[56,5] (Interlocuteur) Ἀλλ´ οὐδὲν ἤρου χαλεπόν· πάντες γὰρ οὗτοι, οὓς σὺ νῦν ὀνομάζεις, βασιλεῖς ἐκαλοῦντο καὶ ἦσαν· καὶ ἡ ἀρχὴ αὕτη, ἣν λέγεις, τὸ καθόλου ἀνθρώπων ἄρχειν καὶ ἐπιτάττειν ἀνθρώποις ἀνυπεύθυνον ὄντα βασιλεία καλεῖται. (Dion) Σὺ ἄρα οὐχ ἡγῇ βασιλείαν τὴν τῶν Ἡρακλειδῶν ἐν Λακεδαίμονι τοσοῦτον βασιλευσάντων χρόνον; ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ οὐ πάντα ἔπραττον ὡς αὐτοῖς ἐδόκει, ἀλλὰ (6) περὶ πολλῶν ὑπήκουον τοῖς ἐφόροις, ὅτε κατέστη τοῦτο τὸ ἀρχεῖον ἐν Σπάρτῃ, Θεοπόμπου βασιλεύοντος - - - πρὸς ἐνιαυτόν, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐκράτουν τῶν βασιλέων· ὥστε καὶ Παυσανίαν τὸν Κλεομβρότου τὸν νικήσαντα Πλαταιᾶσιν ἐβούλοντο μὲν εἰς τὴν εἱρκτὴν ἐμβαλεῖν, καταφυγόντα δὲ εἰς τὸ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερὸν αὐτοῦ ἀπέκτειναν, καὶ οὐδὲν αὐτὸν ὤνησεν οὔτε ὅτι γένους ἦν τῶν Ἡρακλειδῶν οὔτε ὅτι παῖδα ἐπετρόπευεν οὔτε ὅτι τῆς Ἑλλάδος ἁπάσης ἡγήσατο, οὐ μόνον τῆς Σπάρτης. (7) ὕστερον δὲ Ἀγησίλαον πολεμοῦντα βασιλεῖ τῷ μεγάλῳ καὶ περὶ Σάρδεις νενικηκότα μάχῃ καὶ κρατήσαντα πάσης τῆς κάτω Ἀσίας ὑπηρέτην πέμψαντες ἐκάλουν παρ´ αὑτούς· καὶ ὃς οὐδεμίαν ἡμέραν ἀνεβάλετο, τοσούτων μὲν Ἑλλήνων, τοσούτων δὲ βαρβάρων γεγονὼς κύριος. οὐκ ἄρα ὑπῆρχε· βασιλεὺς τῆς Σπάρτης Ἀγησίλαος, ὃς ὑπήκουεν ἑτέροις ἄρχουσιν; (Interlocuteur) Καὶ πῶς ἂν εἶεν οὗτοι βασιλεῖς πρὸς τὸν ἀκριβῆ περὶ τῆς βασιλείας λόγον; (8) (Dion) Ἆρα οὐδὲ Ἀγαμέμνονα ἐν Ἰλίῳ φήσεις βασιλεύειν Ἀργείων τε καὶ Ἀχαιῶν, ὅτι εἶχε τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐπίτροπον ἄνδρα πρεσβύτερον, Νέστορα τὸν Πύλιον; κἀκείνου κελεύοντος τὸ τεῖχος ᾠκοδομήθη τὸ περὶ τὰς ναῦς καὶ τὴν τάφρον περιεβάλοντο ἔρυμα τοῦ ναυστάθμου, καὶ διεῖλεν εἰς τάξεις τὸν στρατὸν ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων, πρότερον, ὡς ἔοικεν, εἰκῇ μαχόμενον, πεζούς τε καὶ ἱππέας, φύρδην ἁπάντων ἀναμεμιγμένων, Πυλίων τε καὶ Ἀργείων καὶ Ἀρκάδων καὶ Βοιωτῶν; ὁ δὲ Νέστωρ ὕστερον αὐτῷ προσέταξε κατὰ φῦλα διαιρεῖν τὸν στρατόν, ὡς φρήτρη φρήτρῃφιν ἀρήγῃ, φῦλα δὲ φύλοις. (9) οὕτω δὲ καὶ τῶν ἡγεμόνων, ἔφη, γνώσῃ τούς τε ἀγαθοὺς καὶ τοὺς κακούς· εἰ δὲ τῶν ἡγεμόνων, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τῶν στρατιωτῶν· ἅμα διδάσκων τῆς ὠφελείας τὸ μέγεθος. (Interlocuteur) Καὶ τί βουλόμενος οὕτως ἐποίει; (Dion) Ἵνα ἐπίστηται καὶ τελευτήσαντος αὐτοῦ τὴν στρατηγικὴν τέχνην ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων. οὕτως δὲ πάνυ ἦν κατήκοος τοῦ Νέστορος, ὥστε οὐ μόνον, εἴ τι προσέταττεν αὐτὸς παρών, τοῦτο ἐποίει προθύμως, ἀλλ´ οὐδὲ εἴ τι ὄναρ ᾠήθη Νέστορα λέγειν, οὐκ ἂν οὐδὲ τοῦτο παρέλειπε. τὸ γοῦν ὄναρ τὸ περὶ τῆς μάχης οὕτως ἐξηπάτησεν αὐτόν, Νέστορι ἀπεικασθέν.

[56,5] (Interlocuteur) Why, your question is not a hard one ; for all these whom you now name were called kings, and kings they were ; and this rule of which you speak, whereby a man exercises general control over human beings and gives them orders without being accountable to them, is called kingship. (Dion) Then you do not regard as kingship the rule of the Heracleidae, who were kings in Lacedaemon for so long a time ? For they did not do everything according to their own pleasure, but in many matters they were subject to the ephors, who, once this office had been established in Sparta in the reign of Theopompus, for their year of office had no less authority than the kings, insomuch that they wished to throw into prison even Pausanias son of Cleombrotus, the victor at Plataea, and when he had fled for refuge to the shrine of Athena, they killed him there, and it profited him nothing that he was of the line of the Heracleidae, or that he was guardian of a boy, or that he had been leader of all Hellas and not of Sparta alone. And later on, when Agesilaüs was at war with the Great King and had been victorious in battle in the neighbourhood of Sardis and had gained control over all lover Asia, the ephors sent a subordinate to summon him home ; and Agesilaüs did not delay a single day, although he had gained authority over so many Greeks and so many barbarians. Was Agesilaüs, then, not king of Sparta, since he was subi cet to other rulers ? (Interlocuteur) Why, how could these be kings in the strict sense of kingship ? (8) (Dion) Will you, then, hold that not even Agamemnon was king of both Argives and Achaeans at Ilium, since he had an older man as supervisor of his rule, Nestor of Pylus ? Moreover, it was at that man's bidding that the wall about the ships was built and the trench dug about it as protection for the naval station, and at his direction too Agamemnon divided the army into detachments, though previously, as it would seem, it had fought without organization, both infantry and cavalry, all being mixed together in confusion, both Pylians and Argives and Arcadians and Boeotians. However, Nestor later bade him divide the army by tribes, "That phratry may aid phratry and tribe aid tribe." (9) "Moreover," said he, "in this way wilt thou recognize both the valorous and the cowardly among thy leaders"—but if among the leaders, obviously among the common soldiers too—and at the same time he explained the magnitude of the advantage that would result. (Interlocuteur) And with what purpose did Nestor do this ? (Dion) In order that even after Nestor's death Agamemnon might understand the art of generalship. But Agamemnon was so wholly obedient to Nestor that he not only did eagerly anything Nestor commanded in person, but even if in a dream he imagined that Nestor was saying sornething, he would not disregard that either. For instance, the dream about the battle deceived him in this way, because of its resemblance to Nestor.