At length the
bleeding stopped, and he was conveyed home to Lacedaemon, but he
remained ill, and unable to serve in the wars for a long time.
During his illness many disasters befel the Spartans both by land and
by sea. Of these, the most important was the defeat at Tegyra, where
for the first time they wore beaten in a fair fight by the Thebans.
The Lacedaemonians were now eager to make peace with all the Greek
cities, and ambassadors from all parts of Greece met at Sparta to
arrange terms. Among them was Epameinondas, a man who was renowned for
his culture and learning, but who had not hitherto given any proof of
his great military genius. This man, perceiving that all the other
ambassadors were sedulously paying their court to Agesilaus, assumed
an independent attitude, and in a speech delivered before the congress
declared that nothing kept the war alive except the unjust pretensions
of Sparta, who gained strength from the sufferings of the other
states, and that no peace could be durable unless such pretensions
were laid aside, and Sparta reduced to the equality with the rest of
the cities of Greece.
XXVIII. Agesilaus, observing that all the representatives of the Greek
states were filled with admiration at this language, and manifested
strong sympathy with the speaker, enquired whether he thought it right
and just that the cities of Boeotia[188] should be left independent.
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