Xenophon, Agesilaus 9.6-7: the victories of Cynisca of Sparta

Xenophon, Agesilaus 9.6-7: the victories of Cynisca of Sparta

ca. 428–354 BCE

Enkomion

Literary source

On Cynisca see also Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 3.8.1-2; 3.15.1; 5.12.5; 6.1.6; Plutarchus, Moralia 212b; Plutarchus, Agesilaus 20.1; IG V,1 1564a (cf. IvO 160; CEG 820; Anthologia Palatina 13.16).

The dates for Cynisca's two Olympian victories in the four-horse chariot race given by Moretti 1957, no. 373, (396 and 392 BCE) are widley accepted, but not certain.

Surely, too, he did what was seemly and dignified when he (Agesilaos) adorned his own estate with works and possessions worthy of a man, keeping many hounds and war horses, but persuaded his sister Cynisca to breed chariot horses, and showed by her victory that such a stud marks the owner as a person of wealth, but not necessarily of merit. How clearly his true nobility comes out in his opinion that a victory in the chariot race over private citizens would add not a whit to his renown; but if he held the first place in the affection of the people, gained the most friends and best all over the world, outstripped all others in serving his fatherland and his comrades and in punishing his adversaries, then he would be victor in the noblest and most splendid contests, and would gain high renown both in life and after death.

Edgar C. Marchant, Xenophon in Seven Volumes, vol. 7, Scripta Minora: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting, Constitution of the Athenians (= Loeb Classical Library; 183), Cambridge, MA/London 1925.

ἐκεῖνό γε μὴν πῶς οὐ καλὸν καὶ μεγαλογνῶμον, τὸ αὐτὸν μὲν ἀνδρὸς ἔργοις καὶ κτήμασι κοσμεῖν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ οἶκον, κύνας τε πολλοὺς θηρευτὰς καὶ ἵππους πολεμιστηρίους τρέφοντα, Κυνίσκαν δὲ ἀδελφὴν οὖσαν πεῖσαι ἁρματοτροφεῖν καὶ ἐπιδεῖξαι νικώσης αὐτῆς ὅτι τὸ θρέμμα τοῦτο οὐκ ἀνδραγαθίας ἀλλὰ πλούτου ἐπίδειγμά ἐστι; τόδε γε μὴν πῶς οὐ σαφῶς πρὸς τὸ γενναῖον ἔγνω, ὅτι ἅρματι μὲν νικήσας τοὺς ἰδιώτας οὐδὲν ὀνομαστότερος ἂν εἴη γένοιτο, εἰ δὲ φίλην μὲν πάντων μάλιστα τὴν πόλιν ἔχοι, πλείστους δὲ φίλους καὶ ἀρίστους ἀνὰ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν κεκτῇτο, νικῴη δὲ τὴν μὲν πατρίδα καὶ τοὺς ἑταίρους εὐεργετῶν, τοὺς δὲ ἀντιπάλους τιμωρούμενος, ὅτι ὄντως ἂν εἴη νικηφόρος τῶν καλλίστων καὶ μεγαλοπρεπεστάτων ἀγωνισμάτων καὶ ὀνομαστότατος καὶ ζῶν καὶ τελευτήσας γένοιτ᾽ ἄν;

Edgar C. Marchant (ed.), Xenophon in Seven Volumes, vol. 7, Scripta Minora: Hiero, Agesilaus, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, Ways and Means, Cavalry Commander, Art of Horsemanship, On Hunting, Constitution of the Athenians (= Loeb Classical Library; 183), Cambridge, MA/London 1925.

W. Dittenberger, K. Purgold (eds.), Die Inschriften von Olympia, Berlin 1896. (= IvO)

P.A. Hansen (ed.), Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculi IV a.Chr.n. (CEG 2) (Texte und Kommentare 15), Berlin 1989. (= CEG)

W. Kolbe (ed.), Inscriptiones Graecae, V,1: Inscriptiones Laconiae et Messeniae, Berlin 1913. (= IG V,1)

L. Moretti, Olympionikai: i vincitori negli antichi agoni olimpici, Rome 1957.