Agis   

to this design; for the money of Sparta being most of it in the women's
hands, it was their interest to oppose it, not only as depriving them
of those superfluous trifles, in which, through want of better knowledge
and experience, they placed their chief felicity, but also because
they knew their riches were the main support of their power and credit.
Those, therefore, who were of this faction had recourse to Leonidas
representing to him how it was his part, as the elder and more experienced,
to put a stop to the ill-advised projects of a rash young man. Leonidas,
though of himself sufficiently inclined to oppose Agis, durst not
openly, for fear of the people, who were manifestly desirous of this
change; but underhand he did all he could to discredit and thwart
the project, and to prejudice the chief magistrates against him, and
on all occasions craftily insinuated that it was at the price of letting
him usurp arbitrary power that Agis thus proposed to divide the property
of the rich among the poor, and that the object of these measures
for cancelling debts and dividing the lands, was not to furnish Sparta
with citizens, but purchase him a tyrant's body guard.
Agis, nevertheless, little regarding these rumours, procured Lysander's
election as ephor; and then took the first occasion of proposing through
him his Rhetra to the council, the chief articles of which were these:
That every one should be free from their debts: all the lands to be
divided into equal portions, those that lay betwixt the watercourse
near Pellene and Mount Taygetus, and as far as the cities of Malea
and Sellasia, into four thousand five hundred lots, the remainder
into fifteen thousand; these last to be shared out among those of
the country people who were fit for service as heavy-armed soldiers,
the first among the natural-born Spartans, and their number also should
be supplied from any among the country people or strangers who had
received the proper breeding of freemen, and were of vigorous body
and of age for military service. All these were to be divided into
fifteen companies, some of four hundred, and some of two, with a diet
and discipline agreeable to the laws of Lycurgus.
This decree being proposed in the council of Elders, met there with
opposition; so that Lysander immediately convoked the great assembly
of the people, to whom he, Mandroclidas, and Agesilaus made orations
exhorting them that they would not suffer the majesty of Sparta to
remain abandoned to contempt, to gratify a few rich men, who lorded
it over them; but that they should call to mind the oracles in old
times which had forewarned them to beware of the love of money, as
the great danger and probable ruin of Sparta, and, moreover, those
recently brought from the temple of Pasiphae. This was a famous temple
and oracle at Thalamae; and this Pasiphae, some say, was one of the
daughters of Atlas, who had by Jupiter a son called Ammon; others
are of opinion it was Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam, who dying
in this place, was called Pasiphae, as the revealer of oracles to
all men. Phylarchus says, that this was Daphne, the daughter of Amyclas,
who, flying from Apollo, was transformed into a laurel, and honoured
by that god with the gift of prophecy. But be it as will, it is certain
the people were made to apprehend that this oracle had commanded them
to return to their former state of equality settled by Lycurgus. As
soon as these had done speaking, Agis stood up, and after a few words,
told them he would make the best contribution in his power to the
new legislation, which was proposed for their advantage. In the first
place, he would divide among them all his patrimony, which was of
large extent in tillage and pasture; he would also give six hundred
talents in ready money, and his mother, grandmother, and his other
friends and relations, who were the richest of the Lacedaemonians,
were ready to follow his example.
The people were transported with admiration of the young man's generosity,
and with joy that, after three hundred years' interval, at last there
had appeared a king worthy of Sparta. But, on the other side, Leonidas
was now more than ever averse, being sensible that he and his friends
would be obliged to contribute with their riches, and yet all the
honour and obligation would redound to Agis. He asked him then before