§2.1ἥ γε μὴν ἐπιβουλὴ καὶ τόλμα τῶν καινοτομουμένων πολὺ τῷ μεγέθει παρήλλαττεν.
Indeed, the plan and the daring of the innovations differed greatly in magnitude.
ἐπολιτεύοντο γὰρ ὁ μὲν ὁδῶν κατασκευὰς καὶ πόλεων κτίσεις, καὶ τὸ πάντων νεανικώτατον ἦν Τιβερίῳ μὲν ἀνασῶσαι δημοσίους ἀγρούς, Γαΐῳ δὲ μῖξαι τὰ δικαστήρια προσεμβαλόντι τῶν ἱππικῶν τριακοσίους· §2.2ὁ δὲ Ἄγιδος καὶ Κλεομένους νεωτερισμός, τὸ μικρὰ καὶ κατὰ μέρος τῶν ἡμαρτημένων ἰᾶσθαι καὶ ἀποκόπτειν ὕδραν τινὰ τέμνοντος, ὥς φησιν ὁ Πλάτων, ἡγησάμενος εἶναι, τὴν ἅμα πάντα ἀπαλλάξαι κακὰ καὶ μετασκευάσαι δυναμένην μεταβολὴν ἐπῆγε τοῖς πράγμασιν.
For the former carried out as their political measures the construction of roads and the founding of cities, and what was most daring of all was, for Tiberius, to recover the public lands, and for Gaius, to mix the courts by adding three hundred of the knights; but the revolution of Agis and Cleomenes, having thought that healing the errors in a small and partial way was like one cutting off a Hydra, as Plato says, introduced to affairs a change capable of removing all evils at once and remodeling the state.
§2.3ἀληθέστερον δʼ ἴσως εἰπεῖν ἐστιν ὅτι τὴν πάντα ἀπεργασαμένην κακὰ μεταβολὴν ἐξήλαυνεν, ἀπάγων καὶ καθιστὰς εἰς τὸ οἰκεῖον σχῆμα τὴν πόλιν.
But it is perhaps truer to say that it expelled the change which had wrought all evils, leading back and restoring the city to its own proper form.
ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο ἄν τις εἴποι, τῇ μὲν Γράγχων πολιτείᾳ τοὺς μεγίστους ἐνίστασθαι Ῥωμαίων, οἷς δὲ Ἆγις ἐνεχείρησε, Κλεομένης δὲ τὸ ἔργον ἐπέθηκε, τῶν παραδειγμάτων τὸ κάλλιστον ὑπέκειτο καὶ μεγαλοπρεπέστατον, αἱ πάτριοι ῥῆτραι περὶ σωφροσύνης καὶ ἰσότητος, ὧν τούτοις μὲν ὁ Λυκοῦργος, ἐκείνῳ δὲ ὁ Πύθιος βεβαιωτής.
For one might also say this, that while the greatest of the Romans opposed the administration of the Gracchi, for the things which Agis attempted and Cleomenes completed, there lay ready as a foundation the fairest and most magnificent of patterns, namely, the ancestral laws concerning temperance and equality, of which Lycurgus was the guarantor for these men, and the Pythian god for him.
§2.4ὃ δὲ μέγιστον, ὅτι τοῖς μὲν ἐκείνων πολιτεύμασιν εἰς οὐδὲν ἡ Ῥώμη μεῖζον ἐπέδωκε τῶν ὑπαρχόντων, ἐκ δὲ ὧν ὁ Κλεομένης ἔπραξεν, ὀλίγου χρόνου τὴν Σπάρτην τῆς Πελοποννήσου κρατοῦσαν ἡ Ἑλλὰς ἐπεῖδε καὶ τοῖς τότε μέγιστον δυναμένοις διαγωνιζομένην ἀγῶνα τὸν περὶ τῆς ἡγεμονίας, οὗ τέλος ἦν ἀπαλλαγεῖσαν Ἰλλυρικῶν ὅπλων καὶ Γαλατικῶν τὴν Ἑλλάδα κοσμεῖσθαι πάλιν ὑφʼ Ἡρακλείδαις.
And what is greatest, that by the political measures of the former, Rome made no progress to anything greater than what she already possessed, but from what Cleomenes did, in a short time Greece saw Sparta ruling over the Peloponnese and contesting with those who then had the greatest power the struggle for the hegemony, the end of which was that Greece, delivered from Illyrian and Gallic arms, should be ordered again under the Heracleidae.