IX.  Tissaphernes was at first afraid of Agesilaus, and began to treat with him about setting free the Greek cities on the Ionian coast from the power of the king of Persia.  Afterwards, however, he imagined that the force at his disposal justified him in breaking off these negotiations, and he declared war, to the great delight of Agesilaus.  Great expectations had indeed been formed in Greece of the army of Agesilaus, and it was thought a strange thing that ten thousand Greeks under Xenophon should march through Persia to the sea, and defeat the king of Persia’s troops as often as they pleased, while Agesilaus, the commander of the Lacedaemonians, the leading people in Greece, who were all-powerful both by sea and land, should accomplish nothing.  He now revenged himself on the faithless Tissaphernes for his perjury by an equal piece of deceit, and gave out that he was about to march into Karia.  When, however, the Persian army was assembled there, he proceeded north-wards to Phrygia, where he took many cities, and gained much plunder, pointing out to his friends that although to solemnly plight one’s word and then to break it is wrong, yet that to out-manoeuvre one’s enemies is not only lawful, but profitable and glorious.  Being, however, deficient in cavalry, and warned by the omen of a victim being found with an imperfect liver, he retired to Ephesus, and there collected a cavalry force, giving rich men the alternative of either serving themselves in his army, or of furnishing a horse soldier instead.  Many preferred to do so, and Agesilaus soon possessed a force of warlike cavalry in the place of worthless foot soldiers; for those who did not wish to serve personally hired men who were willing to fight, and those who could not ride hired those who could.  Just so did Agamemnon act very wisely in receiving a valuable mare, and thereby allowing a rich man to purchase his discharge from military service.  Agesilaus now gave orders that the heralds who conducted the sale of captives by auction, should strip them of their clothes, and put them up for sale in a state of perfect nudity.  Their clothes were sold separately, and the Greek soldiers laughed heartily at the white and soft skins, which never had felt the sun or wind, displayed by these Asiatics, and began to feel contempt for such effeminate adversaries.  Agesilaus himself, pointing first to the captives themselves, and then to their clothes and other property, observed, “These are the men with whom you have to fight, and these are the things you fight for.”

X. When the season for active operations returned he announced his intention of marching into Lydia, not meaning thereby to deceive Tissaphernes; but Tissaphernes deceived himself, for he distrusted Agesilaus on account of his former stratagem.  He therefore concluded that it was Agesilaus’s real intention to invade Karia, especially as he was weak in cavalry, which could not act in that province.  When, however, Agesilaus, as he had announced, marched into the level