Plutarch wrote Parallel Lives, paired Greek and Roman biographies of character, virtue, and vice. This is the life of Agesilaus, king of Sparta, which he sets beside the Roman Pompey.

Agesilaus was lame, and he became king of Sparta when an oracle — a sacred answer from a god — was twisted in his favor. He took the war into Asia, the Greek cities of what is now western Turkey, dined simply among the hoplites, Sparta's heavy infantry, and was called home by a Persian-bought peace once the Greeks quarreled on cue. He won at Coronea, survived the defeat at Leuctra, and lost Messenia. He grew old defending a vanishing order, hired himself to Egyptian kings, and died on the voyage home at seventy, still selling his spear. Small body, large will: a king who outlived Sparta's prime and would not admit it.