Book 3
8.6
Agis used also to make continual incursions into Attica, and established the fortified post at Decelea to annoy the Athenians.413 B.C. When the Athenian navy was destroyed at Aegospotami,405 B.C. Lysander, the son of Aristocritus, and Agis violated the oaths which the Lacedaemonians as a state had sworn by the gods to the Athenians, and it was on their own initiative, and without the approval of the Spartan state, that they put before their allies the proposal to destroy Athens root and branch.
8.7
Such were the most remarkable military achievements of Agis. The rash remark that Ariston made about Demaratus was also made by Agis about his son Leotychides; at the suggestion of some evil spirit he said in the hearing of the ephors that he did not believe Leotychides to be his son. Yet Agis, too, repented afterwards; he was at the time being carried home sick from Arcadia, and when he reached Heraea, he not only called the people to witness that he sincerely believed Leotychides to be his very own son, but also with prayers and tears charged them to take the tidings to the Lacedaemonians.
8.8
After the death of Agis, Agesilaus tried to keep Leotychides from the throne, recalling to the minds of the Lacedaemonians what Agis once said about Leotychides. But the Arcadians from Heraea arrived and bore witness for Leotychides, stating what they had heard the dying Agis say.
8.9
Yet further fuel for the controversy between Agesilaus and Leotychides was supplied by the oracle that was delivered at Delphi to this effect:—Sparta beware! though haughty, pay heed to the warning I give thee.Never let thy sound limbs give birth to a kingdom that lame is.Too long then shalt thou lie in the clutches of desperate hardships;Turmoil of war shall arise, o'erwhelming men in its billows.
