XXXVI.  He still further tarnished his glory by taking service under the Egyptian Tachos.  It was thought unworthy of a man who had proved himself the bravest and best soldier in Greece, and who had filled all the inhabited world with his fame, to hire himself out to a barbarian rebel, and make a profit of his great name and military reputation, just like any vulgar captain of mercenaries.  If, when more than eighty years old, and almost crippled by honourable wounds, he had again placed himself at the head of a glorious crusade against the Persian on behalf of the liberties of Greece, all men would have admired his spirit, but even then would not entirely have approved of the undertaking; for to make an action noble, time and place must be fitting, since it is this alone that decides whether an action be good or bad.  Agesilaus, however, cared nothing for his reputation, and considered that no service undertaken for the good of his country would be dishonourable or unworthy of him, but thought it much more unworthy and dishonourable to sit uselessly waiting for death at home.  He raised a body of mercenary troops with the money furnished by Tachos, and set sail, accompanied, as in his former expedition, by thirty Spartan counsellors.

When he landed in Egypt, the chief generals and ministers of King Tachos at once came to pay their court to him.  The other Egyptians also eagerly crowded to see Agesilaus, of whom they had heard so much.  When, however, they saw only a little deformed old man, in mean attire, sitting on the grass, they began to ridicule him, and contemptuously to allude to the proverb of the mountain in labour, which brought forth a mouse.  They were even more astonished when, of the presents offered to him, he accepted flour, calves, and geese, but refused to receive dried fruits, pastry, and perfumes.  When greatly pressed to accept of these things, he ordered them to be given to the helots.  Yet we are told by Theophrastes that he was much pleased with the flowering papyrus, of which garlands are made, because of its neat and clean appearance, and he begged for and received some of this plant from the king when he left Egypt.

XXXVII.  When he joined Tachos, who was engaged in preparing his forces for a campaign, he was disappointed in not receiving the chief command, but being merely appointed to lead the mercenary troops, while Chabrias the Athenian was in command of the fleet, Tachos himself acting as commander-in-chief.  This was the first vexatious circumstance which occurred to Agesilaus; and soon he began to feel great annoyance at the vainglorious swaggering tone of the Egyptian king, which nevertheless he was obliged to endure throughout the whole of a naval expedition which they undertook against the Phoenicians, during which he suppressed his feelings of disgust as well as he could until at last he had an opportunity of showing them.  Nektanebis, the cousin of Tachos, and the commander of a large portion of his force, revolted, and caused himself to be proclaimed King of Egypt.  He at once sent to Agesilaus begging for his assistance, and he also made the same proposals to Chabrias, offering them great rewards if they would join him.