Agis

Family: Lacedaemonians · Role: commander · First appears: Book 3 · Chapter 11 · Part 1

In the next summer, Agis, son of Archidamus, led the Lacedaemonians and their allies toward Attica, but earthquakes forced them to turn back. The following spring he led an invasion that laid waste the country; when they heard Pylos had been occupied, he and the Lacedaemonians hurried home. Later, expeditions to Leuctra and Caryae also turned back after unfavourable frontier sacrifices.

In the middle of the next summer, Agis led an expedition against Argos. Thrasylus and Alciphron parleyed with him, urging him to avoid battle and offering arbitration and peace; he eluded the Argives and joined his allies at Phlius, then invaded the plain and ravaged its territory. Just before battle, he ordered the Sciritae and Brasideans to shift position; when two companies failed to move into the gap, Aristocles and Hipponoidas were later banished from Sparta. Agis also ordered the army to support his defeated left wing. The Lacedaemonians carried their dead to Tegea, and that winter he led another campaign against Argos, razing its walls and capturing Hysiae.

In the first days of the following spring, Agis led an invasion of Attica and the forces began fortifying Decelea. During the next winter he levied contributions for the fleet and compelled Thessalian subjects to provide money and hostages, which he deposited at Corinth. When the Euboeans proposed revolt, he accepted and sent Alcamenes and Melanthus to command there, but later deferred that operation and assigned Alcamenes to the planned revolt of Lesbos. Agis was the enemy of Alcibiades.