, as the little child of
Agis had just died in his house, sent to invite home Archidamas, the
brother of Agis, who was living in exile; but the Ephors had the youth
murdered as soon as he reached Laconia, and then laid on Cleomenes both
this murder and that of his little stepson Agis. But all the better sort
held by him, and his mother Cratesiclea, and his wife Agiatis, so cleared
him, that all trusted him, and he was again sent out with an army, and
defeated Aratus.

He was sure he could bring back good days to Sparta, if only he were free
of the Ephors. One of these, who was on his side, went to sleep in a
temple, and there had a dream that four of the chairs of the Ephors were
taken away, and that he heard a voice saying, "This is best for Sparta."
After this, he and Cleomenes contrived that the king should lead out an
army containing most of the party against him. He took them by long
marches to a great distance from home, and then left them at night with a
few trusty friends, with whom he fell upon the Ephors at supper, and
killed four of them, the only blood he shed in this matter. In the
morning he called the people together, and showed them how the Ephors had
taken too much power, and how ill they had used it, especially in the
murder of Agis; and the people agreed henceforth to let him rule without
them. Then all debts were given up, all estates resigned to be divided
again, Cleomenes himself being the first to set the example, and the
partition was made. But as one line of the Heracleid kings was extinct,
Cleomenes made his brother Euclidas reign with him, and was able to bring
back all the old ways of Lycurgus, the hard fare and plain living, so
that those who had seen the Eastern state of the upstart Macedonian
soldiers wondered at the sight of the son of Hercules, descendant of a
line of thirty-one kings, showing his royalty only in the noble
simplicity of his bear