They broke into the rugged
mountains of Armenia, and notwithstanding famine, snow, and the arrows
of the natives who did not wish to let them pass, they came to the
Black Sea and returned to Greece after traversing the whole Persian
empire. At their return (399) their number amounted still to 8,000.
=Agesilaus.=--Three years after, Agesilaus, king of Sparta, with a
small army invaded the rich country of Asia Minor, Lydia, and Phrygia.
He fought the satraps and was about to invade Asia when the Spartans
ordered his return to fight the armies of Thebes and Athens. Agesilaus
was the first of the Greeks to dream of conquering Persia. He was
distressed to see the Greeks fighting among themselves. When they
announced to him the victory at Corinth where but eight Spartans had
perished and 10,000 of the enemy, instead of rejoicing he sighed and
said, "Alas, unhappy Greece, to have lost enough men to have
subjugated all the barbarians!" He refused one day to destroy a Greek
city. "If we exterminate all the Greeks who fail of their duty," said
he, "where shall we find the men to vanquish the barbarians?" This
feeling was rare at that time.
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