When they displayed their bad qualities in these posts and
were recalled to take their trial he used to come forward as their
friend and by his exertions on their behalf make them his active
partisans instead of his enemies, so that before long he succeeded in
breaking up the party which was opposed to him, and reigned alone
without any rival; for the other king, Agesipolis, whose father had
been an exile, and who was himself very young, and of a mild and
unassuming temper, counted for nothing in the state. Agesilaus won
over this man also, and made a friend of him; for the two kings dine
at the same _phiditium_, or public table, when they are at Sparta.
Knowing Agesipolis, like himself, to be prone to form attachments to
young men, he always led the conversation to this subject, and
encouraged the young king in doing so; for these love affairs among
Lacedaemonians have in them nothing disgraceful, but produce much
modest emulation and desire for glory, as has been explained in the
Life of Lykurgus.
XXI. Being now the most powerful man in Sparta, Agesilaus obtained the
appointment of admiral of the fleet for Teleutias, his half-brother;
and thereupon making an expedition against Corinth, he made himself
master of the long walls by land, through the assistance of his
brother at sea. Coming thus upon the Argives, who then held Corinth,
in the midst of their Isthmian festival, he made them fly just as they
had finished the customary sacrifice, and leave all their festive
provision behind them.
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