The Lacedaemonians, unable to force back the Thebans, were at length compelled to open their ranks, and let them pass through, which at first they had scorned to do.  They then assailed them on the flanks and rear as they passed.  Yet they could not boast of having conquered the Thebans, who drew off and rejoined their comrades on Mount Helikon, with the proud conviction that in the battle they at any rate had not been defeated.

XIX.  Agesilaus, although suffering from many wounds, refused to go to his tent before he had been carried on men’s shoulders round the army, and had seen all the dead brought off the field of battle.  He gave orders that some Thebans who had taken refuge in a neighbouring temple should be dismissed unharmed.  This was the temple of Athena Itonia, and before it stands a trophy, erected by the Boeotians under Sparton, many years before, in memory of a victory which they had won over the Athenians under Tolmides, who fell in that battle.

Next morning Agesilaus, wishing to discover whether the Thebans would renew the contest, ordered his soldiers to crown themselves with garlands, and the flute-players to play martial music while a trophy was erected in honour of the victory.  When the enemy sent to ask for a truce for the burial of their dead, he granted it, and having thus confirmed his victory, caused himself to be carried to Delphi.  Here the Pythian games were being celebrated, and Agesilaus not only took part in the procession in honour of the god, but also dedicated to him the tithe of the spoils of his Asiatic campaign, which amounted to one hundred talents.

On his return home, he was loved and admired by all his fellow-countrymen for his simple habits of life; for he did not, like so many generals, return quite a different man, corrupted by foreign manners, and dissatisfied with those of his own country, but, just like those who had never crossed the Eurotas, he loved and respected the old Spartan fashions, and would not alter his dining at the public table, his bath, his domestic life with his wife, his care of his arms, or the furniture of his house, the doors of which we are told by Xenophon, were so old that it was thought that they must be the original ones put up by Aristodemus.  Xenophon also tells us that the kanathrum of his daughter was not at all finer than that of other children.

A kanathrum is a fantastic wooden car, shaped like a griffin or an antelope, in which children are carried in sacred processions.  Xenophon does not mention the name of Agesilaus’s daughter, and Dikaearchus is much grieved at this, observing that we do not know the name either of the daughter of Agesilaus or of the mother of Epameinondas; I, however, have discovered, by consulting Lacedaemonium records, that the wife of Agesilaus was named Kleora, and that she had two daughters, named Eupolia and Prolyta.  His spear also may be seen at the present day in Sparta, and differs in no respect from that of any other Lacedaemonium.