truce, pushed forward,
causing thereby great perplexity and consternation throughout the rural
districts and the capital itself.

But while he was getting his evening meal that first evening in the
Argive territory--just at the moment when the after-dinner libation had
been poured out--the god sent an earthquake; and with one consent the
Lacedaemonians, beginning with the officers of the royal quarters,
sang the sacred hymn of Poseidon. The soldiers, in general, expected to
retreat, arguing that, on the occurrence of an earthquake once before,
Agis had retired from Elis. But Agesipolis held another view: if the god
had sent his earthquake at the moment when he was meditating invasion,
he should have understood that the god forbade his entrance; but now,
when the invasion was a thing effected, he must needs take it as a
signal of his approval. (6) Accordingly next morning he sacrificed to
Poseidon, and advanced a short distance further into the country.

(6) Or, "interpret the signal as a summons to advance."

The late expedition of Agesilaus into Argos (7) was still fresh in men's
minds, and Agesipolis was eager to ascertain from the soldiers how close
his predecessor had advanced to the fortification walls; or again, how
far he had gone in ravaging the open country--not unlike a competitor
in the pentathlon, (8) eager to cap the performance of his rival in each
event. On one occasion it was only the discharge of missiles from the
towers which forced him to recross the trenches round the walls; on
another, profiting by the absence of the majority of the Argives in
Laconian territory, he came so close to the gates that their officers
actually shut out their own Boeotian cavalry on the point of entering,
in terror lest the Lacedaemonians might pour into the town in company,
and these Boeotian troopers were forced to cling, like bats to a wall,
under each coign of vantage beneath the battlements. Had it not been for
the accidental absence of the Cretans, (9) who had gone off on a raid to
Nauplia, without a doubt numbers of men and horses would have been
shot down. At a later date, while encamping in the neighbourhood of the
Enclosures, (10) a thunder-bolt fell into his camp. One or two men were
struck, while others died from the effect of the concussion on their
brains. At a still later period he was anxious to fortify some sort of
garrison outpost in the pass of Celusa, (11) but upon offering sacrifice
the victims pro