threatened to invade Peloponnesus through the territory of Megara, and Aratus, the general of the Achæans, who was collecting an army to resist them, sent to Sparta demanding assistance. XIV. The Spartans at once despatched Agis at the head of an army, whose high spirits and devotion to his person filled him with delight. The men were nearly all young and poor; and as they were now relieved from the pressure of their debts, and expected that on their return the land would be distributed amongst them, they behaved with the most admirable discipline. They marched through Peloponnesus without doing the least damage, without offending any one, almost without noise; so that all the cities were astonished at the spectacle thus afforded them, and men began to wonder what a Lacedæmonian army must have been like when led by Agesilaus or Lysander the Great, or by the ancient hero Leonidas, if such awe and reverence was paid by the soldiers to one who was nearly the youngest of them all. Their youthful leader himself was worthy of admiration, and was looked up to by the men because of his simple hard-working habits, and the pride which he took in wearing the same dress and using the same arms as the common soldiers. The revolution which he had effected, however, was very distasteful to the rich, who feared lest it might be taken as an example by the people in other states and lead to further disturbances. XV. Agis joined Aratus at Corinth, while the question of how to repel the invasion was still being debated. His advice was spirited, without being rash or foolhardy. He gave it as his opinion that it was their duty to fight, and not abandon the gate of Peloponnesus and let the enemy into the country, but that he would defer to the decision of Aratus, who was an older man than himself, and was the general of the Achæans, and that he had not come to give them advice or to take the command of them, but to reinforce them and serve as their ally. The historian Baton of Sinope declares that Agis declined to fight although Aratus wished him to do so; but he is mistaken, and clearly has not read the justification which Aratus has written of his conduct, namely, that as the farmers had nearly all finished gathering in their harvest, he thought it better to allow the enemy to enter the country than to hazard everything upon the issue of a single battle. As Aratus decided not to fight, and dismissed his allies with thanks, Agis returned home, greatly honoured by those under his orders, and found the internal affairs of Sparta in great turmoil and confusion.