Polyænus has more than one anecdote respecting the dexterity of Agesilaus in dealing with faint-hearted conduct or desertion on the part of the allies of Sparta (Polyæn. ii, 1, 18-20).
[381] Xen. Hellen. vi, 4, 13, 14.
[382] Xen. Hellen. l. c. Plutarch (Agesil. c. 28) states a thousand Lacedæmonians to have been slain; Pausanias (ix, 13, 4) gives the number as more than a thousand; Diodorus mentions four thousand (xv. 56), which is doubtless above the truth, though the number given by Xenophon may be fairly presumed as somewhat below it. Dionysius of Halikarnassus (Antiq. Roman. ii, 17) states that seventeen hundred Spartans perished.
[383] Xen. Hellen. vi, 4, 15.
[384] Pausan. ix, 13, 4; Plutarch, Apotheg. Reg. p. 193 B.; Cicero, de officiis, ii, 7.
[385] Pausan. ix, 13, 4; Diodor. xv, 55.
[386] Pausan. ix, 16, 3.
[387] This is an important date, preserved by Plutarch (Agesil. c. 28). The congress was broken up at Sparta on the fourteenth of the Attic month Skirrophorion (June), the last month of the year of the Athenian archon Alkisthenes; the battle was fought on the fifth of the Attic month of Hekatombæon, the first month of the next Attic year, of the archon Phrasikleidês; about the beginning of July.
[388] Diodorus differs from Xenophon on one important matter connected with the battle; affirming that Archidamus son of Agesilaus was present and fought, together with various other circumstances, which I shall discuss presently, in a future note. I follow Xenophon.
[389] Xen. Hellen. vi, 4, 8. Εἰς δ’ οὖν τὴν μάχην τοῖς μὲν Λακεδαιμονίοις πάντα τἀναντία ἐγίγνετο, τοῖς δὲ (to the Thebans) πάντα καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς τύχης κατωρθοῦτο.