Book 3
3.2
And Leotychides said:397 B.C. But, Agesilaus, the law directs, not that a brother, but that a son of a king, should be king; if, however, there should chance to be no son, in that case the brother would be king. It is I, then, who should be king. How so, when I am alive? Because he whom you call your father said that you were not his son. Nay, but my mother, who knows far better than he did, says even to this day that I am. But Poseidon showed that you are entirely in the wrong, for he drove your fatherLeotychides was reputed to be the son of Alcibiades. For the incident here mentioned, cp. Plut. Alc. 23. out of her chamber into the open by an earthquake. And time also, which is said to be the truest witness, gave testimony that the god was right; for you were born in the tenth month from the time when he fled from the chamber. Such were the words which passed between these two.
3.3
But Diopeithes, a man very well versed in oracles, said in support of Leotychides that there was also an oracle of Apollo which bade the Lacedaemonians beware of the lame kingship.Agesilaus was lame. Lysander, however, made reply to him, on behalf of Agesilaus, that he did not suppose the god was bidding them beware lest a king of theirs should get a sprain and become lame, but rather lest one who was not of the royal stock should become king. For the kingship would be lame in very truth when it was not the descendants of Heracles who were at the head of the state.
