Book 5
3.13
And since it seemed that the Phliasians were really acting insolently, the ephors called out the ban against them. Now this was not displeasing to Agesilaus; for the followers of Podanemus had been friends of his father Archidamus and were at this time among the restored exiles; while the partisans of Procles, the son of Hipponicus, were friends of his own.
3.14
And when, after the sacrifices at the frontier had proved favourable, he made no delay but proceeded on the march, many embassies met him and offered him money not to invade the country of Phlius. He replied, however, that he was not taking the field to do wrong, but to aid those who were suffering wrong.
3.15
Finally they said that they would do anything whatsoever, and begged him not to invade. He answered again that he could not trust to words, for they had proved false to their word in the previous case, but he said there was need of some deed that one could trust. And when he was asked what manner of deed this would be, he replied again: The same thing, said he, that you did before,cp. IV. iv. 15. and in doing which you suffered no wrong whatever at our hands. By this he meant giving over their Acropolis.
3.16
As they refused to do this, he invaded their land and quickly built a wall of circumvallation around the city and besieged them. And when many Lacedaemonians said that merely for the sake of a few individuals they were making themselves hated by a state of more than five thousand men — for the Phliasians held their assemblies in plain sight of the people outside the city just for the purpose of making the fact of their numbers evident — Agesilaus devised a scheme to meet this381 B.C. situation.
