"
XIII. As Pharnabazus was retiring with his friends, his son stayed
behind, and running up to Agesilaus said with a smile, "Agesilaus, I
make you my guest,"[178] and gave him a fine javelin which he carried
in his hand.
Agesilaus gladly accepted this offer, and, delighted with the engaging
manners and evident friendship of the young man, looked round for some
suitable present, and seeing that the horse of his secretary Idaeus was
adorned with fine trappings, took them off and gave them to the boy.
Agesilaus never forgot the connection thus formed between them, but in
after days, when the son of Pharnabazus was impoverished and driven
into exile by his brother, he welcomed him to the Peloponnese, and
provided him with protection and a home. He even went so far as to
employ his influence in favour of an Athenian youth to whom the son of
Pharnabazus was attached. This boy had outgrown the age and size of
the boy-runners in the Olympic stadium, and was consequently refused
leave to compete in that race. Upon this the Persian made a special
application to Agesilaus on his behalf; and Agesilaus, willing to do
anything to please his protege, with great difficulty and management
induced the judges to admit the boy as a competitor. This, indeed, was
the character of Agesilaus, disinterested and just in all matters
except in furthering the interests of his friends, in which case he
seems to have hesitated at nothing.
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