Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks. Edward Wortley Montagu
of an old Spartan Heroine, praying only that this whole affair might not prove prejudicial to her country.
Thus fell the gallant Agis in the cause of liberty and publick virtue, by the perfidy of his mercenary friends, and the violence of a corrupt and most profligate faction. I have given a more particular detail of the catastrophe of this unfortunate Prince as trans-[55]mitted to us by Plutarch, because it furnishes convincing proofs, how greatly the introduction of wealth had corrupted and debased the once upright and generous spirit of the Spartans.
Archidamus, the brother of Agis, eluded the search made for him by Leonidas, and escaped the massacre by flying from Sparta. But Leonidas compelled his wife Agiatis, who was a young lady of the greatest beauty in all Greece, and sole heiress to a vast estate, to marry his own son Cleomenes, though Agiatis had but just lain-in of a son, and the match was entirely contrary to her inclinations. This event however produced a very different effect from what Leonidas intended, and after his death proved the ruin of his party, and revenged the murder of Agis.a
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For Cleomenes, who was very young, and extremely fond of his wife, would shed sympathising tears whenever she related the melancholy fate of Agis, and occasionally desire her to explain his intentions, and the nature of his scheme, to which he would listen with the greatest attention. From that time he determined to follow so glorious an example, but kept the resolution secret in his own breast till the means and opportunity should offer. He was sensible [56] that an attempt of that nature would be utterly impracticable whilst his father lived; who, like the rest of the leading citizens, had wholly given himself up to a life of ease and luxury. Warned too by the fate of Agis, he knew how extremely dangerous it was even once to mention the old frugality and simplicity of manners, which depended upon the observance of the discipline and institutions of Lycurgus. But as soon as ever he succeeded to the Crown at the death of his father, and found himself the sole reigning King of Sparta without a colleague, he immediately applied his whole care and study to accomplish that great change which he had before projected. For he observed the manners of the Spartans in general were grown extremely corrupt and dissolute; the rich sacrificing the publick interest to their own private avarice and luxury; the poor, from their extreme indigence, averse to the toils of war, careless and negligent of education and discipline; whilst the Ephori had engrossed the whole royal power, and left him in reality nothing but the empty title: Circumstances greatly mortifying to an aspiring young Monarch, who panted eagerly after glory, and impatiently wished to retrieve the lost reputation of his countrymen. [57]
He began by sounding his most intimate friend, one Xenares, at a distance only, enquiring what sort of man Agis was, and which way, and by whose advice, he was drawn into those unfortunate measures. Xenares, who attributed all his questions to the curiosity natural to a young man, very readily told him the whole story, and explained ingenuously every particular of the affair as it really happened. But when he remarked that Cleomenes often returned to the charge, and every time with greater eagerness, more and more admiring and applauding the scheme and character of Agis, he immediately saw through his design. After reproving him, therefore, severely for talking and behaving thus like a madman, Xenares broke off all friendship and intercourse with him, though he had
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too much honour to betray his friend’s secret. Cleomenes, not in the least discouraged at this repulse, but concluding that he should meet with the same reception from the rest of the wealthy and powerful citizens, determined to trust none of them, but to take upon himself the whole care and management of his scheme.a However, as he was sensible that the execution of it would be much more feasible, when his country was involved in war, than in a state [58] of profound peace, he waited for a proper opportunity; which the Achaeans quickly furnished him with. For Aratus, the great projector of the famous Achaean league, into which he had already brought many of the Grecian states, holding Cleomenes extremely cheap, as a raw unexperienced boy, thought this a favourable opportunity of trying how the Spartans stood affected towards that Union. Without the least previous notice, therefore, he suddenly invaded such of the Arcadians as were in alliance with Sparta, and committed great devastations in that part of the country which lay in the neighbourhood of Achaia.
The Ephori, alarmed at this unexpected attack, sent Cleomenes at the head of the Spartan forces to oppose the invasion. The young Hero behaved well, and frequently baffled that old experienced commander. But his countrymen growing weary of the war, and refusing to concur in the measures he proposed for carrying it on, he recalled Archidamus the brother of Agis from banishment, who had a strict hereditary right to the other moiety of the kingdom; imagining that when the throne was properly filled according to law, and the regal power preserved entire by the Union of the two Kings, it would restore the balance of government, and weaken the authority of [59] the Ephori. But the faction which had murdered Agis, justly dreading the resentment of Archidamus for so atrocious a crime, took care privately to assassinate him upon his return.
Cleomenes now more than ever intent upon bringing his great project to bear, bribed the Ephori with large sums to intrust him with the management of the war.b His mother Cratesiclea not only supplied him with money upon this occasion, but married one Megistonus, a man of the
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greatest weight and authority in the city, purposely to bring him over to her son’s interest. Cleomenes taking the field, totally defeated the army of Aratus, and killed Lydiadas the Megalopolitan General. This victory, which was entirely owing to the conduct of Cleomenes, not only raised the courage of his soldiers, but gave them so high an opinion of his abilities, that he seems to have been recalled by his enemies, jealous most probably of his growing interest with the army. For Plutarch, who is not very methodical in his relations, informs us, that after this affair, Cleomenes convinced his father-in-law, Megistonus, of the necessity of taking off the Ephori, and reducing59 the citizens to their [60] ancient equality according to the institutions of Lycurgus, as the only means of restoring Sparta to her former sovereignty over Greece.a This scheme therefore must have been privately settled at Sparta. For we are next told, that Cleomenes again took the field, carrying with him such of the citizens as he suspected were most likely to oppose him. He took some cities from the Achaeans that campaign, and made himself master of some important places, but harrassed his troops so much with many marches and countermarches, that most of the Spartans remained behind in Arcadia at their own request, whilst he marched back to Sparta with his mercenary forces, and such of his friends as he could most confide in. He timed his march so well that he entered Sparta whilst the Ephori were at supper, and dispatched Euryclidas before with three or four of his most trusty friends and a few soldiers to perform the execution. For Cleomenes well knew that Agis owed his ruin to his too cautious timidity, and his too great lenity and moderation. Whilst Euryclidas therefore amused the Ephori with a pretended message from Cleomenes, the rest fell upon them sword in hand, and killed four upon the spot, with above ten persons more who came to their assistance. Agesilaus the survivor of them fell, and counterfeiting him-[61]self dead, gained an opportunity of escaping. Next morning as soon as it was light, Cleomenes proscribed and banished fourscore of the most dangerous citizens, and removed all the chairs of
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the Ephori out of the Forum, except one, which he reserved for his own seat of judicature. He then convoked an assembly of the people, to whom he apologized for his late actions. He shewed them, in a very artful and elaborate speech, “the nature and just extent of the power of the Ephori, the fatal consequences of the authority they had usurped of governing the state by their own arbitrary will, and of deposing and putting their Kings to death without allowing them a legal hearing in their own defence. He urged the example of Lycurgus himself, who came armed into the Forum when he first proposed his laws, as a proof that it was impossible to root out those pests of the commonwealth, which had been imported from other countries, luxury, the parent of that vain expence which ruins such numbers in debt, usury, and those more ancient evils, wealth and poverty, without violence and bloodshed: That he should have thought himself happy, if like an able physician, he could have radically cured the diseases of his country without pain: but that [62] necessity had compelled him to do what he had already done, in order to procure an equal partition of the lands, and the abolition of their debts, as well as to enable him to fill up the number of