Kitap 5
4.47
When the spring came, however, the ephors again377 B.C. called out the ban against Thebes and, just as before, requested Agesilaus to take command. Now since he held the same views as before about invading Boeotia, See 36 above. he sent to the polemarch at Thespiae before even offering the sacrifice at the frontier and ordered him to occupy in advance the summit overlooking the road377 B.C. which leads over Cithaeron and to guard it until he himself arrived.
4.48
And when he had passed this point and arrived at Plataea, he pretended that he was again going to Thespiae first, and sending thither he gave orders that a market should be made ready and that the embassies should await him there; so that the Thebans guarded strongly the pass leading from Thespiae into their country.
4.49
But on the following day at daybreak, after offering sacrifices, Agesilaus proceeded by the road to Erythrae. And after accomplishing in one day a two days’ march for an army, he passed the line of the stockade at Scolus before the Thebans returned from keeping guard at the place where he had entered on the previous occasion. Having done this, he laid waste the region to the east of the city of the Thebans, as far as the territory of the Tanagraeans; for at that time Hypatodorus and his followers, who were friends of the Lacedaemonians, still held possession of Tanagra. After this he proceeded to retire, keeping the wall of Tanagra on his left.
4.50
Meanwhile the Thebans came up quietly and formed in line of battle against him on the hill called Old Woman’s Breast, with the trench and the stockade in their rear, believing that this was a good place to risk a battle; for the ground at this point was a rather narrow strip and hard to traverse. When Agesilaus observed this, he did not lead his army against them, but turned aside and proceeded in the direction of the city.
