XV.  The whole of Asia Minor was now excited, and ripe for revolt.  Agesilaus established order[179] in the cities on the coast by mild measures, without either banishing or putting to death any of the citizens, and next determined to advance farther, and transfer the theatre of war from the Ionic coast to the interior.  He hoped thus to force the Persian king to fight for his very existence, and for his pleasant palaces at Susa and Ecbatana, and at any rate to keep him fully employed, so that from henceforth he might have no leisure or means to act as arbitrator between the Greek states in their disputes, and to corrupt their statesmen by bribes.  At this crisis, however, there arrived the Spartan Epikydides.  He announced that Sparta was involved in an important war with Thebes and other Greek states, and brought an imperative summons from the ephors to Agesilaus to return at once and assist his countrymen at home.

    “O Greeks, that will upon yourselves impose
    Such miserable, more than Persian woes.”

It is pitiable to think of the malevolence and ill-will which produced this war, and arrayed the states of Greece against one another, putting a stop to such a glorious career of conquest at its very outset, exchanging a foreign for a civil war, and recalling the arms which were being used against the Persians to point them at Grecian breasts.  I cannot agree with the Corinthian, Demaratus, when he says that those Greeks who did not see Alexander seated upon the throne of Darius lost one of the most delightful spectacles in the world.  I think they would have been more likely to weep when they reflected that this conquest was left for Alexander and the Macedonians to effect, by those Greek generals who wasted the resources of their country in the battles of Leuktra and Koronea, Corinth and Mantinea.  Still, nothing is more honourable to Agesilaus than the promptitude with which he withdrew from Asia, nor can we easily find another example of straightforward obedience and self-sacrifice in a general.  Hannibal was in great difficulties and straits in Italy, and yet yielded a very unwilling obedience when summoned home to protect Carthage, while Alexander merely sneered at the news of the battle between Agis and Antipater, observing, “It appears, my friends, that while we have been conquering Darius here, there has been a battle of mice in Arcadia.”

Well then does Sparta deserve to be congratulated on the love for her and the respect for her laws which Agesilaus showed on this occasion, when, as soon as the despatch reached him, he at once stopped his prosperous and victorious career, gave up his soaring hopes of conquest, and marched home, leaving his work unfinished, regretted greatly by all his allies, and having signally confuted the saying of Phaeax the son of Erasistratus, that the Lacedaemonians act best as a state, and the Athenians as individuals.  He proved himself indeed to be a good king and a good general, but those who know him most intimately prized him more as a friend and companion than as either a king or a soldier.