The allies
complained grievously that they, who composed the greater part of the
Lacedaemonium force, should every year be led hither and thither, and
exposed to great risks and dangers, merely to satisfy one man's
personal pique. Hereupon we are told that Agesilaus, desiring to prove
that this argument about their composing so large a part of the army
was not founded on fact, made use of the following device:--He ordered
all the allies to sit down in one body, and made the Lacedaemonians sit
down separately. Next he gave orders, first that all the potters
should stand up; and when they had risen, he ordered the smiths,
carpenters, masons, and all the other tradesmen successively to do so.
When then nearly all the allies had risen to their feet, the Spartans
all remained seated, for they were forbidden to learn or to practise
any mechanical art. At this Agesilaus smiled, and said, "You see, my
men, how many more soldiers we send out than you do."
XXVII. On his return from his campaign against the Thebans, Agesilaus,
while passing through Megara, was seized with violent pain in his
sound leg, just as he was entering the town-hall in the Acropolis of
that city. After this it became greatly swelled and full of blood, and
seemed to be dangerously inflamed. A Syracusan physician opened a vein
near the ankle, which relieved the pain, but the flow of blood was
excessive, and could not be checked, so that he fainted away from
weakness, and was in a very dangerous condition.
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