served the greatest censure; but yet that
Sphodrias was a brave energetic man, whom Sparta could not afford to
lose.

Agesilaus used this language out of a desire to gratify his son, and
from it Kleonymus soon perceived that Archidamus had been true to him
in using his interest with his father; while the friends of Sphodrias
became much more forward in his defence. Indeed Agesilaus was
remarkably fond of children, and an anecdote is related of him, that
when his children were very little he was fond of playing with them,
and would bestride a reed as if it were a horse for their amusement.
When one of his friends found him at this sport, he bade him mention
it to no one before he himself became the father of a family.

XXVI. Sphodrias was acquitted by the court; and the Athenians, as soon
as they learned this, prepared for war. Agesilaus was now greatly
blamed, and was charged with having obstructed the course of justice,
and having made Sparta responsible for an outrage upon a friendly
Greek state, merely in order to gratify the childish caprice of his
son. As he perceived that Kleombrotus was unwilling to attack the
Thebans, he himself invaded Boeotia, disregarding the law under which
on a former occasion he had pleaded exemption from military service on
account of his age. Here he fought the Thebans with varying success;
for once, when he was being borne out of action wounded, Antalkidas
observed to him, "A fine return you are getting from the Thebans for
having taught them how to fight against their will." Indeed, the
military power of the Thebans at that time was at its height, having
as it were been exercised and practised by the many campaigns
undertaken against them by the Lacedaemonians. This was why Lykurgus of
old, in his three celebrated _rhetras_, forbade the Lacedaemonians to
fight often with the same people, lest by constant practice they
should teach them how to fight. Agesilaus was also disliked by the
allies of the Lacedaemonians, because of his hatred of Thebes and his
desire to destroy that state, not on any public grounds, but merely on
account of his own bitter personal dislike to the Thebans. The allies
complained grievously that they, who composed the greater part of the
Lacedaemonium force, should every year be led hither and thither, and
exposed to great risks and dangers, merely to satisfy one man's
personal pique. Hereupon we are told that Agesilaus, desiring to prove
that this argument abou