extent of front, they were unable to use their full weight (cf. Bannockburn); further, the deep mud prevented their artillery from taking part, and the crossbowmen were as usual relegated to the rear of the knights and men-at-arms. All were dismounted save a few knights and men-at-arms on the flanks, who were intended to charge the archers of the enemy. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting; then Henry, finding that the French would not advance, moved his army farther into the defile. The archers fixed the pointed stakes, which they carried to ward off cavalry charges, and opened the engagement with flights of arrows. The chivalry of France, undisciplined and careless of the lesson of Crécy and Poitiers, was quickly stung into action, and the French mounted men charged, only to be driven back in confusion. The constable himself headed the leading line of dismounted men-at-arms; weighted with their armour, and sinking deep into the mud with every step, they yet reached and engaged the English men-at-arms; for a time the fighting was severe. The thin line of the defenders was borne back and King Henry was almost beaten to the ground. But at this moment the archers, taking their hatchets, swords or other weapons, penetrated the gaps in the now disordered French, who could not move to cope with their unarmoured assailants, and were slaughtered or taken prisoners to a man. The second line of the French came on, only to be engulfed in the mêlée; its leaders, like those of the first line, were killed or taken, and the commanders of the third sought and found their death in the battle, while their men rode off to safety. The closing scene of the battle was a half-hearted attack made by a body of fugitives, which led merely to the slaughter of the French prisoners, which was ordered by Henry because he had not enough men both to guard them and to meet the attack. The slaughter ceased when the assailants drew off. The total loss of the English is stated at thirteen men-at-arms (including the Duke of York, grandson of Edward III.) and about 100 of the foot. The French lost 500 of noble birth killed, including the constable, 3 dukes, 5 counts and 90 barons; 1000 more were taken prisoners, amongst them the duke of Orleans (the Charles d’Orléans of literature).
See Sir Harris Nicolas, Battle of Agincourt; Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. i.; and H. B. George, Battles of English History.
AGIO (Ital. aggio, exchange, discount, premium), a term used in commerce in three slightly different connexions. (a) The variations from fixed pars or rates of exchange in the currencies of different countries. For example, in most of the gold-standard countries, the standard coin is kept up to a uniform point of fineness, so that an English sovereign fresh from the mint will bear the following constant relation to coins of other countries in a similar condition:—£1＝frcs. 25·221＝mks. 20·429＝$4·867, &c. This is what is known as the mint par of exchange. But the mint par of exchange, say, between France and England is not necessarily the market value of French currency in England, or English currency in France. The balance of trade between the various countries is the factor determining the rate of exchange. Should the balance of trade (q.v.) be against England, money must be remitted to France in payment of the indebtedness, but owing to the cost for the transmission of specie there will be a demand for bills drawn on Paris as a cheaper and more expeditious method of sending money, and it therefore will be necessary, in order to procure the one of the higher current value, to pay a premium for it, called the agio. (b) The term is also used to denote the difference in exchange between two currencies in the same country; where silver coinage is the legal tender, agio is sometimes allowed for payment in the more convenient form of gold, or where the paper currency of a country is reduced below the bullion which it professes to represent, an agio is payable on the appreciated currency. (c) Lastly, in some states the coinage is so debased, owing to the wear of circulation, that the real is greatly reduced below the nominal value. Supposing that this reduction amounts to 5%, then if 100 sovereigns were offered as payment of a debt in England while such sovereigns were current there at their nominal value, they would be received as just payment; but if they were offered as payment of the same amount of debt in a foreign state, they would be received only at their intrinsic value of £95, the additional £5 constituting the agio. Where the state keeps its coinage up to a standard value no agio is required.
AGIRA (formerly San Filippo d’Argiro), a town of the province of Catania, Sicily, with a railway station 412 m. to the south of the town, 35 m. W. of Catania. Pop. (1901) 17,738. It occupies the site of Agyrion, an ancient Sicel city which was ruled by tyrants, one of whom, Agyris, was the most powerful ruler in the centre of Sicily. He was a contemporary of Dionysius I., and with him successfully resisted the Carthaginians when they invaded the territory of Agyrium in 392 B.C. Agira was not colonized by the Greeks until Timoleon drove out the last tyrant in 339 B.C. and erected various splendid buildings of which no traces remain. Agyrion was the birthplace of the historian Diodorus Siculus.
AGIS, the name of four Spartan kings:—
(1) Son of Eurysthenes, founder of the royal house of the Agiadae (Pausanias iii. 2.1). His genealogy was traced through Aristodemus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus and Hyllus to Heracles (Herodotus vii. 204), and he belongs rather to mythology than to history. Tradition ascribed to him the capture of the maritime town of Helos, which resisted his attempt to curtail its guaranteed rights, and the institution of the class of serfs called Helots (q.v.).
Ephorus ap. Strabo, viii. p. 365.
(2) Son of Archidamus II., Eurypontid, commonly called Agis I. He succeeded his father, probably in 427 B.C., and from his first invasion of Attica in 425 down to the close of the Peloponnesian war was the chief leader of the Spartan operations on land. After the conclusion of the peace of Nicias (421 B.C.) he marched against the Argives in defence of Epidaurus, and after skilful manœuvring surrounded the Argive army, and seemed to have victory within his grasp when he unaccountably concluded a four months’ truce and withdrew his forces. The Spartans were indignant, and when the Argives and their allies, in flagrant disregard of the truce, took Arcadian Orchomenus and prepared to march on Tegea, their fury knew no bounds, and Agis escaped having his house razed and a fine of 100,000 drachmae imposed only by promising to atone for his error by a signal victory. This promise he brilliantly fulfilled by routing the forces of the Argive confederacy at the battle of Mantinea (418), the moral effect of which was out of all proportion to the losses inflicted on the enemy. In the winter of 417–416 a further expedition to Argos resulted in the destruction of the half-finished Long Walls and the capture of Hysiae. In 413, on the suggestion of Alcibiades, he fortified Decelea in Attica, where he remained directing operations until, after the battle of Aegospotami (405), he took the leading part in the blockade of Athens, which was ended in spring 404 by the surrender of the city. Subsequently he invaded and ravaged Elis, forcing the Eleans to acknowledge the freedom of their perioeci and to allow Spartans to take part in the Olympic games and sacrifices. He fell ill on his return from Delphi, where he had gone to dedicate a tithe of the spoils, and, probably in 401, died at Sparta, where he was buried with unparalleled solemnity and pomp.
Thuc. iii. 89, iv. 2. 6, v. vii 19. 27, viii.; Xenophon, Hellenica, i. 1, ii. 2. 3, iii. 2. 3; Diodorus xii. 35, xiii. 72, 73, 107; Pausanias iii. 8. 3-8; Plutarch, Lysander ix. 14. 22, Alcibiades 23-25, Lycurgus 12, Agesilaus i. 3, de Tranquill. Anim. 6. (See Peloponnesian War.)
(3) Son of Archidamus III., of the Eurypontid line, commonly called Agis II. He succeeded his father in 338 B.C., on the very day of the battle of Chaeronea. During Alexander’s Asiatic campaign he revolted against Macedonia (333 B.C.) and, with the aid of Persian money and ships and a force of 8000 Greek mercenaries, gained considerable successes in Crete. In the Peloponnese he routed a force under Corragus and, although Athens held aloof, he was joined by Elis, Achaea (except Pellene) and Arcadia, with the exception of Megalopolis, which the allies besieged. Antipater marched rapidly to its relief at the head of a large army, and the allied force was defeated after a desperate struggle (331) and Agis was slain.
Pausanias iii. 10. 5; Diodorus xvii. 48, 62, 63; Justin xii. 1; Quintus Curtius iv. 1, 39, vi. 1; Arrian, Anabasis, ii. 13.
