Tachos, hearing of this, also began to supplicate them to stand by him, and Chabrias besought Agesilaus to remain in the service of Tachos, and to act as his friend.  To this, however, Agesilaus answered, “You, Chabrias, have come here on your own responsibility, and are able to act as you please.  I was given by Sparta to the Egyptians as their general.  It would not become me, therefore, to make war against those whom I was sent to aid, unless my country orders me to do so.”  After expressing himself thus, he sent messengers to Sparta, with instructions to depreciate Tachos, and to praise Nektanebis.  Both these princes also sent embassies to the Lacedaemonians, the one begging for aid as their old friend and ally, the other making large promises of future good-will towards them.  After hearing both sides, the Spartans publicly answered the Egyptians, that Agesilaus would decide between them, and they sent him a private despatch, bidding him to do what was best for Sparta.  Hereupon Agesilaus and the mercenaries left Tachos, and joined Nektanebis, making the interests of his country the pretext for his extraordinary conduct, which we can hardly call anything better than treachery.  However, the Lacedaemonians regard that course as the most honourable which is the most advantageous to their country, and know nothing of right or wrong, but only how to make Sparta great.

XXXVIII.  Tachos, deserted by the mercenaries, now fled for his life; but another claimant of the throne arose in the district of Mendes, and made war against Nektanebis with an army of one hundred thousand men.  Nektanebis, in his talk with Agesilaus, spoke very confidently about this force, saying that they were indeed very numerous, but a mere mixed multitude of rustic recruits, whom he could afford to despise.  To these remarks Agesilaus answered, “It is not their numbers, but their ignorance which I fear, lest we should be unable to deceive them.  Stratagems in war consist in unexpectedly falling upon men who are expecting an attack from some other quarter, but a man who expects nothing gives his enemy no opportunity to take him unawares, just as in wrestling one cannot throw one’s adversary if he stands still.”

The Mendesian soon began to intrigue with Agesilaus, and Nektanebis feared much that he might succeed in detaching him from himself.  Consequently, when Agesilaus advised him to fight as soon as possible, and not prolong the war against men who were indeed inexperienced in battle, but who were able, from their enormous numbers, to raise vast entrenchments and surround him on every side, he took the exactly opposite course, and retired to a strongly fortified city, of great extent, viewing Agesilaus with suspicion and fear.  Agesilaus was grieved at this, but, feeling ashamed to change sides a second time and so completely fail in his mission, he followed Nektanebis into his fortress.