king of the Lacedaemonians, the son of Archidamus, was raised to the throne in opposition to the superior claim of his nephew Leotychides. As soon as he came to the throne, he advised the Lacedaemonians to anticipate the king of Persia, who was making great preparations for war, and to attack him in his own dominions. He was himself chosen for this expedition; and gained so many advantages over the enemy, that if the league which the Athenians and the Thessalians formed against the Lacedaemonians had not obliged him to return home, he would have carried his victorious arms into the very heart of the Persian empire. He gave up, however, all these triumphs readily, to come to the succour of his country, which he happily relieved by his victory over the allies in Boeotia. He obtained another near Corinth; but to his great mortification, the Thessalians afterward gained several over the Lacedaemonians. These misfortunes at first raised a clamour against him. He had been sick during the first advantages which the enemy gained; but as soon as he was able to act in person, his valour and prudence prevented the Thessalians from reaping the advantages of their victories; so that it was generally believed, had he been in health at the beginning, the Lacedaemonians would have sustained no losses, and that all would have been lost had it not been for his affluence. It cannot be denied but he loved war more than the interest of his country required; for if he could have lived in peace, he had saved the Lacedaemonians several losses, and they would not have been engaged in many enterprises which in the end contributed much to weaken their power. He died in the third Agefilaus third year of the 104th Olympiad, being the 84th year of his age and 41st of his reign, and was succeeded by his son Archidamus. Agefilaus would never suffer any picture or sculpture to be made of him, and prohibited it also by his will: this he is supposed to have done from a consciousness of his own deformity; for he was of a short stature, and lame of one foot, so that strangers used to despise him at the first sight. His fame went before him into Egypt, and there they had formed the highest ideas of Agefilaus. When he landed in that country, the people ran in crowds to see him: but great was their surprize when they saw an ill-dressed, slovenly, mean-looking little fellow, lying upon the grass: they could not forbear laughing, and applied to him the fable of the mountain in labour. He was, however, the first to jest upon his own person; and such was the gaiety of his temper, and the strength with which he bore the roughest exercises, that these qualities made amends for his corporeal defects. He was remarkable for plainness and frugality in his dress and mode of life. "This (says Cornelius Nepos) is especially to be admired in Agefilaus: when very great presents were sent him by kings, governors, and states, he never brought any of them to his own house; he changed nothing of the diet, nothing of the apparel of the Lacedemonians. He was contented with the same house in which Eurysthenes, the founder of his family, had lived: and whoever entered there, could see no sign of debauchery, none of luxury; but on the contrary, many of moderation and abstinence; for it was furnished in such a manner, that it differed in nothing from that of any poor or private person." Upon his arrival in Egypt, all kinds of provisions were sent to him; but he chose only the most common, leaving the perfumes, the confections, and all that was esteemed most delicious, to his servants. Agefilaus was extremely fond of his children, and would often amuse himself by joining in their diversions: one day when he was surprized riding upon a stick with them, he said to a person who had seen him in this posture, "Forbear talking of it till you are a father."