Kitap 7
1.30
It is said that he also went along in front of the battalions and exhorted his men in the following words: Fellow citizens, let us now prove ourselves brave men and thus be able to look people in the face; let us hand on to those who come after us the fatherland as it was when we received it from our fathers; let us cease to feel shame before wives and children and elders and strangers, in whose eyes we used once to be the most highly honoured of all the Greeks.
1.31
When these words had been spoken, it is said that from a clear sky there came lightnings and thunderings of favourable omen for him; and it chanced also that on the right wing was a sanctuary and a statue of Heracles. The circumstance was of good omen because Heracles was the traditional ancestor of the Spartan kings. As a result, therefore, of all these things, it is reported that the soldiers were inspired with so much strength and courage that it was a task for their leaders to restrain them as they pushed forward to the front. And when Archidamus led the advance, only a few of the enemy waited till his men came within spear-thrust;368 B.C. these were killed, and the rest were cut down as they fled, many by the horsemen and many by the Celts.
1.32
Then as soon as the battle had ended and he had set up a trophy, he immediately sent home Demoteles, the herald, to report the greatness of his victory and the fact that not so much as one of the Lacedaemonians had been slain, while vast numbers of the enemy had fallen. And when the people at Sparta heard this, it is said that all of them wept, beginning with Agesilaus, the senators, and the ephors; so true it is, indeed, that tears belong to joy and sorrow alike. On the other hand, both the Thebans and the Eleans were almost as well pleased as the Lacedaemonians at the misfortune of the Arcadians — so vexed had they become by this time at their presumption.
