When Megabates, Spithridates' son, who was most fair of form, came near to him as if to greet him with a kiss because the boy felt that he was held in aiFection by Agesilaus, Agesilaus drew back. And when the boy stopped coming to see him, Agesilaus asked for him; whereupon his friends said that he had only himself to blame, because he shrank from coming within kissing distance of the fair one, and if he would not act the coward, the boy would come again. Agesilaus, reflecting by himself for no brief time in uninterrupted silence, finally said, ‘There is no need of our trying to persuade him; for I feel that I had rather be above such things than to take by storm the most populous city of our opponents, since it is better to preserve one's own liberty than to deprive others of theirs.’ 1
1 Cf. Plutarch's Life of Agesilaus, chap. xi. (602 A); Moralia, 31 C (81 A); Xenophon, Agesilaus, 5, 4-5.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 3.
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