XXXV. A few days afterwards was fought the battle of Mantinea, where, just as Epameinondas was carrying all before him and urging his troops to pursue, Antikrates the Lacedæmonium met him and wounded him, according to Dioskorides with a spear, while the Lacedæmonians to this day call the descendants of Antikrates Machairones, that is, children of the sword, as though he struck him with a sword. Indeed, they regarded Antikrates with such a love and admiration, because of the terror which Epameinondas had struck into their hearts while he was alive, that they decreed especial honours and presents to be bestowed upon him, and granted to his descendants an immunity from taxes and public burdens which is enjoyed at the present day by Kallikrates, one of the descendants of Antikrates.
After this battle and the death of Epameinondas the Greek states made peace between one another. When, however, all the other states were swearing to observe the peace, Agesilaus objected to the Messenians, men, he said, without a city, swearing any such oath. The rest, however, raised no objections to the oath of the Messenians, and the Lacedæmonians upon this refused to take any part in the proceedings, so that they alone remained at war, because they hoped to recover the territory of Messenia. Agesilaus was thought an obstinate and headlong man, and insatiable of war, because he took such pains to undermine the general peace, and to keep Sparta at war at a time when he was in such distress for money to carry it on, that he was obliged to borrow from his personal friends and to get up subscriptions among the citizens, and when he had much better have allowed the state some repose and watched for a suitable opportunity to regain the country; instead of which, although he had lost so great an empire by sea and land, he yet insisted on continuing his frantic and fruitless efforts to reconquer the paltry territory of Messenia.
XXXVI. He still further tarnished his glory by taking service under the Egyptian Tachos. It was thought unworthy of a man who had proved himself the bravest and best soldier in Greece, and who had filled all the inhabited world with his fame, to hire himself out to a barbarian rebel, and make a profit of his great name and military reputation, just like any vulgar captain of mercenaries. If, when more than eighty years old, and almost crippled by honourable wounds, he had again placed himself at the head of a glorious crusade against the Persian on behalf of the liberties of Greece, all men would have admired his spirit, but even then would not entirely have approved of the undertaking; for to make an action noble, time and place must be fitting, since it is this alone that decides whether an action be good or bad. Agesilaus, however, cared nothing for his reputation, and considered that no service undertaken for the good of his country would be dishonourable or unworthy of him, but thought it much more unworthy and dishonourable to sit uselessly waiting for death at home. He raised a body of mercenary troops with the money furnished by Tachos, and set sail, accompanied, as in his former expedition, by thirty Spartan counsellors.