be king.

(3) See Plut. "Ages." ii. 4; "Lys." xxii. (Clough, iv. 3; iii. 129);
Paus. III. viii. 5.

Now Agesilaus had not been seated on the throne one year when, as he
sacrificed one of the appointed sacrifices in behalf of the city, (4)
the soothsayer warned him, saying: "The gods reveal a conspiracy of the
most fearful character"; and when the king sacrificed a second time,
he said: "The aspect of the victims is now even yet more terrible"; but
when he had sacrificed for the third time, the soothsayer exclaimed: "O
Agesilaus, the sign is given to me, even as though we were in the very
midst of the enemy." Thereupon they sacrificed to the deities who avert
evil and work salvation, and so barely obtained good omens and ceased
sacrificing. Nor had five days elapsed after the sacrifices were ended,
ere one came bringing information to the ephors of a conspiracy, and
named Cinadon as the ringleader; a young man robust of body as of soul,
but not one of the peers. (5) Accordingly the ephors questioned their
informant: "How say you the occurrence is to take place?" and he who
gave the information answered: "Cinadon took me to the limit of the
market-place, and bade me count how many Spartans there were in
the market-place; and I counted--'king, ephors, and elders, and
others--maybe forty. But tell me, Cinadon,' I said to him, 'why have you
bidden me count them?' and he answered me: 'Those men, I would have
you know, are your sworn foes; and all those others, more than four
thousand, congregated there are your natural allies.' Then he took and
showed me in the streets, here one and there two of 'our enemies,' as we
chanced to come across them, and all the rest 'our natural allies'; and
so again running through the list of Spartans to be found in the country
districts, he still kept harping on that string: 'Look you, on each
estate one foeman--the master--and all the rest allies.'" The ephors
asked: "How many do you reckon are in the secret of this matter?" The
informant answered: "On that point also he gave me to understand that
there were by no means many in their secret who were prime movers of the
affair, but those few to be depended on; 'and to make up,' said he,
'we ourselves are in their secret, all the rest of them--helots,
enfranchised, inferiors, provincials, one and all. (6) Note their
demeanour when Spartans chance to be the topic of their talk. Not one of
them can conceal the delight it would give him if he