Cleomenes   

be called to an account, received him on his coming privately into
town, and joined in bringing him home, and presently after murdered
him. Whether Cleomenes was against it, as Phylarchus thinks, or whether
he was persuaded by his friends, or let him fall into their hands,
is uncertain; however, they were most blamed, as having forced his
consent.
He, still resolving to new model the state, bribed the ephors to send
him out to war; and won the affections of many others by means of
his mother Cratesiclea, who spared no cost and was very zealous to
promote her son's ambition; and though of herself she had no inclination
to marry, yet for his sake she accepted, as her husband, one of the
chiefest citizens for wealth and power. Cleomenes, marching forth
with the army now under his command, took Leuctra, a place belonging
to Megalopolis; and the Achaeans quickly coming up to resist him with
a good body of men commanded by Aratus, in a battle under the very
walls of the city, some part of his army was routed. But whereas Aratus
had commanded the Achaeans not to pass a deep watercourse, and thus
put a stop to the pursuit, Lydiadas, the Megalopolitan, fretting at
the orders, and encouraging the horse which he led, and following
the routed enemy, got into a place full of vines, hedges, and ditches;
and being forced to break his ranks, began to retire in disorder.
Cleomenes, observing the advantage, commanded the Tarentines and Cretans
to engage him, by whom, after a brave defence, he was routed and slain.
The Lacedaemonians, thus encouraged, fell with a great shout upon
the Achaeans, and routed their whole army. Of the slain, who were
very many, the rest Cleomenes delivered up, when the enemy petitioned
for them; but the body of Lydiadas he commanded to be brought to him;
and then putting on it a purple robe, and a crown upon its head, sent
a convoy with it to the gates of Megalopolis. This is that Lydiadas
who resigned his power as tyrant, restored liberty to the citizens,
and joined the city to the Achaean interest.
Cleomenes, being very much elated by this success, and persuaded that
if matters were wholly at his disposal he should soon be too hard
for the Achaeans, persuaded Magistonus, his mother's husband, that
it was expedient for the state to shake off the power of the ephors,
and to put all their wealth into one common stock for the whole body;
thus Sparta, being restored to its old equality, might aspire again
to the command of all Greece. Megistonas liked the design, and engaged
two or three more of his friends. About that time, one of the ephors,
sleeping in Pasiphaes temple, dreamed a very surprising dream; for
he thought he saw the four chairs removed out of the place where the
ephors used to sit and do the business of their office, and one only
set there; and whilst he wondered, he heard a voice out of the temple,
saying, "This is best for Sparta." The person telling Cleomenes this
dream, he was a little troubled at first, fearing that he used this
as a trick to sift him, upon some suspicion of his design, but when
he was satisfied that the relator spoke truth, he took heart again.
And carrying with him those whom he thought would be most against
his project, he took Heraea and Alsaea two towns in league with the
Achaeans, furnished Orchomenus with provisions, encamped before Mantinea,
and with long marches up and down so harassed the Lacedaemonians that
many of them at their own request were left behind in Arcadia, while
he with the mercenaries went on toward Sparta, and by the way communicated
his design to those whom he thought fitted for his purpose, and marched
slowly, that he might catch the ephors at supper.
When he was come near the city, he sent Euryclidas to the public table,
where the ephors supped, under pretence of carrying some message from
him from the army; Therycion, Phoebis, and two of those who had been
bred up with Cleomenes, whom they call mothaces, followed with a few
soldiers; and whilst Euryclidas was delivering his message to the
ephors, they ran upon them with their drawn swords and slew them.
The first of them, Agylaeus, on receiving the blow, fell, and lay
as dead; but in a little time quietly raising himself, and drawing
himself out of the room, he crept, without being discovered, into