Agis   

to be deprived of the selfish enjoyment to which they were accustomed.
These were not indeed brothers by nature, as the two Romans, but they
had a kind of brotherly resemblance in their actions and designs,
which took a rise from such beginnings and occasions as I am now about
to relate.
When the love of gold and silver had once gained admittance into the
Lacedaemonian commonwealth, it was quickly followed by avarice and
baseness of spirit in the pursuit of it, and by luxury, effeminacy,
and prodigality in the use. Then Sparta fell from almost all her former
virtue and repute, and so continued till the days of Agis and Leonidas,
who both together were kings of the Lacedaemonians.
Agis was of the royal family of Eurypon, son of Eudamidas, and the
sixth in descent from Agesilaus, who made the expedition into Asia,
and was the greatest man of his time in Greece. Agesilaus left behind
him a son called Archidamus, the same who was slain at Mandonium,
in Italy, by the Messapians, and who was then succeeded by his eldest
son Agis. He being killed by Antipater near Megalopolis, and leaving
no issue, was succeeded by his brother Eudamidas; he by a son called
Archidamus; and Archidamus by another Eudamidas, the father of this
Agis of whom we now treat.
Leonidas, son of Cleonymus, was of the other royal house of the Agiadae,
and the eighth in descent from Pausanias, who defeated Mardonius in
the battle of Plataea. Pausanias was succeeded by a son called Plistoanax;
and he by another Pausanias who was banished, and lived as a private
man at Tegea, while his eldest son, Agesipolis, reigned in his place.
He, dying without issue, was succeeded by a younger brother, called
Cleombrotus, who left two sons; the elder was Agesipolis, who reigned
but a short time, and died without issue; the younger, who then became
king, was called Cleomenes, and had also two sons, Acrotatus and Cleonymus.
The first died before his father, but left a son called Areus, who
succeeded, and being slain at Corinth, left the kingdom to his son
Acrotatus. This Acrotatus was defeated, and slain near Megalopolis,
in a battle against the tyrant Aristodemus; he left his wife big with
child, and on her being delivered of a son, Leonidas, son of the above-named
Cleonymus, was made his guardian, and as the young king died before
becoming a man, he succeeded in the kingdom.
Leonidas was a king not particularly suitable to his people. For though
there were at that time at Sparta a general decline in manners, yet
a greater revolt from the old habits appeared in him than in others.
For having lived a long time among the great lords of Persia, and
been a follower of King Seleucus, he unadvisedly thought to imitate,
among Greek institutions and in a lawful government, the pride and
assumption usual in those courts. Agis, on the contrary, in fineness
of nature and elevation of mind, not only far excelled Leonidas, but
in a manner all the kings that had reigned since the great Agesilaus.
For though he had been bred very tenderly, in abundance and even in
luxury, by his mother Agesistrata and his grandmother Archidamia,
who were the wealthiest of the Lacedaemonians, yet, before the age
of twenty, he renounced all indulgence in pleasures. Withdrawing himself
as far as possible from the gaiety and ornament which seemed becoming
to the grace of his person, he made it his pride to appear in the
coarse Spartan coat. In his meals, his bathings, and in all his exercises,
he followed the old Laconian usage, and was often heard to say, he
had no desire for the place of king, if he did not hope by means of
that authority to restore their ancient laws and discipline.
The Lacedaemonians might date the beginning of their corruption from
their conquest of Athens, and the influx of gold and silver among
them that thence ensued. Yet, nevertheless, the number of houses which
Lycurgus appointed being still maintained, and the law remaining in
force by which every one was obliged to leave his lot or portion of
land entirely to his son, a kind of order and equality was thereby
preserved, which still in some degree sustained the state amidst its
errors in other respects. But one Epitadeus happening to be ephor,
a man of great influence, and of a willful, violent spirit, on some