ifice he marched against the capital, (22) devastating
and burning the country as he went. Multitudes of cattle, multitudes
of slaves, were the fruits of conquest yielded, insomuch that the fame
thereof spread, and many more Arcadians and Achaeans flocked to join
the standard of the invader and to share in the plunder. In fact, the
expedition became one enormous foray. Here was the chance to fill all
the granaries of Peloponnese with corn. When he had reached the capital,
the beautiful suburbs and gymnasia became a spoil to the troops; but the
city itself, though it lay open before him a defenceless and unwalled
town, he kept aloof from. He would not, rather than could not, take
it. Such was the explanation given. Thus the country was a prey to
devastation, and the invaders massed round Cyllene.

(22) I.e. Elis, of which Cyllene is the port town. For the wealth of
the district, see Polyb. iv. 73; and below, VII. iv. 33.

Then the friends of a certain Xenias--a man of whom it was said that
he might measure the silver coin, inherited from his father, by the
bushel--wishing to be the leading instrument in bringing over the state
to Lacedaemon, rushed out of the house, sword in hand, and began a
work of butchery. Amongst other victims they killed a man who strongly
resembled the leader of the democratic party, Thrasydaeus. (23) Everyone
believed it was really Thrasydaeus who was slain. The popular party were
panic-stricken, and stirred neither hand nor foot. On their side,
the cut-throats poured their armed bands into the market-place. But
Thrasydaeus was laid asleep the while where the fumes of wine had
overpowered him. When the people came to discover that their hero was
not dead, they crowded round his house this side and that, (24) like a
swarm of bees clinging to their leader; and as soon as Thrasydaeus
had put himself in the van, with the people at his back, a battle was
fought, and the people won. And those who had laid their hands to deeds
of butchery went as exiles to the Lacedaemonians.

(23) See Paus. III. viii. 4. He was a friend of Lysias ("Vit. X. Orat.
835").

(24) The house was filled to overflowing by the clustering close-
packed crowd.

After a while Agis himself retired, recrossing the Alpheus; but he was
careful to leave a garrison in Epitalium near that river, with Lysippus
as governor, and the exiles from Elis along with him. Having done so, he
disbanded his army and returned home h