§6.1Interim accidit illa calamitas apud Leuctra Lacedaemoniis.
In the meantime, that disaster at Leuctra befell the Lacedaemonians.
quo ne proficisceretur, cum a plerisque ad exeundum impelleretur, ut si de exitu divinaret, excusavit senectutem.
In order not to set out thither, although he was urged by most people to go forth, as if he divined the outcome, he pleaded his old age as an excuse.
idem, cum Epaminondas Spartam oppugnaret essetque sine muris oppidum, talem se imperatorem praebuit, ut eo tempore omnibus apparuerit, nisi ille fuisset, Spartam futuram non fuisse.
The same man, when Epaminondas was attacking Sparta and the town was without walls, showed himself to be such a commander that it became clear to everyone at that time that, if he had not existed, Sparta would no longer exist.
§6.2in quo quidem discrimine celeritas eius consilii saluti fuit universis.
Indeed, in this crisis, the speed of his decision-making was a salvation for all.
nam cum quidam adulescentuli hostium adventu perterriti ad Thebanos transfugere vellent et locum extra urbem editum cepissent, Agesilaus, qui perniciosissimum fore videret, si ammadversum esset quemquam ad hostes transfugere conari, cum suis eo venit atque, ut si bono animo fecissent, laudavit consilium eorum, quod eum locum occupassent: id se quoque fieri debere animadvertisse.
For when certain young men, terrified by the arrival of the enemy, wished to desert to the Thebans and had seized an elevated position outside the city, Agesilaus, who saw that it would be extremely disastrous if it should be noticed that anyone was attempting to desert to the enemy, went thither with his men and, as if they had done so with good intentions, praised their decision to occupy that place, saying that he too had noticed that this ought to be done.
§6.3sic adulescentes simulata laudatione recuperavit et adiunctis de suis comitibus locum tutum reliquit.
In this way, he won back the young men by his feigned praise and, having added some of his own companions to them, left the place secure.
namque illi adiecto numero eorum, qui expertes erant consilii, commovere se non sunt ausi eoque libentius, quod latere arbitrabantur quae cogitaverant.
For they, because of the addition of the number of those who were uninvolved in the plot, did not dare to make a move, and all the more willingly because they thought that what they had plotted remained secret.