【简译】阿格西莱二世（斯巴达国王）

2022-11-02 09:01 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

Agesilaus II (c. 445 – 359 BCE) was a Spartan king who won victories in Anatolia and the Corinthian Wars but who would ultimately bring total defeat to his city through his policies against Thebes. When Sparta lost the crucial battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE, it brought an end to the city's long-held dominance of the Peloponnese. Agesilaus was one of the longest-serving and most powerful kings in Spartan history and, thanks to his friendship with the historian Xenophon, his reign is one of the best documented. He is also the subject of one of Plutarch's Lives biographies.

阿格西莱二世（约公元前445年-公元前359年）是一位斯巴达国王，他在安纳托利亚和科林斯战争中取得了胜利，但他对底比斯的决策最终使斯巴达的军队被底比斯人击败。公元前371年，斯巴达在关键的留克特拉战役中失利，结束了斯巴达在伯罗奔尼撒半岛长期保持的统治地位。阿格西莱二世是斯巴达历史上任期最长、最强大的国王之一，由于他与历史学家色诺芬的友谊，他是被保留记录最完善的国王之一。他也是普鲁塔克的《生活》传记之一的主角。

早期生活

Agesilaus was the son of Archidamus II and so a member of the Eurypontid line of Spartan kings. Agis II, the half-brother of Agesilaus, was the heir to the throne and so the latter was given the custom military education (agoge) of an ordinary male citizen. Plutarch informs us that Agesilaus was born with a lame leg but did not let this hinder his training. In 400 BCE, when Agis' son Leotychidas was looked over following rumours that his father was actually the Athenian general Alcibiades, Agesilaus was unexpectedly made king; an event facilitated by the powerful general Lysander, his lover (erastes) when a young man.

阿格西莱是阿希达穆斯二世的儿子，是斯巴达王族的欧里庞提德世系成员。亚基斯二世是阿格西莱同父异母的兄弟，是王位的继承人，因此后者接受了男性公民的军事教育（agoge）。普鲁塔克告诉我们，阿格西莱生来就有一条瘸腿，但并没有因此而妨碍他的训练。公元前400年，当亚基斯的儿子列奥提齐德斯二世被传闻他的父亲实际上是雅典将军阿尔西比亚德斯时，阿格西莱意外地被立为国王；势力强大的将军莱山德促成了这一事件，他年轻时是阿格西莱的“启蒙者”（erastes，伙伴）。

Famously using patronage as a means to ensure loyalty from the Spartan elite, Agesilaus also managed to diminish the influence of the second Spartan kings from the Agiad line with whom he co-ruled. Despite his growing power, the king would gain a lasting reputation for his simple lifestyle and self-discipline, for as Plutarch said, 'it would have been hard to find a soldier who slept on a harder bed than the king' (38). Agesilaus was also known for his piety and the fact that he was one of the very few Greek rulers who campaigned abroad and remained uninfluenced by foreign customs and true to Spartan traditions.

阿格西莱以利用赞助作为确保斯巴达精英阶层忠诚的手段而闻名，他还设法削弱了与他共同统治的亚基亚德系的第二代斯巴达国王的影响力。尽管他的权力越来越大，但阿格西莱以其简单的生活方式和自律而获得长远的声誉，正如普鲁塔克所说，“很难找到一个睡在比国王更硬的床上的士兵”（38）。阿格西莱还因其虔诚而闻名，他是为数不多经常在国外征战的希腊城邦统治者之一，而且他不受外国习俗的影响，忠于斯巴达的传统。

对波斯的战役

Agesilaus' first prominent military role was an expedition to Anatolia where he was given the task of liberating the Greek cities from Persian rule. This was the first time that a Spartan king had led an army in Asia and the first occasion when a king had commanded both the land and sea forces. Before setting off Agesilaus wanted to make a religious sacrifice at Aulis just like Agamemnon had done before the Trojan War but he was refused by the Thebans, archenemies of Sparta. This incident would add further fuel to Agesilaus' life-long hatred of Thebes.

阿格西莱的第一个突出的军事任务是远征安纳托利亚，在那里他被赋予从波斯统治下解放希腊城市的任务。这是斯巴达国王第一次在亚洲率领军队作战，也是第一次由国王同时指挥陆军和海军作战。出发前，阿格西莱想在奥里斯举行宗教祭祀，就像阿伽门农在特洛伊战争前所做的那样，但他被斯巴达的宿敌底比斯人拒绝了。这一事件将为阿格西莱对底比斯的终生仇恨埋下伏笔。

Victories against the Persian satraps Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes, notably at the battle of Sardis in 395 BCE, were interrupted when Agesilaus was recalled to mainland Greece to defend Spartan interests. This was perhaps just as well because Sparta had suffered a serious naval defeat at the battle of Knidos in 394 BCE. The Persian fleet had been commanded by Conon while the Spartans were led by the incompetent Peisander who was probably only given the command because he was a relative of Agesilaus.

公元前395年，阿格西莱被召回希腊以捍卫斯巴达的利益，从而中断了对波斯人的胜利，特别是在萨迪斯战役中。这也许正是因为斯巴达海军在公元前394年的克尼杜斯战役中遭受了严重打击。波斯舰队由科农指挥，而斯巴达人则由不称职的佩桑德领导，佩桑德可能只是因为他是阿格西莱的亲戚而被授予军队的指挥权。

对科林斯和底比斯的战役

During the ensuing Corinthian Wars, Agesilaus won, albeit at great cost, the battle of Coronea in 394 BCE against a coalition force led by Thebes which included troops from Athens and Corinth. The two armies, in a contest that Xenophon, an eye-witness, described as 'quite unlike any other in our time' (4.3.15), clashed and both sides' right flank defeated their opposition's left flank. Then the Spartan and Theban hoplites turned on each other in a bloody battle in which Agesilaus was himself wounded several times. With the battle won, the Spartan king then spared the lives of a group of enemy soldiers who had sought refuge in a temple, he set up a victory monument and dedicated a tenth of the spoils at Delphi.

在随后的科林斯战争中，尽管付出了巨大的代价，阿格西莱还是在公元前394年赢得了科罗尼亚战役，对手是由底比斯领导的包括雅典和科林斯军队在内的联军。两支军队在一场被目击者色诺芬描述为 “与我们这个时代的任何其他军队都不同”（4.3.15）的战役中发生冲突，双方的右翼都击败了对手的左翼。然后，斯巴达人和底比斯人的重装步兵在一场血战中相遇，阿格西莱本人也多次受伤。战斗胜利后，斯巴达国王放过了一群在神庙里避难的敌军士兵的生命，他在德尔斐建立了一座胜利纪念碑，并将战利品的十分之一献给了德尔斐。

More victories came between 391 and 388 BCE in the area around Corinth and Acarnania where Agesilaus demolished the fortifications of Corinth and devastated the countryside, uprooting every tree his army came across. However, the Thebans and their allies were ultimately defeated not by a land force but by a Persian-funded fleet led by the Spartan admiral Antalcidas. It was he who established the King's Peace (aka Peace of Antalcidas) which guaranteed a certain level of political autonomy to the defeated city-states.

公元前 391 年至 388 年间，阿格西莱在科林斯和阿卡纳尼亚周围地区取得了进一步的胜利，他下令拆除了科林斯的防御工事，破坏了当地的农村，将他的军队遇到的每棵树都连根拔起。然而，底比斯人和他们的盟友最终不是被陆军打败，而是被斯巴达海军将领安塔尔西达斯领导的波斯人资助的舰队打败的。正是他建立了国王和平（又称安塔尔西达斯和平），保证了战败城邦有一定程度的政治自治。

Agesilaus controversially ignored the terms of the peace treaty and established pro-Spartan oligarchies at Mantinea, Olynthus, and Phlius. The Spartan king then supported the occupation of Thebes in 382 BCE and the establishment of a garrison there by Phoibidas, which rankled the Thebans enormously. This action and the controversial acquittal of Sphodrias, who had been accused of trying to take over Athens' port the Piraeus and who just happened to be the father of the lover of Agesilaus' son, outraged many Greek city-states, and another anti-Spartan coalition was formed only this time with the financial backing of Persia. More battles followed and Agesilaus gained some victories in Boeotia in 378 and 377 BCE, but mighty Sparta was losing its grip on its own coalition the Peloponnesian League, and Thebes was about to enter its most dominant period in history.

有争议地的是，阿格西莱无视了和平条约的条款，在Mantinea、Olynthus和Phlius建立了亲斯巴达的寡头政权。然后，斯巴达国王在公元前382年支持菲比达斯占领底比斯，并在那里组建驻军，这让底比斯人非常生气。这一行动和斯波德里亚斯被指控试图占领雅典的比雷埃夫斯港，而他恰好是阿格西莱儿子的情人的父亲，这一有争议的无罪判决激怒了许多希腊城邦，另一个反斯巴达联盟也在波斯的财政支持下成立。更多的战斗接踵而至，公元前378年和公元前377年，阿格西莱在维奥蒂亚取得了一些胜利，但强大的斯巴达正在失去对伯罗奔尼撒联盟的控制，而底比斯也即将进入其历史上最具统治力的时期。

At a peace conference in 371 BCE, Agesilaus famously upset the Theban leader Epaminondas when he refused to accept that the latter was representing all of Boeotia and not just Thebes. War followed and Sparta was defeated at the battle of Leuctra in 371 when Epaminondas and his able general Pelopidas shocked the Greek world. According to Xenophon, Agesilaus was not at the battle as he suffered a relapse of his leg problem which had originally kept him from the battle of Tegyra in 375 BCE (which Sparta also lost) when a blood vessel had burst in his one good leg. Instead, at Leuctra the Spartan forces were led by the other Spartan king Cleombrotus. As a consequence of defeat, Sparta lost the region of Messenia in the Peloponnese and began a steady decline from which the city would never recover.

在公元前371年的一次和平会议上，阿格西莱拒绝接受后者代表整个维奥蒂亚而不仅仅是底比斯的说法，这让底比斯的领导人很不高兴。战争接踵而至，斯巴达在371年的留克特拉战役中被击败，当时伊巴密浓达和他能干的将军派洛皮德震惊了整个希腊世界。根据色诺芬的说法，阿格西莱没有参加这次战役，因为他的腿部问题复发了，这使他无法参加公元前375年的泰吉拉战役（斯巴达也输了），当时他正常的腿的血管破裂了。相反，在留克特拉，斯巴达军队由另一位斯巴达国王克里昂布鲁图斯领导。由于战败，斯巴达失去了伯罗奔尼撒半岛的麦西尼亚地区，并开始了持续的衰落，斯巴达再也无法恢复。

晚年的职业生涯

While historians have blamed Agesilaus' aggressive policies and irrational hatred of Thebes for Sparta's decline, the king was not unpopular at home and continued to hold high office well into his eighties, defending the city from Theban attacks in 370 and 362 BCE. In between he had fought for Ariobarzanes, the Persian satrap in Anatolia in 364 BCE, and he performed a similar service for Nectanebis III in Egypt between 361 and 359 BCE. Both positions brought victories and helped increase the impoverished Spartan treasury. During the return home from Egypt, Agesilaus died at Cyrenaica in Libya in 359 BCE; his body was embalmed in wax and taken back to Sparta for burial.

虽然历史学家将斯巴达的衰落归咎于阿格西莱的侵略政策和对底比斯的非理性仇恨，但这位国王在国内并非不受欢迎，他在80多岁时仍继续担任高级职务，在公元前370年和362年保卫城市免遭底比斯的攻击。与此同时，他曾在公元前364年为安纳托利亚的波斯总督阿里奥巴尔扎内斯作战；在公元前361年至359年期间，他在埃及为内克塔尼博三世做了类似的工作。这两次都带来了胜利，并补充了贫困的斯巴达国库。公元前359年，在从埃及回国的过程中，阿格西莱在利比亚的普兰尼加去世；他的尸体被用蜡进行防腐处理，并被带回斯巴达安葬。

Agesilaus was a gifted politician and the most powerful man in Greece for much of his rule but perhaps his ambiguous character and portrayal in history is best summed up by Plutarch, 'he was too generous not to give credit to his enemies if they were in the right, but he could not bring himself to condemn his friends if they were in the wrong' (28). The Spartan had been a charismatic leader, had gained more political power than most of his predecessors, and been an effective field commander but perhaps was unlucky to have been king just at a time when Sparta suffered from a declining population and increasing unrest from its helot servile agricultural class. These two factors combined with the rise of an aggressive Thebes intent on creating its own empire meant that Agesilaus oversaw the end of mighty Sparta as one of Greece's superpower states.

阿格西莱是一位才华横溢的政治家，在他统治的大部分时间里都是希腊最有权势的人，但也许普鲁塔克对他模棱两可的性格和历史形象做了最好的总结，“他太慷慨了，如果他的敌人是对的，他就不给他们以荣誉，但如果他的朋友是错的，他就不能让自己谴责他们”（28）。斯巴达人是一个有魅力的领袖，比他的大多数前任获得了更多的政治权力，并且是一个有效的战场指挥官，但也许他很不走运，在斯巴达遭受人口下降和来自其奴隶农业阶层的日益动荡之时成为国王。这两个因素加上咄咄逼人的底比斯的崛起，意味着阿格西莱目睹了强大的斯巴达作为希腊超级大国之一的结束。