t their composing so large a part of the army
was not founded on fact, made use of the following device:--He ordered
all the allies to sit down in one body, and made the Lacedaemonians sit
down separately. Next he gave orders, first that all the potters
should stand up; and when they had risen, he ordered the smiths,
carpenters, masons, and all the other tradesmen successively to do so.
When then nearly all the allies had risen to their feet, the Spartans
all remained seated, for they were forbidden to learn or to practise
any mechanical art. At this Agesilaus smiled, and said, "You see, my
men, how many more soldiers we send out than you do."

XXVII. On his return from his campaign against the Thebans, Agesilaus,
while passing through Megara, was seized with violent pain in his
sound leg, just as he was entering the town-hall in the Acropolis of
that city. After this it became greatly swelled and full of blood, and
seemed to be dangerously inflamed. A Syracusan physician opened a vein
near the ankle, which relieved the pain, but the flow of blood was
excessive, and could not be checked, so that he fainted away from
weakness, and was in a very dangerous condition. At length the
bleeding stopped, and he was conveyed home to Lacedaemon, but he
remained ill, and unable to serve in the wars for a long time.

During his illness many disasters befel the Spartans both by land and
by sea. Of these, the most important was the defeat at Tegyra, where
for the first time they wore beaten in a fair fight by the Thebans.
The Lacedaemonians were now eager to make peace with all the Greek
cities, and ambassadors from all parts of Greece met at Sparta to
arrange terms. Among them was Epameinondas, a man who was renowned for
his culture and learning, but who had not hitherto given any proof of
his great military genius. This man, perceiving that all the other
ambassadors were sedulously paying their court to Agesilaus, assumed
an independent attitude, and in a speech delivered before the congress
declared that nothing kept the war alive except the unjust pretensions
of Sparta, who gained strength from the sufferings of the other
states, and that no peace could be durable unless such pretensions
were laid aside, and Sparta reduced to the equality with the rest of
the cities of Greece.

XXVIII. Agesilaus, observing that all the representatives of the Greek
states were filled with admiration at this language, and manifested
strong sympat