friendship was of no fictitious character. At any rate, they
voluntarily helped him to succour Lacedaemon, though it involved, as
they knew, the need of doing battle with combatants of equal prowess
with themselves. So the tale of his achievements in Asia has an end.

[17] See Plut. "Ages." xv.




II

He crossed the Hellespont and made his way through the very tribes
traversed by the Persian[1] with his multitudinous equipment in former
days, and the march which cost the barbarian a year was accomplished
by Agesilaus in less than a single month. He did not want to arrive a
day too late to serve his fatherland. And so passing through Macedonia
he arrived in Thessaly, and here the men of Larissa, Crannon,
Scotussa, and Pharsalus, who were allies of the Boeotians, and indeed
all the Thessalians, with the exception of those who were in exile at
the time, combined to dog his steps and do him damage. For a while he
led his troops in a hollow square, posting one half of his cavalry in
the van and the other half on his rear, but finding his march hindered
by frequent attacks of the Thessalians on his hindmost divisions, he
sent round the mass of his cavalry from the vanguard to support his
rear, reserving only his personal escort.[2] And now in battle order
the rival squadrons faced each other; when the Thessalians, not liking
a cavalry engagement in face of heavy infantry, wheeled and step by
step retreated; their opponents with much demureness following. Then
Agesilaus, detecting the common error under which both parties