Listed 100 (total found 142) sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "SPARTI Ancient city LACONIA".
Echestratus (Echestratos), son of Agis I., and third of the Agid line of Spartan kings. In his reign the district of Cynuria on the Argive border was reduced. He was the father of Labotas or Leobotes, king of Sparta. (Paus. iii. 2.2; Herod. vii. 204).
Agesilaus (Agesilaos), son of Doryssus, sixth king of the Agid line at Sparta, excluding Aristodemus, according to Apollodorus, reigned forty-four years, and died in 886 B. C. Pausanias makes his reign a short one, but contemporary with the legislation of Lycurgus. (Paus. iii. 2.3)
Archelaus (Archelaos), king of Sarta, 7th of the Agids, son of Agesilaus I., contemporary with Charilaus, with whom he took Aegys, a town on the Arcadian border, said to have revolted, but probably then first taken. (Paus. iii. 2 Plut. Lyc. 5; Euseb. Praep. v. 32)
Charilaus, Charillus (Charilaos, Charillos), a king of Sparta, son of Polydectes,
and 7th of the Eurypontids, is said by Plutarch to have received his name from
the general joy excited by the justice of his uncle Lycurgus when he placed him,
yet a new-born infant, on the royal seat, and bade the Spartans acknowledge him
for their king (Plut. Lyc. 3; Paus. ii. 36; Just. iii. 2; Schol. ad Plat. Rep.
x.). According to Plutarch, the reforms projected by Lycurgus on his return from
his voluntary exile at first alarmed Charilaus for his personal safety; but he
soon became reassured, and co-operated with his uncle in the promotion of his
plans (Plut. Lyc. 5). Yet this is not very consistent with Aristotle's statement
(Polit. v. 12), that an aristocratic government was established on the ruins of
the tyranny of Charilaiis, which latter account again is still less reconcileable
with the assertion of Plutarch, that the kingly power had lost all its substance
when Lycurgus began to remodel the constitution. There is, however, much probability
in the explanation offered as an hypothesis by Thirlwall. We hear from Pausanias
that Charilaiis was engaged successfully in a war with the Argives, which had
slumbered for two generations. He aided also his colleague Archelaus in destroying
the border-town of Aegys, which they suspected of an intention of revolting to
the Arcadians; and he commanded the Spartans in that disastrous contest with Tegea,
mentioned by Herodotus (i. 66), in which the Tegean women are said to have taken
up arms and to have caused the rout of the invaders by rushing forth from all
ambuscade during the heat of the battle. Charilaus himself was taken prisoner,
but was dismissed without ransom on giving a promise (which he did not keep),
that the Spartans should abstain in future from attacking Tegea (Paus. iii. 2,
7, viii. 48).
Alcamenes (Alkamenes), king of Sparta, 10th of the Agids, son of Teleclus, commanded,
according to Pausanias, in the night-expedition against Ampheia, which commenced
the first Messenian war, but died before its 4th year. This would fix the 38 years
assigned him by Apollodorus, about 779 to 742 B. C. In his reign Helos was taken,
a place near the mouth of the Eurotas, the last independent hold most likely of
the old Achaean population, and the supposed origin of the term Helot. (Paus.
iii. 2.7, iv. 4.3, 5.3 ; Herod. vii. 204; Plut. Apophth. Lac.)
Anaxidamus (Anaxidamos), king of Sparta, 11th of the Eurypontids, son of Zeuxidamus, contemporary with Anaxander, and lived to the conclusion of the second Messenian war, B. C. 668. (Paus. iii. 7.5)
Archidamus I. (Archidamos), king of Sparta, 12th of the Eurypontids, son of Anaxidamus, contemporary with the Tegeatan war, which followed soon after the end of the second Messenian, in B. C. 668. (Paus. iii. 7.6, comp. 3.5)
Son of Eurycrates, king of Sparta, invades Messenia, defeated by Aristomenes.
(Anaxandros), king of Sparta, 12th of the Agids, son of Eurycrates, is named by Pausanias as commanding against Aristomenes, and to the end of the second Messenian war, B. C. 668; but probably on mere conjecture from the statement of Tyrtaeus (given by Strabo, viii.), that the grandfathers fought in the first, the grandsons in the second. (Paus. iii. 3, 14.4, iv. 15.1, 16.5, 22.3; Plut. Apoplhth. Lac.)
Son of Archidamus, king of Sparta, father of Anaxidamus.
Son of Agesicles, king of Sparta, denies that Demaratus is his son.
Ariston, king of Sparta, 14th of the Eurypontids, son of Agesicles, contemporary of Anaxandrides, ascended the Spartan throne before B. C. 560, and died somewhat before (Paus. iii. 7), or at any rate not long after, 510. He thus reigned about 50 years, and was of high reputation, of which the public prayer for a son for him, when the house of Procles had other representatives, is a testimony. Demaratus, hence named, was borne him, after two barren marriages, by a third wife, whom he obtained, it is said, by a fraud from her husband, his friend, Agetus. (Herod. i. 65, vi. 61-66; Paus. iii. 7.7; Plut. Apophth. Lac.)
Anaxandrides. Son of Leon, king of Sparta, contemporary with Croesus, father of Cleomenes, Dorieus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus.
Anaxandrides. King of Sparta, 15th of the Agids, son of Leon, reigned from about 560 to 520 B. C. At the time when Croesus sent his embassy to form alliance with "the mightiest of the Greeks", i. e. about 554, the war with Tegea, which in the late reigns went against them, had now been decided in the Spartans' favour, under Anaxandrides and Ariston. Under them, too, was mainly carried on the suppression of the tyrannies, and with it the establishment of the Spartan hegemony. Having a barren wife whom he would not divorce, the ephors, we are told, made him take with her a second. By her he had Cleomenes; and after this, by his first wife Dorieus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus (Herod. i. 65-69, v. 39-41; Paus. iii. 3). Several sayings are ascribed to him in Plut. Apophth. Lac. (where the old reading is Alexandridas). With the reign of Anaxandrides and Ariston commences the period of certain dates, the chronology of their predecessors being doubtful and the accounts in many ways suspicious; the only certain point being the coincidence of Polydorus and Theopompus with the first Messenian war, which itself cannot be fixed with certainty.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cleomenes (Kleomenes), 16th king of Sparta in the Agid line, was born to Anaxandrides
by his second wife, previous to the birth by his first of Dorieus, Leonidas, and
Cleombrotus.He accordingly, on his father's death, succeeded, not later it would
seem than 519 B. C., and reigned for a period of 29 years.
In B. C. 519 we are told it was to Cleomenes that the Plataeans applied
when Sparta, declining to assist them, recommended alliance with Athens (Herod.
vi. 108). And not much later, the visit of Maeandrius occurred, who had been left
in possession of Samos by the death of Polycrates, but had afterwards been driven
out by the Persians with Syloson. Maeandrius twice or thrice in conversation with
Cleomenes led the way to his house, where he took care to have displayed certain
splendid goblets, and, on Cleomenes expressing his admiration, begged he would
accept them. Cleomenes refused; and at last, in fear for his own or his citizens'
weakness, went to the ephors and got an order for the stranger's departure (Herod.
iii. 148).
In 510 Cleomenes commanded the forces by whose assistance Hippias
was driven from Athens, and not long after he took part in the struggle between
Cleisthenes and the aristocratical party of Isagoras by sending a herald with
orders, pointed against Cleisthenes, for the expulsion of all who were stained
with the pollution of Cylon. He followed this step by coming and driving out,
in person, 700 households, substituting also for the new Council of 500 a body
of 300 partisans of Isagoras. But his force was small, and having occupied the
acropolis with his friends, he was here besieged, and at last forced to depart
on conditions, leaving his allies to their fate. In shame and anger he hurried
to collect Spartan and allied forces, and set forth for his revenge. At Eleusis,
however, when the Athenians were in sight, the Corinthians refused to proceed;
their example was followed by his brother-king Demaratus; and on this the other
allies also, and with them Cleomenes, withdrew. When in the acropolis at Athens,
he is related to have attempted, as an Achaean, to enter the temple, from which
Dorians were excluded, and to have hence brought back with him to Sparta a variety
of oracles predictive of his country's future relations with Athens; and their
contents, says Herodotus, induced the abortive attempt which the Spartans made
soon after to restore the tyranny of Hippias (Herod. v. 64, 65, 69-76, 89-91).
In 500, Sparta was visited by Aristagoras, a petitioner for aid to
the revolted Ionians. His brazen map and his accompanying representations appear
to have had considerable effect on Cleomenes. He demanded three days to consider;
then enquired "how far was Susa from the sea". Aristagoras forgot his diplomacy
and said, "three months' journey". His Spartan listener was thoroughly alarmed,
and ordered him to depart before sunset. Aristagoras however in suppliant's attire
hurried to meet him at home, and made him offers, beginning with ten, and mounting
at last to fifty talents. It chanced that Cleomenes had his daughter Gorgo, a
child eight or nine years old, standing by; and at this point she broke in, and
said "Father, go away, or he will do you harm". And Cleomenes on this recovered
his resolution, and left the room (Herod. vi. 49-51). This daughter Gorgo, his
only child, was afterwards the wife of his halfbrother Leonidas: and she, it is
said, first found the key to the message which, by scraping the wax from a wooden
writing-tablet, graving the wood, and then covering it with wax again, Demaratus
conveyed to Sparta from the Persian court in announcement of the intended invasion
(Herod. vii. 239).
In 491 the heralds of Dareius came demanding earth and water from
the Greeks; and Athens denounced to Sparta the submission of the Aeginetans. Cleomenes
went off in consequence to Aegina, and tried to seize certain parties as hostages.
Meantime Demaratus, with whom he had probably been on bad terms ever since the
retreat from Eleusis, sent private encouragements to the Aeginetans to resist
him, and took further advantage of his absence to intrigue against him at home.
Cleomenes returned unsuccessful, and now leagued himself with Leotychides, and
effected his colleague's deposition (Herod. vi. 49-66). He then took Leotychides
with him back to Aegina, seized his hostages, and placed them in the hands of
the Athenians. But on his return to Sparta, he found it detected that he had tampered
with the priestess at Delphi to obtain the oracle which deposed Demaratus, and,
in apprehension of the consequences, he went out of the way into Thessaly. Shortly
after, however, he ventured into Arcadia, and his machinations there to excite
the Arcadians against his country were sufficient to frighten the Spartans into
offering him leave to return with impunity. He did not however long survive his
recall. He was seized with raving madness, and dashed his staff in every one's
face whom he met; and at last when confined as a maniac in a sort of stocks, he
prevailed on the Helot who watched him to give him a knife, and died by slashing
(katachordeuon) his whole body over with it (Herod. vi. 73-75).
His madness and death, says Herodotus, were ascribed by the Spartans
to the habit he acquired from some Scythian visitors at Sparta of excessive drinking.
Others found a reason in his acts of sacrilege at Delphi or Eleusis, where he
laid waste a piece of sacred land (the Orgas), or again at Argos, the case of
which was as follows. Cleomenes invaded Argolis, conveying his forces by sea to
the neighbourhood of Tiryns; defeated by a simple stratagem the whole Argive forces,
and pursued a large number of fugitives into the wood of the hero Argus. Some
of them he drew from their refuge on false pretences, the rest he burnt among
the sacred trees. He however made no attempt on the city, but after sacrificing
to the Argive Juno, and whipping her priestess for opposing his will, returned
home and excused himself, and indeed was acquitted after investigation, on the
ground that the oracle predicting that he should capture Argos had been fulfilled
by the destruction of the grove of Argus. Such is the strange account given by
Herodotus (vi. 76-84) of the great battle of the Seventh (en tei Hebdomei), the
greatest exploit of Cleomenes, which deprived Argos of 6000 citizens (Herod. vii.
148), and left her in a state of debility from which, notwithstanding the enlargement
of her franchise, she did not recover till the middle of the Peloponnesian war.
To this however we may add in explanation the story given by later writers of
the defence of Argos by its women, headed by the poet-heroine Telesilla (Paus.
ii. 20.7; Plut. Mor.; Polyaen. viii. 33; Suidas. s.v. Telesilla). Herodotus appears
ignorant of it, though he gives an oracle seeming to refer to it. It is perfectly
probable that Cleomenes thus received some check, and we must remember the Spartan
incapacity for sieges. The date again is doubtful. Pausanias, (iii. 4.1-5), who
follows Herodotus in his account of Cleomenes, says, it was at the beginning of
his reign; Clinton, however, whom Thirlwall follows, fixes it, on the ground of
Herod. vii. 148-9, towards the end of his reign, about 510 B. C.
The life of Cleomenes, as graphically given by Herodotus is very curious; we may
perhaps, without much imputation on the father of history, suspect that his love
for personal story has here a little coloured his narrative. Possibly he may have
somewhat mistaken his character; certainly the freedom of action allowed to a
king whom the Spartans were at first half inclined to put aside for the younger
brother Dorieus, and who was always accounted half-mad (hupomrgoteros), seems
at variance with the received views of their kingly office. Yet it is possible
that a wild character of this kind might find favour in Spartan eyes. The occupation
of the acropolis of Athens is mentioned by Aristophanes (Lysistr. 272).
Son of Aristo, king of Sparta, his feud with Cleomenes, his flight to Persia, support of Xerxes' accession.
Demaratus, (Demaratos), 15th Eurypontid, reigned at Sparta from about B. C. 510
to 491. Pausanias speaks of him as sharing with Cleomenes the honour of expelling
Hippias (B. C. 510) (Paus. iii. 7.7), and Plutarch (de Virtut. Mul.) unites their
names in the war against Argos. Under Telesilla, he says " the Argive women
beat back Cleomenes (apekroudanto) and thrust out Demaratus" (e)ce/wdan),
as if the latter had for a time effected an entrance. He had gained," says
Herodotus (vi. 70), " very frequent distinction for deeds and for counsels, and
had in particular won for his country, alone of all her kings, an Olympian victory
in the four-horse chariot-race."
His career, however, was cut short by dissensions with his colleague.
In the invasion, by which Cleomeenes proposed to wreak his vengeance on Athens,
Demaratus, who was joint commander, on the arrival of the army at Eleusis, followed
the example of the Corinthians, and refused to cooperate any further. The other
allies began now to move away, and Cleomenes was forced to follow. (Herodot. v.
75.) Henceforward we may easily imagine that his fury at his indignities, and
their general incompatibility of teimper, would render the feud between them violent
and obstinate. In B. C. 491 Cleomenes while in Aegina found himself thwarted there,
and intrigued against at home, by his adversary, who encouraged the Aeginetans
to insult him by refusing to acknowledge the unaccredited authority of a single
king. Cleomenes returned, and set the whole of his vehement unscrupulous energy
to work to rid himself of Demaratus, calling to llis aid Leotychides, next heir
to the house of Procles, whom Demaratus had, moreover, made his enemy by robbing
him of his affianced bride, Percalus, daughter of Cheilon. (Herodot. vi 61, 65.)
The birth of Demaratus had been as follows :-- King Ariston had twice
married without issue. While his secoid wife was still alive, either in anxiety
for an heir or out of mere passion, he sought and by a curious artifice obtained
as his third the wife of his friend Agetus, a woman of remarkable beauty. He enticed
the husband into an agreement, that each should give the other whatever he asked;
and when Agetus had chosen his gift, Ariston demanded in return that he should
give him his wife. A son was born. Ariston was sitting in judgment with the ephors
when the tidings were brought, and counting the months on his fingers, said in
their presence, " It cannot be mine." His doubts, however, appeared
no further : he owned the child, and gave it, in allusion to the public prayer
that had been made by the Spartans for an heir to his house, the name of Demaratus.
(Ibid. vi. 61-64.)
The father's expression was now brought up against the son. Leotychides
declared him on oath to be wrongfully on the throne; and, in the consequent prosecution,
he brought forward the ephors, who had then been sitting with Ariston, to bear
evidence of his words. The case was referred to the Delphian oracle, and was by
it, through the corrupt interference of Cleomenes, decided for the accuser, who
was in consequence raised to the throne. (Ibid. vi. 64-66.)
Demaratus, some time after, was sitting as magistrate at the Gymnopaedian
games. Leotychides sent his attendant to ask the insulting question, how it felt
to be magistrate after being king. Demaratus, stung by the taunt, made a hasty
and menacing reply; covered up his face, and withdrew home; sacrificed there,
and taking the sacred entrails, sought his mother and conjured her to let him
know the truth. She replied by an account which assuredly leaves the modern reader
as doubtful as before, but gave him perhaps the conviction which she wished, that
his father was either Ariston or the hero Astrabacus; and, in any case, he seems
to have made up his mind to regain, by whatever means, his original rank. He went
to Elis under pretext of a journey to Delphi, and here perhaps would have intrigued
for support, had not the Spartans suspected and sent for him. He then retired
to Zacynthus, and on being pursued thither, made his way into Asia to king Dareius.
(Ibid. vi. 67-70.)
At the court of Persia he was favourably received, and is said, by
stating the Spartan usage, to have forwarded the claim of Xerxes to the throne
to the exclusion of his brothers born before their father's accession: and on
the resolution being taken of invading Greece, to have sent, with what intent
or feeling Herodotus would not venture to determine, a message, curiously concealed,
to his countrymen at Sparta, conveying the intelligence. (Ibid. vii. 3. 239.)
Henceforward Demaratus performs in the story of Herodotus with high
dramatic effect the part of the unheeded counsellor, who, accompanying the invasion
and listened to by Xerxes, saw the weakness of those countless myriads, and ventured
to combat the extravagant unthinking confidence of their leader. Thus at Doriscus,
after the numbering of the army; thus at Thermopylae, when he explaiined that
it was for battle the Spartans were trimming their hair; thus, after the pass
was won, when Xerxes owned his wisdom, and he is said to have given the farsighted
counsel of occupying Cythera And thus finally he, says the story, was with Dicaeus
in the plain of Thria, when they heard the mystic Eleusinian cry, and saw the
cloud of sacred dust pass, as escorting the assistant deities, to the Grecian
fleet. (Ibid. vii. 101-105, 209, 234, 235, viii. 65.)
Leaving the imagination of Herodotus and his informants responsible
for much of this, we may safely believe that Demaratus, like Hippias before, accompanied
the expedition in the hope of vengeance and restoration, and, probably enough,
with the mixed feelings ascribed to him. Pausanias (iii. 7.7) states, that his
family continued long in Asia; and Xenophon (Hell. iii. 1. § 6) mentions Eurysthenes
and Procles, his descendants, as lords of Pergamus, Teuthrania, and Ilalisarna,
the district given to their ancestor by the king as the reward of his service
in the expedition. The Cyrean army found Procles at Teutthrania. (Xen. Anab. vii.
8. 17.) "To this family also," says Miiller (Dor. bk. i. 9.8), "
belongs Procles, who married the daughter of Aristotle, when the latter was at
Atarneus, and had by her two sons, Procles and Demaratus. (Sext. Empir. adv. Mathem.
p. 518, ed. Col.") Plutarch's anecdote (Them. c. 29), that he once excited
the king's anger by asking leave to ride through Sardis with the royal tiara,
and was restored to favour by Themistocles, can only be said not to be in contradiction
to the chronology. (Clinton, .F. H. ii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cleombrotus (Kleombrotos), son of Anaxandrides, king of Sparta, brother of Dorieus and Leonidas,
and half-brother of Cleomenes (Herod. v. 41). He became regent after the battle
of Thermopylae, B. C. 480, for Pleistarchus, infant son of Leonidas, and in this
capacity was at the head of the Peloponnesian troops who at the time of the battle
of Salamis were engaged in fortifying the isthmus (Herod. viii. 71). The work
was renewed in the following spring, till deserted for the commencement of the
campaign of Plataea. Whether Cleombrotus was this second time engaged in it cannot
be gathered with certainty from the expression of Herodotus (ix. 10), "that he
died shortly after leading home his forces from the Isthmus in consequence of
an eclipse of the sun". Yet the date of that eclipse, Oct. 2nd, seems to fix his
death to the end of B. C. 480, nor is the language of Herodotus very favourable
to Thirlwall's hypothesis, according to which, with Clinton, he places it early
in 479. He left two sons -the noted Pausanias, who succeeded him as regent, and
Nicomedes (Thuc. i. 107).
Agis II., the 17th of the Eurypontid line (beginning with Procles), succeeded his father Archidamus, B. C. 427, and reigned a little more than 28 years. In the summer of B. C. 426, he led an army of Peloponnesians and their allies as far as the isthmus, with the intention of invading Attica; but they were deterred from advancing farther by a succession of earthquakes which happened when they had got so far (Thuc. iii. 89). In the spring of the following year he led an army into Attica, but quitted it fifteen days after he had entered it (Thuc. iv. 2, 6). In B. C. 419, the Argives, at the instigation of Alciblades, attacked Epidaurus; and Agis with the whole force of Lacedaemon set out at the same time and marched to the frontier city, Leuctra. No one, Thucydides tells us, knew the purpose of this expedition. It was probably to make a diversion in favour of Epidaurus. At Leuctra the aspect of the sacrifices deterred him from proceeding. He therefore led his troops back, and sent round notice to the allies to be ready for an expedition at the end of the sacred month of the Carnean festival; and when the Argives repeated their attack on Epidaurus, the Spartans again marched to the frontier town, Caryae, and again turned back, professedly on account of the aspect of the victims. In the middle of the following summer (B. C. 418) the Epidaurians being still hard pressed by the Argives, the Laccdaemonians with their whole force and some allies, under the command of Agis, invaded Argolis. By a skilful manoeuvre he succeeded in intercepting the Argives, and posted his army advantageously between them and the city. But just as the battle was about to begin, Thrasyllus, one of the Argive generals, and Alciphron came to Agis and prevailed on him to conclude a truce for four months. Agis, without disclosing his motives, drew off his army. On his return he was severely censured for having thus thrown away the opportunity of reducing Argos, especially as the Argives had seized the opportunity afforded by his return and taken Orchomenos. It was proposed to pull down his house, and inflict on him a fine of 100,000 drachmae. But on his earnest entreaty they contented themselves with appointing a council of war, consisting of 10 Spartans, without whom he was not to lead an army out of the city (Thuc. v. 54, 57, &c.). Shortly afterwards they received intelligence from Tegea, that, if not promptly succoured, the party favourable to Sparta in that city would be compelled to give way. The Spartans immediately sent their whole force under the command of Agis. He restored tranquillity at Tegea, and then marched to Mantincia. By turning the waters so as to flood the lands of Mantineia, he succeeded in drawing the army of the Mantineans and Athenians down to the level ground. A battle ensued, in which the Spartans were victorious. This was one of the most important battles ever fought between Grecian states (Thuc. v. 71-73). In B. C. 417, when news reached Sparta of the counter-revolution at Argos, in which the oligarchical and Spartan faction was overthrown, an army was sent there under Agis. He was unable to restore the defeated party, but he destroyed the long walls which the Argives had begun to carry down to the sea, and took Hysiae (Thuc. v. 83). In the spring of B. C. 413, Agis entered Attica with a Peloponnesian army, and fortified I)eceleia, a steep eminence about 15 miles northeast of Athens (Thuc. vii. 19, 27); and in the winter of the same year, after the news of the disastrous fate of the Sicilian expedition had reached Greece, he marched northwards to levy contributions on the allies of Sparta, for the purpose of constructing a fleet. While at Deceleia he acted in a great measure independently of the Spartan government, and received embassies as well from the disaffected allies of the Athenians, as from the Boeotians and other allies of Sparta (Thuc. viii. 3, 5). He seems to have remained at Deceleia till the end of the Peloponnesian war. In 411, during the administration of the Four Hundred, he made an unsuccessful attempt on Athens itself (Thuc. viii. 71). In B. C. 401, the command of the war against Elis was entrusted to Agis, who in the third year compelled the Eleans to sue for peace. As he was returning from Delphi, whither he had gone to consecrate a tenth of the spoil, he fell sick at Heraea in Arcadia, and died in the course of a few days after he reached Sparta (Xen. Hell. iii. 2.21, &c. 3.1-4.) He left a son, Leotychides, who however was excluded from the throne, as there was sone suspicion with regard to his legitimacy. While Alcibiades was at Sparta he made Agis his implacable enemy. Later writers (Justin, v. 2 ; Plut. Alcib. 23) assign as a reason, that the latter suspected him of having dishonoured his queen Timaea. It was probably at the suggestion of Agis, that orders were sent out to Astyochus to put him to death. Alcibiades however received timely notice, (according to some accounts from Timaea herself) and kept out of the reach of the Spartans. (Thuc. viii. 12, 45; Plut. Lysand. 22. Agesil. 3)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Leotychides, was grandson of Archidamus II., and son of Agis II. There was, however, some suspicion that he was in reality the fruit of an intrigue of Alcibiades with Timaea, the queen of Agis, a suspicion which was strengthened (so Pausanias says) by some angry expressions of Agis himself, and also by Timaea's own language, according to Duris and Plutarch. Agis indeed before his death repented of what he had said on the subject, and publicly owned Leotychides for his son. On his father's demise, however, he was excluded from the throne on the above grounds, mainly through the influence of Lysander, and his uncle, Agesilaus II., was substituted in his room. (Paus. iii. 8 ; Duris, ap. Plut. Ages. 3; Plut. Alc. 23, Lysand. 22; Xen. Ages. 1, Hell. iii. 3. 1-4; Just. v. 2.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agesilaus II., son by his second wife, Eupolia, of Archidamus II., succeeded his
half-brother, Agis II. as nineteenth king of the Eurypontid line; excluding, on
the ground of spurious birth, and by the interest of Lysander, his nephew, Leotychides.
His reign extends from 398 to 361 B. C., both inclusive; during most of which
time he was, in Plutarch's words, "as good as thought commander and king of all
Greece," and was for the whole of it greatly identified with his country's deeds
and fortunes. The position of that country, though internally weak, was externally,
in Greece, down to 394, one of supremacy acknowledged: the only field of its ambition
was Persia; from 394 to 387, the Corinthian or first Theban war, one of supremacy
assaulted: in 387 that supremacy was restored over Greece, in the peace of Antalcidas,
by the sacrifice of Asiatic prospects : and thus more confined and more secure,
it became also more wanton. After 378, when Thebes regained her freedom, we find
it again assailed, and again for one moment restored, though on a lower level,
in 371; then overthrown for ever at Leuctra, the next nine years being a struggle
for existence amid dangers within and without.
Of the youth of Agesilaus we have no detail, beyond the mention of
his intimacy with Lysander. On the throne, which he ascended about the age of
forty, we first hear of him in the suppression of Cinadon's conspiracy. In his
third year (396) he crossed into Asia, and after a short campaign, and a winter
of preparation, he in the next overpowered the two satraps, Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus;
and, in the spring of 394, was encamped in the plain of Thebe, preparing to advance
into the heart of the empire, when a message arrived to summon him to the war
at home. He calmly and promptly obeyed; expressing however to the Asiatic Greeks,
and doubtless himself indulging, hopes of a speedy return. Marching rapidly by
Xerxes' route, he met and defeated at Coroneia in Boeotia the allied forces. In
393 he was engaged in a ravaging invasion of Argolis, in 392 in one of the Corinthian
territory, in 391 he reduced the Acarnanians to submission; but, in the remaining
years of the war, he is not mentioned. In the interval of peace, we find him declining
the command in Sparta's aggression on Mantineia; but heading, from motives, it
is said, of private friendship, that on Phlius; and openly justifying Phoebidas'
seizure of the Cadmeia. Of the next war, the first two years he commanded in Boeotia,
more however to the enemy's gain in point of experience, than loss in any other;
from the five remaining he was withdrawn by severe illness. In the congress of
371 an altercation is recorded between him and Epaminondas; and by his advice
Thebes was peremptorily excluded from the peace, and orders given for the fatal
campaign of Leuctra. In 370 we find him engaged in an embassy to Mantineia, and
reassuring the Spartans by an invasion of Arcadia; and in 369 to his skill, courage,
and presence of mind, is to be ascribed the maintenance of the unwalled Sparta,
amidst the attacks of four armies, and revolts and conspiracies of Helots, Perioeci,
and even Spartans. Finally, in 362, he led his countrymen into Arcadia; by fortunate
information was enabled to return in time to prevent the surprise of Sparta, and
was, it seems, joint if not sole commander at the battle of Mantineia. To the
ensuing winter must probably be referred his embassy to the coast of Asia and
negotiations for money with the revolted satraps, alluded to in an obscure passage
of Xenophon (Agesilaus, ii. 26, 27): and, in performance perhaps of some stipulation
then made. he crossed, in the spring of 361, with a body of Lacedaemonian mercenaries
into Egypt. Here, after displaying much of his ancient skill, he died, while preparing
for his voyage home, in the winter of 361-60, after a life of above eighty years
and a reign of thirty-eight. His body was embalmed in wax, and splendidly buried
at Sparta.
Referring to our sketch of Spartan history, we find Agesilaus shining
most in its first and last period, as commencing and surrendering a glorious career
in Asia, and as, in extreme age, maintaining his prostrate country. From Coroneia
to Leuctra we see him partly unemployed, at times yielding to weak motives, at
times joining in wanton acts of public injustice. No one of Sparta's great defeats,
but some of her bad policy belongs to him. In what others do, we miss him; in
what he does, we miss the greatness and consistency belongings to unity of purpose
and sole command. No doubt he was hampered at home; perhaps, too, from a man withdrawn,
when now near fifty, from his chosen career, great action in a new one of any
kind could not be looked for. Plutarch gives among numerous apophthegmata his
letter to the ephors on his recall : " We have reduced most of Asia, driven back
the barbarians, made arms abundant in Ionia. But since you bid me, according to
the decree, come home, I shall fellow my letter, may perhaps be even before it.
For my comniand is not mine, but my country's and her allies'. And a commander
then commands truly according to right when he sees his own commander in the laws
and ephors, or others holding office in the state." Also, an exclamation on hearing
of the battle of Corinth : "Alas for Greece! she has killed enough of her sons
to have conquered all the barbarians." Of his courage, temperance, and hardiness,
many instances are given : to these he added, even in excess, the less Spartan
qualities of kindliness and tenderness as a father and a friend. Thus we have
the story of his riding across a stick with his children; and to gratify his son's
affection for Cleonymus, son of the culprit, he saved Sphodrias from the punishment
due, in right and policy, for his incursion into Attica in 378. So too the appointment
of Peisander. [A letter of his runs, " If Nicis is innocent, acquit him for that
; if guilty, for my sake; any how acquit him." From Spartan cupidity and dishonesty,
and mostly, even in public life, from ill faith, his character is clear. In person
he was small, mean-looking, and lame, on which last ground objection had been
made to his accession, an oracle, curiously fulfilled, having warned Sparta of
evils awaiting her under a linee sovereignty" In his reign, indeed, her fall took
place, but not through him. Agesilaus himself was Sparta's most perfect citizen
and most consummate general; in many ways perhaps her greatest man. (Xen. Hell.
iii. 3, to the end, Agesilaus ; Diod. xiv. xv; Paus. iii. 9, 10; Plut. and C.
Nepos, in vita ; Plut. Apophthegm.)
Agesilaus II (444/443-359): king of Sparta (400-359).
Agesilaus was born in the Eurypontid family, one of the two royal
dynasties of Sparta, in 444/443, as the second son of king Archidamus (477-426).
Agesilaus' older brother was Agis, whose reign started in 426 and lasted until
400.
Agis' normal successor would have been Leotychidas, who claimed to
be Agis' son but was generally considered to be a child of Alcibiades, an Athenian
politician who had stayed at Sparta as an exile. For some time, there was a lot
of quarreling going on. Agesilaus objected to Leotychidas' reign, saying that
he was a mere bastard; the prince replied by saying that there was an oracle that
warned against a 'lame king' - and wasn't Agesilaus lame? The debate was concluded
when Lysander, Sparta's best commander and a personal friend of Agesilaus, declared
that the true meaning of the oracle had been that the 'lame king' was the king
who was a bastard. So, in 400, Agesilaus was accepted as king by the Spartans.
Of course, the new king had to pay a prize. Lysander was the proponent
of a militant and aggressive foreign policy, and from now on Agesilaus had to
follow this policy too. In the year of his accession, he sent a general named
Thibron to what is now Turkey
in order to protect the Greek towns against oppression by the Persian satrap Tissaphernes.
The expeditionary force consisted of some 5,000 members of the Spartan alliance,
300 Athenians, and the 6,000 surviving Greek mercenaries of the army that had
been used by the Persian pretender Cyrus the Younger to attack his brother, king
Artaxerxes II Mnemon. Extra power was added to Thibron's force by an alliance
with Egypt, which had once
been a Persian satrapy but had recently become independent under Amyrtaeus, a
new pharaoh.
The size of the expeditionary force was considerable, but the army's
movements were not well coordinated with that of the navy. Thibron and (after
399) his successor Dercyllidas wasted their time in Hellespontine Phrygia,
fighting against the forces of satrap Pharnabazus. Finally, Dercyllidas' army
moved to the south and invaded Caria,
where it could have united with the Spartan navy and might have expelled the Persian
navy from the Aegean, but now Pharnabazus and the satrap of Lydia,
Tissaphernes, united their forces and lured the Spartans to the north. Shortly
before the two armies joined battle, an armistice was concluded near Magnesia
(397).
The two governments might have concluded a peace treaty on the terms
agreed by Dercyllidas and Tissaphernes: Sparta would evacuate Asia, and Persia
would recognize the independence of the Greek towns in Ionia.
However, during the negotiations, the Persians continued to build a large navy
in Phoenicia, and king Agesilaus concluded that the Persian peace offer was not
seriously meant. (In fact, it is possible that the navy was to be directed against
Egypt.) Now, Agesilaus decided to invade Asia personally. Lysander would be his
assistant. They took 8,000 soldiers with him.
In the spring of 396, Agesilaus sacrificed at Aulis
in Boeotia, praying for a
safe crossing of the Aegean Sea.
The site was well chosen: this was the place where, according to well-known legends,
the Spartan king Agamemnon had once sacrificed before he went to Troy.
Unfortunately, Agesilaus' sacrifice was soiled by the behavior of Boeotian cavalry
men, and reinforcements that had been promised by Sparta's Greek allies did not
turn up. The omens were bad.
Nevertheless, Agesilaus' campaign started successfully. He first sailed
to Ephesus and concluded
a truce with satrap Tissaphernes, which gave him a free hand to attack Pharnabazus.
Lysander did the job. (Tissaphernes agreed to the truce because he expected reinforcements.)
In the winter of 396/395, Agesilaus recruited extra soldiers among
the Ionian Greeks, and in the spring, he defeated Tissaphernes in the neighborhood
of Sardes. The spoils were
very large, and Tissaphernes was killed by one Tithraustes, who was sent as the
new satrap of Caria and Ionia.
He was a clever diplomat, who paid a large amount of money to Agesilaus, under
the condition that he went back to the north and attacked Pharnabazus.
When Agesilaus was marching to the north again, he received new instructions
from the Spartan government: he had to sail to and attack Caria -which was suffering
from the change of satrap- and continue to the east, to Cilicia.
This strategy made sense. It had been employed by the Athenians in the fifth century,
and was a better way to expel the Persians from the Aegean region than fighting
against the satraps of Hellespontine Phrygia
and Caria/Ionia. Alexander the Great was to do the same thing in 333.
Unfortunately, Agesilaus was unable to do this. He raided the satrapy
of Pharnabazus (as he had promised to Tithraustes) and acquired large spoils.
But the satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia did not come to terms, and therefore,
the naval offensive had to be postponed. Agesilaus decided on a march to the interior
of Asia along the Royal road. However, his progress was slow because he was unable
to capture the towns - the Spartans were famous for their inability to conduct
siege warfare. This gave the Persians opportunity to build up a new navy, and
-even worse to the Spartan case- to find a capable admiral, the Athenian Conon.
In 395, Conon and the Persian navy captured Rhodes,
which was to be their base for operations in the Aegean
Sea. (A large corn fleet that Egypt
had sent to Sparta was captured, because its admiral did not know of the capture
of Rhodes.) Next year, Conon was ready to strike. But so was Agesilaus, who had
by now reached Gordium. However,
the summer of 395 had seen several risings against the Spartan hegemony in the
mainland of Greece, especially in Boeotia. This forced the Spartan government
to recall Agesilaus in the spring of 394.
We may speculate what would have happened if the Spartan hegemony
in Greece had remained unchallenged. In that case, the situation would have been
more or less identical to that of the year 333, when the Macedonian king Alexander
the Great raided the interior of Asia and the Persian admiral Pharnabazus conducted
operations in the Aegean Sea. The result was a Macedonian victory, and the same
may have been true for Agesilaus. On the other hand, Alexander knew how to conduct
a siege, something that the Spartan king did not.
However this may be, Agesilaus was forced to return to the Greek mainland
-he carried 1,000 talents of loot with him- where he defeated the Boeotians on
August 14, 394, near Coronea.
By now, the so-called Corinthian War had started: Sparta had to fight
against the Boeotians, Corinthians, Athenians, and the Persian navy. They had
gathered at Corinth to invade
the Peloponnese, but the Spartans
had defeated the invaders in June or July. Agesilaus' victory at Coronea
was a further Spartan success. Twenty-three years were to pass until a Greek army
dared to oppose the Spartans.
In 392-390, Agesilaus was the most important Spartan general in an
inconclusive war that concentrated on the region surrounding Corinth. In 389,
he was fighting in Acarnania
in the west, which he forced into surrender. However, the Spartans were unable
to break their opponents' strength, and the enemy coalition was incapable of pushing
back the Spartans. Both sides used mercenaries, which marked the beginning of
a professionalisation of the conduct of war.
Meanwhile, Conon and the Persian navy were master of the Aegean Sea
and ravaged the coasts of the Peloponnese. Persian gold sponsored Thebes
and Corinth. The Spartans understood that Persia was their real enemy, and opened
negotiations with Tiribazus, who had succeeded Tithraustes as satrap of Ionia
and Caria. At a peace congress, the Spartan envoy Antalcidas suggested the cession
of all Greek towns in Asia and requested the independence and autonomy of the
Greek towns in Europe.
By now, Athens had become dangerous for the Persian king Artaxerxes:
it had rebuilt parts of its empire and was threatening Cyprus.
Besides, it had concluded an alliance with the Egyptian king Achoris. Therefore,
the king agreed to Antalcidas' proposal. He was to side with Sparta for such time
as Athens refused to sign
a peace treaty. Antalcidas now seized the Athenian possessions near the Hellespont
and a second Spartan fleet blockaded Athens. Ultimately, Athens gave in, and the
so-called King's Peace was concluded: all Greek towns were to be independent and
autonomous, and the common peace was to be guaranteed by Sparta (387/386). In
other words, the war-weary towns on the Greek mainland accepted Sparta as their
leader, and the Greek towns in Asia were sacrificed to the great king.
For almost a decade, Greece remained more or less at peace. However,
in the last week of 379, Thebes revolted and expelled its Spartan garrison. At
Sparta, the conduct of the war was entrusted to Agesilaus. He took his task very
seriously, improved the recruiting system of the Spartan army, and invaded Boeotia
in the autumn of 378. However, he was unable to conduct a siege, the Thebans did
not offer battle, and he was forced to return to Sparta, having looted the country.
The same happened in 377. The garrisons that he left behind in Boeotia, were expelled
one by one by the Thebans.
The Theban successes in Boeotia
covered Athens, which reorganized its empire in the Second Delian League. The
Athenians were just as successful as the Thebans (377). When Athens had regained
its former naval superiority, it concluded a peace treaty with Sparta, which grudgingly
gave in to have its hands free in Boeotia (July 374).
In the summer of 371, the Spartan king Cleombrotus, Agesilaus' younger
colleague, invaded Boeotia with a large army that was to settle all accounts.
At Leuctra, it met the Theban army of Epaminondas, which was perhaps half the
size of the Spartan army. However, the Thebans placed their troops at an angle
with the Spartan troops, and were able to concentrate their forces on one section
of the Spartan battle line. They broke through the Spartan lines, and their victory
was complete. For the first time, the Spartans had been defeated by an army smaller
than their own. Even worse, it had hardly any soldiers left, and the next decades
it was to look for money to buy mercenaries.
Immediately, the Spartan coalition began to disintegrate. The Spartans
gave Agesilaus, now 73 or 74 years old, full powers to reform the constitution
and strengthen the army, but he did not have the imagination to find new ways.
In the winter of 370/369, the Boeotians again did the impossible:
they invaded the Peloponnese and attacked Sparta at home. The Spartan populace
wanted to attack the army of Epaminondas, but Agesilaus convinced them that they
were no match for the Thebans. However, he managed to defend Sparta itself - or
so it seemed. Probably, Epaminondas knew that looting Sparta was unnecessary,
because there was nothing to take away from this poor village. Meanwhile, Agesilaus
renewed the peace treaty with Athens.
In 368, Sparta was really defeated - without a battle. This time,
the Thebans managed to liberate the helots of Messenia,
which had always been the work force of the Spartans. This meant the economic
collapse of Sparta. Agesilaus sent envoys to Persia, but they did not obtain the
money Sparta needed to buy mercenaries. On the contrary, the great king wanted
the King's Peace to be renewed, with Thebes as supreme Greek power. To Athens
and Sparta, this was unacceptable.
Agesilaus now started a career as a mercenary leader. In 367, he joined
forces with Ariobarzanes, a satrap revolting against the great king. In this way,
he hoped to earn the money Sparta needed. He was not unsuccessful, and when the
Thebans again invaded the Peloponnese in 362, he managed to prevent the capture
of Sparta. However, when the Spartans and Athenians attacked the Theban expeditionary
force at Mantinea, they were
defeated.
The result was a stalemate, because the Theban leader Epaminondas
died in action. In the winter, a League of Greek City-States was formed, which
swore to observe a general peace. Unfortunately, Sparta was unable to join. It
could not accept the loss of Messenia and would try to force its inhabitants back
into servitude. However, it lacked the financial means to reorganize its army.
Therefore, Agesilaus again became a mercenary leader, this time siding with the
Egyptian king Teos, who was preparing an attack on the Persian territories in
Syria. However,
when his expeditionary force had reached Phoenicia, news arrived that Teos' brother
Tjahapimu, the governor of Egypt, had revolted and had offered the throne to Nectanebo
II (360). Almost immediately, Agesilaus sided with the new pharaoh. One of the
problems the new king had to cope with, was another would-be king at Mendes
in the eastern Delta, but the mercenaries of Agesilaus made quick work of him.
It was the last victory of the old man. Nectanebo no longer needed him, and sent
him back with a bonus of 250 talents. When Agesilaus reached Cyrene,
he fell ill and died. Nectanebo kindly ordered that the corpse would be royally
embalmed before it would be sent to Sparta.
This was the end of Agesilaus. He had been a courageous and disciplined
soldier, whose bad fortune it was that he had survived the era in which courage
and discipline were the road to success. In the fourth century, generals had to
be more creative, and this was precisely the quality he was lacking. Agesilaus
also lacked the imagination to reform the Spartan constitution after the defeat
at Leuctra. In spite of his
personal courage, he was the wrong man to lead Sparta after 371.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Lives, by Plurarch
Agesipolis I., king of Sparta, the twenty-first of the Agids beginning with Eurysthenes,
succeeded his father Pausanias, while yet a minor, in B. C. 394, and reigned fourteen
years. He was placed under the guardianship of Aristodemus, his nearest of kin.
He came to the crown just about the time that the confederacy (partly brought
about by the intrigues of the Persian satrap Tithraustes), which was formed by
Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos, against Sparta, rendered it necessary to recall
his colleague, Agesilaus II., from Asia; and the first military operation of his
reign was the expedition to Corinth, where the forces of the confederates were
then assembled. The Spartan army was led by Aristodemnus, and gained a signal
victory over the allies (Xen. Hell. iv. 2.9) In the year B. C. 390 Agesipolis,
who had now reached his majority, was entrusted with the command of an army for
the invasion of Argolis. Having procured the sanctions of the Olympic and Delphic
gods for disregarding any attempt which the Argives might make to stop his march,
on the pretext of a religious truce, he carried his ravages still farther than
Agesilaus had done in B. C. 393; but as he suffered the aspect of the victims
to deter him from occupying a permanent post, the expedition yielded no fruit
but the plunder (Xen. Hell. iv. 7.2-6; Paus. iii. 5.8). In B. C. 385 the Spartans,
seizing upon some frivolous pretexts, sent an expedition against Mantincia, in
which Agesipolis undertook the command, after it had been declined by Agesilaus.
In this expedition the Spartans were assisted by Thebes, and in a battle with
the Mantineans, Epaminondas and Pelopidas, who were fighting side by side, narrowly
escaped death. He took the town by diverting the river Ophis, so as to lay the
low grounds at tlie foot of the walls under water. The basements, being made of
unbaked bricks, were unable to resist the action of the water. The walls soon
began to totter, and the Mantineans were forced to surrender. They were admitted
to terms on condition that the population should be dispersed among the four hamlets,
out of which it had been collected to form the capital. The democratical leaders
were permitted to go into exile (Xen. Hell. v. 2.1-7; Paus. viii. 8.5; Diod. xv.
5, &c.; Plut. Pelop. 4.)
Early in B. C. 382, an embassy came to Sparta from the cities of Acanthus
and Apollonia, requesting assistance against the Olynthians, who were endeavouring
to compel them to join their confederacy. The Spartans granted it, but were not
at first very successful. After the defeat and death of Teleutias in the second
campaign (B. C. 381) Agesipolis took the command. He set out in 381, but did not
begin operations till the spring of 380. He then acted with great vigour, and
took Torone by storm; but in the midst of his successes he was seized with a fever,
which carried him off in seven days. He died at Aphytis, in the peninsula of Pallene.
His body was immersed in honey and conveyed home to Sparta for burial. Though
Agesipolis did not share the ambitious views of foreign conquest cherished by
Agesilaus, his loss was deeply regretted by that prince, who seems to have had
a sincere regard for him (Xen. Hell. v. 3. 8-9, 18-19; Diod. xv. 22).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cleombrotus I. (Kleombrotos), the 23rd king of Sparta, of the Agid line, was the son of Pausanias. He succeeded his brother Agesipolis I. in the year 380 B. C., and reigned nine years. After the deliverance of Thebes from the domination of Sparta, Cleombrotus was sent into Boeotia, at the head of a Lacedaemonian army, in the spring of 378, but he only spent sixteen days in the Theban territory without doing any injury, and then returned home, leaving Sphodrias as harmost at Thespiae. On his march home his army suffered severely from a storm. His conduct excited much disapprobation at Sparta, and the next two expeditions against Thebes were entrusted to the other king, Agesilaus II. In the year 376, on account of the illness of Agesilaus, the command was restored to Cleombrotus, who again effected nothing, but returned to Sparta in consequence of a slight repulse in the passes of Cithaeron. This created still stronger dissatisfaction: a congress of the allies was held at Sparta, and it was resolved to prosecute the war by sea. In the spring of 374, Cleombrotus was sent across the Corinthian gulf into Phocis, which had been invaded by the Thebans, who, however, retreated into Boeotia upon his approach. He remained in Phocis till the year 371, when, in accordance with the policy by which Thebes was excluded from the peace between Athens and Sparta, he was ordered to march into Boeotia. Having avoided Epaminondas, who was guarding the pass of Coroneia, he marched down upon Creusis, which he took, with twelve Theban triremes which were in the harbour; and he then advanced to the plains of Leuctra, where he met the Theban army. He seems to have been desirous of avoiding a battle, though he was superior to the enemy in numbers, but his friends reminded him of the suspicions he had before incurred by his former slowness to act against the Thebans, and warned him of the danger of repeating such conduct in the present crisis. In accusing Cleombrotus of rashness in fighting, Cicero (Off. i. 24) seems to have judged by the result. There was certainly as much hesitation on the other side. In the battle which ensued he fought most bravely, and fell mortally wounded, and died shortly after he was carried from the field. According to Diodorus, his fall decided the victory of the Thebans. He was succeeded by his son Agesipolis II. (Xen. Hell. v. 4.14-18, 59, vi. 1.1, c. 4.15; Plut. Pelop. 13, 20-23, Ages. 28; Diod. xv. 51-55; Paus. i. 13.2, iii. 6.1, ix. 13.2-4)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agesipolis II., son of Cleombrotus, was the 23rd king of the Agid line. He ascended the throne B. C. 37], and reigned one year (Paus. iii. 6.1; Diod. xv. 60).
Cleomenes II., the 25th king of Sparta of the Agid line, was the son of Cleombrotus I. and the
brother of Agesipolis II., whom he succeeded in B. C. 370. He died in B. C. 309,
after a reign of sixty years and ten months; but during this long period we have
no information about him of any importance. He had two sons, Acrotatus and Cleonymus.
Acrotatus died during the life of Cleomenes, upon whose death Areus, the son of
Acrotatus, succeeded to the throne (Diod. xx. 29; Plut. Agis, 3; Paus. i. 13.3,
iii. 6.1; Diod. xv. 60, contradicts himself about the time that Cleomenes reigned,
and is evidently wrong)
Archidamus III., king of Sparta, 20th of the Eurypontids, was son of Agesilaus II. We first hear of him as interceding with his father in behalf of Sphodrias, to whose son Cleonymus he was attached, and who was thus saved, through the weak affection of Agesilaus, from the punishment which his unwarrantable invasion of Attica had deserved, B. C. 378 (Xen. Hell. v. 4.25-33; Diod. xv. 29; Plut. Ages. c. 25; comp. Plut. Pel. c. 14). In B. C. 371, he was sent, in consequence of the illness of Agesilaus (Xen. Hell. v. 4.58; Plut. Ages. c. 27), to succour the defeated Spartans at Leuctra; but Jason of Pherae had already mediated between them and the Thebans, and Archidanmus, meeting his countrymen on their return at Aegosthena in Megara, dismissed the allies, and led the Spartans home (Xen. Hell. vi. 4.17-26; comp. Diod. xv. 54, 55). In 367, with the aid of the auxiliaries furnished by Dionysius I. of Syracuse, he defeated the Arcadians and Argives in what has been called the "Tearless Battle", from the statement in his despatches, that he had won it without losing a man (Xen. Hell. vii. 1.28; Plut. Ages. c. 33; Polyaen. i. 45; Diod. xv. 72); and to the next year, 366, must be taken assigned the "Archidamus" of Isocrates, written perhaps to be delivered by the prince in the Spartion senate, to encourage his country in her resolution of maintaining her claim to Messenia, when Corinth had made, with Sparta's consent, a separate peace with Thebes (Xen. Hell. vii. 4.9). In 364, he was again sent against Arcadia, then at war with Elis (Xen. Hell. vii. 4.20, &c.; Just. vi. 5); and in 362, having been left at home to protect Sparta while Agesilaus went to join the allies at Mantineia, he baffled the attempt of Epaminondas on the city (Xen. Hell. vii. 5.9, &c.; Diod. xv. 82, 83; Plut. Ages.c.34; Isocr.Ep.ad Arch.). He succeeded his father on the throne in 361. In 356, we find him privately furnishing Philomelus, the Phocian, with fifteen talents, to aid him in his resistance to the Amphictyonic decree and his seizure of Delphi, whence arose the sacred war (Diod. xvi. 24; Just. viii. 1; comp. Paus. iv. 4 ; Theopomp. ap. Paus. iii. 10). In 352, occurred the war of Sparta against Megalopolis with a view to the dissolution (dioikismos) of that community; and Archidamus was appointed to the command, and gained some successes, though the enterprise did not ultimately succeed (Diod. xvi. 39; Paus. viii. 27; Demosth. pro Megal.; comp. Aristot. Polit. v. 10). In the last year of the sacred war, 346, we find Archidamus marching into Phocis at the head of 1000 men. According to Diodorus (xvi. 59), the Phocians had applied for aid to Sparta, but this seems questionable from what Aeschines (de Fals. Leg.) reports as the advice of the Phocian leaders to Archidamus, "to alarm himself about the dangers of Sparta rather than of Phocis". Demosthenes (de Flls. Leg.) hints at a private understanding between Philip and the Spartans, and at some treachery of his towards them. Whether however on this account, or as being distrusted by Phalaecus (Aesch. de Fals. Leg.), or as finding it impossible to effect anything on behalf of the Phocians, Archidamus, on the arrival of Philip, withdrew his forces and returned home. In 338, he went to Italy to aid the Tarentines against the Lucanians, and there he fell in battle on the very day, according to Diodorus, of Philip's victory at Chacroneia (Diod. xvi. 63, 88; Paus. iii. 10; Strab. vi.; Theopomp. ap. Athen. xii.; Plut. Agis, c. 3). The Spartans erected a statue of him at Olympia, which is mentioned by Pansanias (vi. ch. 4, 15).
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Agis III., the elder son of Archidamus III., was the 20th king of the Eurypontid line. His reign was short, but eventful. He succeeded his father in B. C. 338. In B. C. 333, we find him going with a single trireme to the Persian commanders in the Aegean, Pharnabazus and Autophradates, to request money and an armament for carryiug on hostile operations against Alexander in Greece. They gave him 30 talents and 10 triremes. The news of the battle of Issus, however, put a check upon their plans. He sent the galleys to his brother Agesilaus, with instructions to sail with them to Crete, that he might secure that island for the Spartan interest. In this he seems in a great measure to have succeeded. Two years afterwards (B. C. 331), the Greek states which were leagued together against Alexander, seized the opportunity of the disaster of Zopyrion and the revolt of the Thracians, to declare war against Macedonia. Agis was invested with the command, and with the Lacedaemonian troops, and a body of 8000 Greek mercenaries, who had been present at the battle of Issus, gained a decisive victory over a Macedonian army under Corragus. Having been joined by the other forces of the league he laid siege to Megalopolis. The city held out till Antipater came to its relief, when a battle ensued, in which Agis was defeated and killed. It happened about the time of the battle of Arbela. (Arrian, ii. 13 ; Diod. xvi. 63, 68, xvii. 62; Aesch. c. Ctesiph. p. 77; Curt. vi. 1; Justin, xii. 1)
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Areus I., succeeded his grandfather, Cleomenes II., as king of Sparta, of the Eurysthenid
family, B. C. 309, his father, Acrotatus, having died before him. He reigned 44
years (Diod. xx. 29).
In the year 280 B. C., a league of the Greek states was formed, at
the instigation of Sparta, acting under the influence of its ally, Ptolemy Ceraunus,
to free themselves from the dominion of Antigonus Gonatas. The first blow was
struck by Areus, who, having obtained a decree of the Amphyctions against the
Aetolians, because they had cultivated the sacred land of Cirrha, attacked Cirrha
unexpectedly, and plundered and burnt the town. His proceedings were viewed by
the Aetolian shepherds on the mountains, who formed themselves into a body of
about 500 men, and attacked the scattered troops of Areus. These, ignorant of
the number of their enemies, were struck with a panic and fled, leaving 9000 of
their number dead. Thus the expedition turned out fruitless, and the attempts
of Sparta to renew the war met with no encouragement from the other states, which
suspected that the real design of Sparta was not to liberate Greece, but to obtain
the supremacy for herself (Justin, xxiv. 1: it is scarcely credible that the numbers
can be right).
When Sparta was attacked by Pyrrhus, in B. C. 272, Areus was absent
on an expedition in Crete. He returned straight to Sparta, and formed an alliance
with the Argives, the effect of which was, that Pyrrhus drew off his forces from
Sparta to attack Argos (Paus. iii. 6.2; Plut. Pyrrh. 26-29). In the year 267,
Areus united with Ptolemy Philadelphus in an unsuccessful attempt to save Athens
from Antigonus Gonatas (Paus. iii. 6.3; Justin, xxvi. 2). He fell in a battle
against the Macedonians at Corinth, in the next year but one, 265 B. C., and was
succeeded by his son Acrotatus (Plut. Agis, 3; Justin, xxvi., Prol.). He was the
king of Sparta to whom the Jews sent the embassy mentioned in 1 Macc. xii. 20.
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Archidamus IV., king of Sparta, 23rd of the Eurypontids, was the son of Eudamidas I. and the grandson of Archidamus III. (Plut. Agis, 3.) He was king in. c. 296, when he was defeated by Demetrius Poliorcetes. (Plut. Demetr. 35)
Areus II., a posthumous son of Acrotatus, was born as king probably in 264 A. D., and died at the age of eight years. He was succeeded by his great uncle, Leonidas II. (Plut. Agis, 3; Paus. iii. 6.3)
Agis IV., the elder son of Eudamidas II., was the 24th king of the Eurypontid line. He succeeded his father in B. C. 244, and reigned four years. In B. C. 243, after the liberation of Corinth by Aratus, the general of the Achaean league, Agis led an army against him, but was defeated (Paus. ii. 8.4). The interest of his reign, however, is derived from events of a different kind. Through the influx of wealth and luxury, with their concomitant vices, the Spartans had greatly degenerated from the ancient simplicity and severity of manners. Not above 700 families of the genuine Spartan stock remained, and in consequence of the innovation introduced by Epitadeus, who procured a repeal of the law which secured to every Spartan head of a family an equal portion of land, the landed property had passed into the hands of a few individuals, of whom a great number were females, so that not above 100 Spartan families possessed estates, while the poor were burdened with debt. Agis, who from his earliest youth had shewn his attachment to the ancient discipline, undertook to reform these abuses, and re-establish the institutions of Lycurgus. For this end he determined to lay before the Spartan senate a proposition for the abolition of all debts and a new partition of the lands. Anotherpart of his plan was to give landed estates to the Perioeci. His schemes were warmly seconded by the poorer classes and the young men, and as strenuously opposed by the wealthy. He succeeded, however, in gaining over three very influential persons,--his uncle Agesilaus (a man of large property, but who, being deeply involved in debt, hoped to profit by the innovations of Agis), Lysander, and Mandrocleides. Having procured Lysander to be elected one of the ephors, he laid his plans before the senate. He proposed that the Spartan territory should be divided into two portions, one to consist of 4500 equal lots, to be divided amongst the Spartans, whose ranks were to be filled up by the admission of the most respectable of the Perioeci and strangers; the other to contain 15,000 equal lots, to be divided- amongst the Perioeci. The senate could not at first come to a decision on the matter. Lysander, therefore, convoked the assembly of the people, to whom Agis submitted his measure, and offered to make the first sacrifice, by giving up his lands and money, telling them that his mother and grandmother, who were possessed of great wealth, with all his relations and friends, would follow his example. His generosity drew down the applauses of the multitude. The opposite party, however, headed by Leonidas, the other king, who had formed his habits at the luxurious court of Seleucus, king of Syria, got the senate to reject the measure, though only by one vote. Agis now determined to rid himself of Leonidas. Lysander accordingly accused him of having violated the laws by marrying a stranger and living in a foreign land. Leonidas was deposed, and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Cleombrotus, who co-operated with Agis. Soon afterwards, however, Lysander's term of office expired, and the ephors of the following year were opposed to Agis, and designed to restore Leonidas. They brought an accusation against Lysander and Mandroclcides, of attempting to violate the laws. Alarmed at the turn events were taking, the two latter prevailed on the kings to depose the ephors by force and appoint others in their room. Leonidas, who had returned to the city, fled to Tegea, and in his flight was protected by Agis from the violence meditated against him by Agesilaus. The selfish avarice of the latter frustrated the plans of Agis, when there now seemed nothing to oppose the execution of them. He persuaded his nephew and Lysander that the most effectual way to secure the consent of the wealthy to the distribution of their lands, would be, to begin by cancelling the debts. Accordingly all bonds, registers, and securities were piled up in the market place and burnt. Agesilaus, having secured his own ends, contrived various pretexts for delaying the division of the lands. Meanwhile the Achaeans applied to Sparta for assistance against the Aetolians. Agis was accordingly sent at the head of an army. The cautious movements of Aratus gave Agis no opportunity of distinguishing himself in action, but he gained great credit by the excellent discipline he preserved among his troops. During his absence Agesilaus so incensed the poorer classes by his insolent conduct and the continued postponement of the division of the lands, that they made no opposition when the enemies of Agis openly brought back Leonidas and set him on the throne. Agis and Cleombrotus fled for sanctuary, the former to the temple of Athene Chalcioecus, the latter to the temple of Poseidon. Cleombrotus was suffered to go into exile. Agis was entrapped by some treacherous friends and thrown into prison. Leonidas immediately came with a band of mercenaries and secured the prison without, while the ephors entered it, and went through the mockery of a trial. When asked if he did not repent of what he had attempted, Agis replied, that he should never repent of so glorious a design, even in the face of death. He was condemned, and precipitately executed, the ephors fearing a rescue, as a great concourse of people had assembled round the prison gates. Agis, observing that one of his executioners was moved to tears, said, " Weep not for me: suffering, as I do, unjustly, I am in a happier case than my murderers." His mother Agesistrate and his grandmother were strangled on his body. Agis was the first king of Sparta who had been put to death by the ephors. Pausanias, who, however, is undoubtedly wrong, says (viii. 10. § 4, 27. § 9), that he fell in battle. His widow Agiatis was forcibly married by Leonidas to his son Cleomenes, but nevertheless they entertained for each other a mutual affection and esteem (Plutarch, Agis, Cleomenes, Aratus; Paus. vii. 7.2)
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Archidameia, the grandmother of Agis IV., was put to death, together with her grandson, in B. C. 240. (Plut. Agis, 4, 20)
Cleombrotus II., the 30th king of Sparta of the Agid line, was of the royal race, though not in
the direct male line. He was also the son-in-law of Leonidas II., in whose place
he was made king by the party of Agis IV. about 243 B. C. On the return of Leonidas,
Cleombrotus was deposed and banished to Tegea, about 240 B. C. He was accompanied
into exile by his wife Cheilonis, through whose intercession with her father his
life had been spared, and who is mentioned as a conspicuous example of conjugal
affection. He left two sons, Agesipolis and Cleomenes, of whom the former became
the father and the latter the guardian of Agesipolis III. (Plut. Agis, 11, 16-18;
Paus. iii. 6; Polyb. iv. 35)
Archidamus V., king of Sparta, 27th of the Eurypontids, was the son of Eudamidas II., and the brother of Agis IV. On the murder of his brother Agis, in B. C. 240, Archidamus fled from Sparta, but obtained possession of the throne some time after the accession of Cleomenes, through the means of Aratus, who wished to weaken the power of the Ephors: it appears that also was privy to his recall. Archidamus was, however, slain almost immediately after his return to Sparta, by those who had killed his brother and who dreaded his vengeance. It isdoubtful whether Cleomenes was a party to the murder (Plut. Cleom. 1, 5; comp. Polyb. v. 37, viii. 1). Archidamus V. was the last king of the Eurypontid race. He left sons, who were alive at the death of Cleomenes in B. C. 220, but they were passed over, and the crown given to a stranger, Lycurgus. (Polyb. iv. 35)
Son of Agis IV., king of Sparta, poisoned by Cleomenes, with the assistance of the ephors, and the royal power of his family transferred to his brother Eucleides. (Paus. ii. 9.1, iii. 10.6)
Cleomenes III., the 31st king of Sparta of the Agid line, was the son of Leonidas
II. After the death of Agis IV., B. C. 240, Leonidas married his widow Agiatis
to Cleomenes, who was under age, in order, as it seems, to bring into his family
the inheritance of the Proclidae. Agiatis, though at first violently opposed to
the match, conceived a great affection for her husband, and she used to explain
to him the principles and designs of Agis, about which he was eager for information.
Cleomenes was endowed, according to Plutarch, with a noble spirit; in moderation
and simplicity of life he was not inferior to Agis, but superior to him in energy,
and less scrupulous about the means by which his good designs might be accomplished.
His mind was further stirred up to manliness and ambition by the instructions
of the Stoic philosopher Sphaerus of Borysthenes, who visited Sparta. To this
was added the influence of his mother Cratesicleia. It was not long, therefore,
before Cleomenes had formed the design of restoring the ancient Spartan discipline,
and the death of his father, whom he succeeded (B. C. 236), put him in a position
to attempt his projected reform; but he saw that careful preparations must first
be made, and that Sparta was not to be restored by the means which Agis had employed.
Instead of repeating the vain attempt of Agis to form a popular party against
the Ephors, the impossibility of which was proved by the refusal of Xenares, one
of his most intimate friends, to aid his efforts, he perceived that the regeneration
of Sparta must be achieved by restoring to her her old renown in war, and by raising
her to the supremacy of Greece; and then that, the restored strength of the state
being centred in him as its leader, he might safely attempt to crush the power
of the Ephors. It was thus manifest that his policy must be war, his enemy the
Achaean league. Lydiadas, the former tyrant of Megalopolis, foresaw the danger
which the league might apprehend from Cleomenes; but the counsels of Aratus, who
was blind to this danger, prevailed; and the proposal of Lydiadas, to make the
first attack on Sparta, was rejected.
The first movement of Cleomenes was to seize suddenly and by treachery
the Arcadian cities, Tegea, Mantineia, and Orchomenus, which had recently united
themselves with the Aetolians, who, instead of resenting the injury, confirmed
Cleomenes in the possession of them. The reason of this was, that the Aetolians
had already conceived the project of forming an alliance with Macedonia and Sparta
against the Achaean league. It is probable that they even connived at the seizure
of these towns by Cleomenes, who thus secured an excellent position for his operations
against the league before commencing war with it. Aratus, who was now strategos,
at last perceived the danger which threatened from Sparta, and, with the other
chiefs of the Achaean league, he resolved not to attack the Lacedaemonians, but
to resist any aggression they might make. About the beginning of the year 227
B. C., Cleomenes, by the order of the Ephors, seized the little town of Belbina,
and fortified the temple of Athena near it. This place commanded the mountain
pass on the high road between Sparta and Megalopolis, and was at that period claimed
by both cities, though anciently it had belonged to Sparta. Aratus made no complaint
at its seizure, but attempted to get possession of Tegea and Orchomenus by treachery.
But, when he marched out in the night to take possession of them, the conspirators,
who were to deliver up the towns, lost courage. The attempt was made known to
Cleomenes, who wrote in ironical terms of friendship to ask Aratus whither he
had led his army in the night ? "To prevent your fortifying Belbina", was the
reply. "Pray then, if you have no objection", retorted Cleomenes, "tell us why
you took with you lights and scaling ladders". By this correspondence Aratus found
out with whom he had to do. Tile Spartans, on the other hand, were satisfied with
the important advantage which they had gained in the fortification of Belbina;
and Cleomenes, who was in Arcadia with only three hundred foot and a few horse,
was recalled by the Ephors. His back was no sooner turned than Aratus seized Caphyae,
near Orchomenus. The Ephors immediately sent back Cleomenes, who took Methydrion,
and made an incursion into the territories of Argos. About this time Aristomachus
succeeded Aratus as strategos of the Achaean league (in May, 227, B. C.), and
to this period perhaps should be referred the declaration of war against Cleomenes
by the council of the Achaeans, which is mentioned by Polybius. Aristomachus collected
an army of 20,000 foot and 1000 horse, with which he met Cleomenes near Palantium;
and, though the latter had only 5000 men, they were so eager and brave that Aratus
persuaded Aristomachus to decline battle. The fact is, that the Achaeans were
never a warlike people, and Aratus was very probably right in thinking that 20,000
Achaeans were no match for 5000 Spartans. But the moral effect of this affair
was worth more than a victory to Cleomenes. In May, 226, Aratus again became strategos,
and led the Achaean forces against Elis. The Eleans applied to Sparta for aid,
and Cleomenes met Aratus on his return, at the foot of Mount Lycaeum, in the territory
of Megalopolis, and defeated him with great slaughter. It was at first reported
that Aratus was killed; but he had only fled; and, having rallied part of his
army, he took Mantineia by a sudden assault, and revolutionized its constitution
by making the metoeci citizens. The effect of this change was the formation of
an Achaean party in the town.
Cleomenes had not yet taken any open steps against the Ephors, though
he could not but be an object of suspicion to them; they were however in a difficult
position. The spirit of Agis still lived in the Spartan youth; and Cleomenes,
at the head of his victorious army, was too strong to be crushed like Agis. Secret
assassination might have been employed -and when was a Spartan ephor heard of
who would have scrupled to use it?- but then they would have lost the only man
capable of carrying on the war, and Sparta must have fallen into the position
of a subordinate member of the Achaean league. They appear, however, to have taken
advantage of the loss of Mantineia to make a truce with the Achaeans (Paus. viii.
27. Β10). Cleomenes now took measures to strengthen himself against them. These
measures are differently represented by Phylarchus, the panegyrist of Cleomenes,
whom Plutarch seems on the whole to have followed, and by Polybius and Pausanias,
who followed Aratus and other Achaean writers. At the death of Agis, his infant
son, Eurydamidas, was left in the hands of his mother, Agiatis; and Archidamus,
the brother of Agis, fled into Messenia, according to the statement of Plutarch,
which, from the nature of the case, is far more probable than the account of Polybius
(v. 37.2, viii. 1.3), that Archidamus fled at a later period, through fear of
Cleomenes. Eurydamidas was now dead, poisoned, it was said, by the Ephors, and
that too, according to Pausanias (ii. 9.1), at the instigation of Cleomenes. The
falsity of this last statement is proved by the silence of Polybius, who never
spares Cleomenes, but it may serve to shew how recklessly he was abused by some
of the Achaean party. Archidamus had thus become the rightful heir to the throne
of the Proclidae, and he was invited by Cleomenes to return; but no sooner had
he set foot in Sparta than he was assassinated. This crime also is charged upon
Cleomenes by the Achaean party, and among them by Polybius. The truth cannot now
be ascertained, but every circumstance of the case seems to fix the guilt upon
the Ephors. Cleomenes had everything to hope, and the Ephors everything to fear,
from the association of Archidamus in his councils. Cleomenes, it is true, did
nothing to avenge the crime: but the reason of this was, that the time for his
attack upon the Ephors was not yet come; and thus, instead of an evidence of his
guilt, it is a striking proof of his patient resolution, that he submitted to
incur such a suspicion rather than to peril the object of his life by a premature
movement. On the contrary, he did everything to appease the party of the Ephors.
He bribed them largely, by the help of his mother Cratesicleia, who even went
so far as to marry one of the chief men of the oligarchical party. Through the
influence thus gained, Cleomenes was permitted to continue the war; he took Leuctra,
and gained a decisive victory over Aratus beneath its walls, owing to the impetuosity
of Lydiadas, who was killed in the battle. The conduct of Aratus, in leaving Lydiadas
unsupported, though perhaps it saved his army, disgusted and dispirited the Achaeans
to such a degree, that they made no further efforts during this campaign, and
Cleomenes was left at leisure to effect his long-cherished revolution during the
winter which now came on (B. C. 226-225).
Having secured the aid of his father-in-law, Megistonus, and of two
or three other persons, he first weakened the oligarchical party by drafting many
of its chief supporters into his army, with which he then again took the field,
seized the Achaean cities of Heraea and Asea, threw supplies into Orchomenus,
beleaguered Mantineia, and so wearied out his soldiers, that they were glad to
be left in Arcadia, while Cleomenes himself marched back to Sparta at the head
of a force of mercenaries, surprised the Ephors at table, and slew all of them,
except Agesilaus, who took sanctuary in the temple of Fear, and had his life granted
afterwards by Cleomenes. Having struck this decisive blow, and being supported
not only by his mercenaries, but also by the remains of the party of Agis, Cleomenes
met with no further resistance. He now propounded his new constitution, which
is too closely connected with the whole subject of the Spartan polity to be explained
within the limits of this article. All that can be said here is, that he extended
the power of the kings, abolished the Ephorate, restored the community of goods,
made a new division of the lands, and recruited the body of the citizens, by bringing
back the exiles and by raising to the full franchise the most deserving of those
who had not before possessed it. He also restored, to a great extent, the ancient
Spartan system of social and military discipline. In the completion of this reform
he was aided by the philosopher Sphaerus. The line of the Proclidae being extinct,
he took his brother Eucleidas for his colleague in the kingdom. In his own conduct
he set a fine example of the simple virtue of an old Spartan.
From this period must be dated the contest between the Achaeans and Cleomenes
for the supremacy of Greece, which Polybius calls the Cleomenic war,
and which lasted three years, from B. C. 225 to the battle of Sellasia in the
spring of B. C. 222. For its details, of which a slight sketch is given under
Aratus, the reader is referred to the historians. Amidst a career of brilliant
success, Cleomenes committed some errors, but, even if he had avoided them, he
could not but have been overpowered by the united force of Macedonia and the Achaean
league. The moral character of the war is condensed by Niebuhr into one just and
forcible sentence: "Old Aratus sacrificed the freedom of his country by an act
of high treason, and gave up Corinth rather than establish the freedom of Greece
by a union among the Peloponnesians, which would have secured to Cleomenes the
influence and power he deserved".
From the defeat of Sellasia, Cleomenes returned to Sparta, and having
advised the citizens to submit to Antigonus, he fled to his ally, Ptolemy Euergetes,
at Alexandria, where his mother and children were already residing as hostages.
Any hope he might have had of recovering his kingdom by the help of Ptolemy Euergetes
was defeated by the death of that king, whose successor, Ptolemy Philopator, treated
Cleomenes with the greatest neglect, and his minister, Sosibius, imprisoned him
on a charge of conspiracy against the king's life. Cleomenes, with his attendants,
escaped from prison, and attempted to raise an insurrection against Ptolemy, but
finding no one join him, he put himself to death (B. C. 221-220). His reign lasted
16 years. He is rightly reckoned by Pausanias (iii. 6.5) as the last of the Agidae,
for his nominal successor, Agesipolis III., was a mere puppet. He was the last
truly great man of Sparta, and, excepting perhaps Philopoemen, of all Greece.
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Epicleidas (Epikleidas), brother of Cleomenes III., king of Sparta. According to Pausanias (ii. 9.1.3), Cleomenes poisoned Eurydamidas, his colleague of the house of Proclus, and shared the royal power with his brother Epicleidas. The latter afterwards fell in the battle of Sellasia, B. C. 222.
Lycurgus. A Lacedaemonian, who, though not of the royal blood, was chosen king, in B. C. 220, together with Agesipolis III., after the death of Cleomenes; in the words of Polybius, "by giving a talent to each of the Ephori, he hecame a descendant of Heracles and king of Sparta." It was not long before he deposed his colleague and made himself sole sovereign, though under the control of the Ephori. Placed on the throne by the party favourable to Aetolia, he readily listened to the instigations of Machatas, the Aetolian envoy, to make war on Philip V. of Macedon, and the Achaeans. Having invaded Argolis and taken several towns, he laid siege to the fortress named Athenaeum, in the district of Belbina, claimed by the Megalopolitans as their territory, and took it in conselquenct of the dilatory conduct of Aratus, to whom it looked for succour, B. C. 219. In the same year he barely escaped with his life from the conspiracy of Cheilon, and fled for refuge to Pellene on the western frontier of Laconia. In B. C. 218 he made an incursion into Messenia, simultaneously with the invasion of Thessaly by Dorimachus, the Aetolian, in the hope of drawing Philip away from the siege of Palus in Cephallenia; but Philip, while he himself invaded Aetolia, desired Eperatus, the Achaean general, to go to the relief of the Messenians. Lycurgus effected little in Messenia, and [p. 858] was equally unsuccessful in the same year, in an attempt which he made on the citadel of Tegea, and also in his endeavour to intercept and defeat Philip in the passes of the Menelaion, on his return from his invasion of Laconia. Not long after, he was falsely accused to the Ephori of revolutionary designs, and was obliged to flee to Aetolia for safety. In the following year, however (B. C. 217), the Ephori discovered the groundlessness of the charge and recalled him; and soon after he made an inroad into Messenia, in which he was to have been joined by Pyrrhias, the Aetolian general, but the latter was repulsed in his attempt to pass the frontier, and Lycurgus returned to Sparta without having effected any thing. He died about B. C. 210, and Machanidas then made himself tyrant. (Pol. iv. 2, 35-37, 60, 81, v. 5, 17, 21-23, 29, 91, 92; Paus. iv. 29; Liv. xxxiv. 26.) Lycurgus left a son named Pelops, who was put to death by Nabis, B. C. 205. (Diod. Exc. de Virt. et Vit.; Vales. and Wess. ad loc.)
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Agesipolis III., the 31st of the Agid line, was the son of Agesipolis, and grandson of Cleombrotus II. After the death of Cleomenes he was elected king while still a minor, and placed under the guardianship of his uncle Cleomenes. (Polyb. iv. 35.) He was however soon deposed by his colleague Lycurgus, after the death of Cleomenes. We hear of him next in B. C. 195, when he was at the head of the Lacedaemonian exiles, who joined Flamininus in his attack upon Nabis, the tyrant of Lacedaemon. (Liv. xxxiv. 26.) He formed one of an embassy sent about B. C. 183 to Rome by the Lacedaemonian exiles, and, with his companions, was intercepted by pirates and killed (Polyb. xxiv. 11)
Son of Echestratus, king of Sparta, Lycurgus' wardcalled Leobotes by Herodotus.
Labotas, fourth king of Sparta in the line of Agis, has nothing recorded of his reign except that he saw the commencement of the Spartan quarrel with Argos (Paus. iii. 2. Β 3). Herodotus says that Lycurgus was his uncle and guardian. The other account, which names the Proclid Charilaus as the name of the young king, is so generally stated by ancient writers, that, although Pausanias read the passage in Herodotus as it now stands, Wesseling and Clinton approve the correction, epitropeuonta adelphideou men heoutou, Basileuontos de Spartieteon Leoboteo (Herod. i. 65). A similar difficulty attaches to the name, which Pausanias says Herodotus spelt Leobutes; whereas our MSS., it seems, have only Leoboteo and Leobateo.
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A king of Sparta, son of Labotas.
A Spartan king, son of Archelaus, king of Sparta, slain by Messenians at Limnae.
A king of Sparta, son of Alcamenes.
Eurycrates I, son of Polydorus, was the 11th king of Sparta in the Agid house: his reign was coincident with the conclusion of the first Messenian war. (Paus. iii. 3.3)
Eurycrates II, son of Anaxander, king of Sparta, called also (Herod. vii. 204) Eurycratides, was 13th of the same line, and reigned during the earlier and disastrous part of the war with Tegea (Herod. i. 65), which his grandson Anaxandrides brought to a happy issue. (Paus. iii. 3.5)
Leon, son of Eurycrates, 14th king of the Agid line at Sparta. In his time the Spartans were worsted in their war with Tegea. His son was Anaxandrides, the contemporary of Croesus (Herod. i. 65; Paus. iii. 3.5).
King of Sparta, son of Anaxandrides, brother of Dorieus and Cleombrotus, his command and death at Thermopylae, atonement for his death demanded by Sparta, Pausanias' refusal to avenge Leonidas on Mardonius' dead body, his bones brought from Thermopylae to Sparta.
Leonidas, king of Sparta, 17th of the Agids, was one of the sons of Anaxandrides
by his first wife, and, according to some accounts, was twin-brother to Cleombrotus
(Herod. v. 39-41; Paus. iii. 3). He succeeded on the throne his half-brother Cleomenes
I., about B. C. 491, his elder brother Dorieus also having previously died. When
Greece was invaded by Xerxes, the Greek congress, which was held at the Isthmus
of Corinth, determined that a stand should be made against the enemy at the pass
of Thermopylae, and Leonidas had the command of the force destined for this service.
The number of his army is varionsly stated: according to Herodotus, it amounted
to somewhat more than 5000 men, of whom 300 were Spartans; in all probability,
the regular band of (so called) hippeis selected by the Hippagretae, tous katesteotas
triekosious, as Herodotus calls them. The remainder of the Lacedaemonian force
was to follow after the celebration of the festival of the Carneia. Plutarch affirms
that funeral games were celebrated in honour of Leonidas and his comrades, before
their departure from Sparta; according also to him and Diodorus, it was said at
the same time by the self-devoting hero, that the men he took with him were indeed
few to fight, but enough to die; and, when his wife, Gorgo, asked him what his
last wishes were, he answered, "Marry a brave husband and bear brave sons". All
this, however, has very much the air of a late and rhetorical addition to the
story; nor is it certain that Leonidas and his band looked forward to their own
death as the inevitable result of their expedition, though Herodotus tells us
that he selected for it such only as had sons to leave behind them,and mentions
an oracle besides, which declared that Sparta could not be saved from ruin but
by the death of her king. When the Greek army was assembled at Thermopylae, there
was a prevalent desire on the part of the Peloponnesians to fall back on the Isthmus,
and make their stand against the Persians there; and it was mainly through the
influence of Leonidas that the scheme, selfish at once and impolitic, was abandoned.
The sayings ascribed to him before the battle by Plutarch are well-known and characteristic
enough of a Spartan, but are probably the rhetorical inventions of a later age.
When it was known that the treachery of the Malian Epbialtes had betrayed the
mountain path of the Anopaea to the Persians, after their vain attempts to force
their way through the pass of Thermopylae, Leonidas, declaring that he and the
Spartans under his command must needs remain in the post they had been sent to
guard, dismissed all the other Greeks, except the Thespian and Theban forces.
Then, before the body of Persians, who were crossing the mountain under Hydarnes,
could arrive to attack him in the rear, he advanced from the narrow pass and charged
the myriads of the enemy with his handful of troops, hopeless now of preserving
their lives, and anxious only to sell them dearly. In the desperate battle which
ensued, Leonidas himself fell soon. His body was rescued by the Greeks, after
a violent struggle. On the hillock in the pass, where the remnant of the Greeks
made their last stand, a lion of stone (so Herodotus tells us) was set up in his
honour; and Pausanias says that his bones were brought to Sparta forty years after,
by one named Pausanias; but if he was the same who commanded at the battle of
Plataea, " forty" must be an erroneous reading for " four" (see Larcher, ad Herod.
vii. 225). The later story of Leonidas and his followers perishing in a night-attack
on the Persian camp is unworthy of credit.
(Herod. vii. 175, 202-225; Paus. iii. 4, 14, vii. 15; Diod. xi. 4-11; Plut. de
Herod. Mal. 32, Apoph. Lac.; Strab. i., ix.; Ael. V. H. iii. 25; Just. ii. 11;
C. Nep. Them. 3; Val. Max. iii. 2, Ext. 3; Cic. de Fin. ii. 19, 30, Tusc. Disp.
i. 42, 49; Simon. xv. Anthol. Graec. vol. i. p. 61, ed. Jacobs.) In the reign
of Leonidas we arrive at an exact chronology (says Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p.
209), which we have gradually approached in the two preceding reigns of Anaxandrides
and Cleomenes I.
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King of Sparta, Pausanias' ward and son of Leonidas.
Son of Pausanias, king of Sparta.
Son of Plistoanax, king of Sparta, tried for his conduct in Attica and acquitted, concludes a truce with Thebans, takes sanctuary in temple of Athena Alea at Tegea.
Nephew of the Spartan king Leonidas I, Pausanias was to become a regent
to the king's son.
He was general of the Spartan army at the battle of Plataea
(479BC) where the Persians were expelled from Greece.
Leading the Greek fleets, Pausanius secured most of Cyprus
and conquered Byzantium,
where he kept his fleet, protecting the Greek seafarers.
Because of his many successes, Pausanias became quite unbearable,
since he took on a bigheaded attitude, making himself unpopular with the Greek
leaders. He was called back to Sparta since they had replaced him, but he was
to return later as a private person, driving his own politics.
He lived like a king and made plans of conquest to such a degree that
the Spartan government accused him of treason, of which he was aquitted. Being
a man of vision, he planned to overthrow the Spartan government with help of the
helots, but the plans were revealed, and he fled to a temple for refuge. His mother
and the rest of the Spartans blocked the entrance until he died of starvation.
Pausanias had been constantly tormented by the fact that he had killed
the young Byzantian woman Cleonice. He had ordered her to share his bed but when
she came into his room he was already asleep. By accident, she hit a burning lamp
which fell to the floor, and Pausanias woke up and killed her instantly while
still only half awake. For the rest of his life he had nightmares about her, and
made constant sacrifices to please her soul.
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Son of Areus.
Son of Cleonymus, king of Sparta, deposed through intrigues of Lysander, but afterwards restored.
Leonidas, king of Sparta, was son of the traitor, Cleonymus, and 28th of the Agids.
He acted as guardian to his infant relative, Areus II., on whose death, at the
age of eight years, he ascended the throne, about B. C. 256, being by this time
considerably advanced in life. A great part of his earlier years he had spent
in the courts of Seleucus Nicator and his satraps, and had even married an Asiatic
wife, by whom he had two children. From this it is reasonable to suppose that
he reversed the policy of his predecessors, who had cultivated a connection with
Egypt: and it is at least an ingenious conjecture of Droysen's, that the adventurer,
Xanthippus, who entered at this period into the Carthaginian service, and whom
he identifies with the general of Ptolemy Euergetes in his war with Seleucus Callinicus,
may have been one of those who, as favourers of the Egyptian alliance, were driven
from Sparta by the party of Leonidas. (Droysen, Hellenismus, vol. ii.; comp. Arnold's
Rome, vol. ii.). The habits which Leonidas had contracted abroad, very different
from the old Spartan simplicity, caused him to regard with strong dislike the
projected reforms of Agis IV., and he laboured at first to counteract them by
secret intrigues and by the slanderous insinuation that the object of Agis was
to bribe the poor with the property of the rich, and thus to make himself tyrant
of Sparta. When the measure of his colleague was actually brought forward, Leonidas
opposed it with arguments ludicrously weak, but succeeded, nevertheless, in obtaining
its rejection in the senate by a majority of one. It thus became necessary for
the reformers to get rid of him, and accordingly the ephor Lysander revived an
old law, which forbade a Heracleid to marry a foreigner, and affixed the penalty
of death to a sojourn in a foreign land. There was also an ancient custom at Sparta,
of which he took advantage to excite the stronger prejudice against Leonidas.
Every ninth year the ephors sat in silence to observe the heavens on a clear and
moonless night; and if a star was seen to shoot in a particular direction, it
was interpreted as a sign of some offence against the gods on the part of the
kings, who were therefore to be suspended from their office till an oracle from
Delphi or Olympia should declare in their favour. Lysander professed to have seen
the sign, and referred it to the displeasure of heaven at the illegal conduct
of Leonidas. He also accused him, according to Pausanias, of having bound himself
by an oath, while yet a boy, to his father Cleonymus, to work the downfall of
Sparta. Leonidas, not venturing to abide his trial, took refuge in the temple
of Athena Chalcioecus, where his daughter Cheilonis joined him. Sentence of deposition
having been passed against him in his absence, the throne was transferred to his
son-in-law, Cleombrotus; and the ephors of the succeeding year having failed in
their attempt to crush Lysander and his colleague, Mandrocleidas, by a prosecutionLeonidas
went into exile to Tegea. When the misconduct of Agesilaus, the uncle of Agis,
had led, not long after, to his restoration (B. C. 240), he listened to the entreaties
of Cheilonis, and spared the life of her husband, Cleombrotus, contenting himself
with his banishment; but he caused Agis to be put to death, though he owed his
own life to the protection he had afforded him in his flight to Tegea. Archidamus,
the brother of Agis, fled from Sparta: Agiatis, his widow, was forced by Leonidas
into a marriage with his son, Cleomenes; and it seems doubtful whether the child
Eurydamidas, her son by Agis, was allowed to bear the name of king. At any rate
the whole of the royal power (such as it was, in a selfish oligarchy, of which
he was the tool) remained with Leonidas; and Plutarch tells us that he utterly
neglected public affairs, caring for nothing but a life of ease and luxury. He
died about B. C. 236, and was succeeded by his son, Cleomenes III.
(Plut. Agis, 3, 7, 10-12, 16-21, Cleom. 1-3; Paus. iii. 6; Clinton, F. H. vol.
ii.; Droysen, Hellenismus, vol. ii.)
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A Spartan king, son of Eurypon.
Son of Prytanis, king of Sparta.
Eunomus, (Eunomos), fifth or sixth king of Sparta in the Proclid line, is described
by Pausanias, Plutarch, and others, as the father of Lycurgus and Polydectes.
Herodotus, on the contrary, places him in his list after Polydectes, and Dionysius
of Halicarnassus gives the name to the nephew in whose stead Lycurgus governed.
Simonides, finally, makes Lycurgus and Eunomus the children of Prytanis. In all
probability, the name was invented with reference to the Lycurgean Eunomia, and
Eunomus, if not wholly rejected, must be identified with Polydectes. In the reign
of Eunomus and Polydectes, says Pausanias, Sparta was at peace. (Plut. Lyc. 2
; Paus. iii. 7.2; Herod. viii. 131)
A king of Sparta, son of Eunomus, king of Sparta.
Son of Charillus, king of Sparta, father of Theopompus, invades Argolis.
Son of Nicander, king of Sparta, commands Lacedaemonians in first Messenian war, puts an end to first Messenian war, his descendants.
Agasicles, Agesicles or Hegesicles (Agasikles, Agesikles, Hegesikles), a king of Sparta, the thirteenth of the line of Procles. He was contemporary with the Agid Leon, and succeeded his father Archidamus I., probably about B. C. 590 or 600. During his reign the Lacedaemonians carried on an unsuccessful war against Tegea, but prospered in their other wars. (Herod. i. 65; Paus. iii. 7,6, 3.5.)
King of Sparta, claims crown of Sparta against Demaratus, fights on Athenian side at Mycale, bribed by Aleuads in Thessaly, takes sanctuary in temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, his family.
Leotychides. Son of Menares, and sixteenth of the Eurypontids. Having become king
of Sparta, about B. C. 491, on the deposition of Demaratus, through the contrivance
of Cleomenes and the collusion of the Delphic oracle, he accompanied Cleomenes
to Aegina, and aided him in seizing the hostages, of whom he had previously attempted
to possess himself in vain (Herod. vi. 65, &c.; Paus. iii. 4). On the death of
Cleomenes, soon after, the Aeginetans complained at Sparta of the detention of
their hostages by the Athenians, in whose hands they had been placed, and the
Lacedaemonians thereupon decided that Leotychides should be given up, by way of
satisfaction, to the complainants. On the proposal, however, of a Spartan named
Theasides, it was agreed that Leotychides should proceed to Athens and recover
the prisoners; but the men thus detained belonged, doubtless, to the oligarchical
party at Aegina, and the Athenians refused to give them up, alleging that they
had been placed with them by Cleomenes and Leotychides together, whereas the latter
only had come to claim them. The remonstrances of Leotychides, backed though they
were by the warning anecdote of the perjury and punishment of Glaucus, were of
no avail, and he returned to Sparta with the object of his mission unaccomplished
(Herod. vi. 85, 86). In B. C. 479, after the flight of Xerxes, we find Leotychides
in command of the Greek fleet at Aegina,--a most unusual appointment for a Spartan
king (see Arist. Pol. ii. 9), and hence he advanced as far as Delos; but, in spite
of the entreaties of the Chians, fear of the Persians kept him from sailing further
eastward, until an embassy from the Samians, and further information doubtless
as to the condition and spirit of Ionia, induced him to proceed to Samos to aid
the Ionians in their intended revolt. The Persians fled at his approach to Mycale,
where their army was stationed. Here they disembarked, and drew up their ships
on shore: the Greeks also landed, Leotychides having first called aloud on the
Ionians in the enemy's army to aid in the attainment of their own freedom; and
in the battle of Mycale, which ensued, the Persians were utterly defeated (Herod.
viii. 131, 132, ix. 90-92, 96-106; Diod. xi. 34; Paus. iii. 7). Afterwards Leotychides
was sent with an army into Thessaly to punish those who had sided with the barbarians
in the Persian war. He was uniformly successful in the field, and might have reduced
the whole of Thessaly, had he not yielded to the bribes of the Aleuadae. For this
he was brought to trial on his return home, and went into exile to Tegea, B. C.
469, where he died. His house at Sparta was razed to the ground. His son, Zeuxidamus,
died before his banishment, and he was succeeded on the throne by his grandson,
Archidamus II. By a second wife he had a daughter, named Lampito, whom he gave
in marriage to Archidamus.
(Herod. vi. 71, 72; Paus. iii. 7; Diod. xi. 48; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. pp. 209,
210)
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Son of Leutychides, king of Sparta, his early death.
Eudamidas. Two kings of Sparta bore this name.
Eudamidas I. was the younger son of Archidamus III. and succeeded his brother
Agis III. in B. C. 330. The exact length of his reign is uncertain, but it was
probably about 30 years. Plutarch (Apophth.) records some sayings of Eudamidas,
which bespeak his peaceful character and policy, which is also attested by Pausanias
(iii. 10.5).
Eudamidas II. was the son of Archidamus IV. (whom he succeeded) and grandson of
Eudamidas I. (Plut. Agis, 3.) He was the father of Agis IV. and Archiidamus V.
Son of Archidamus IV, king of Sparta.
Lives, by Plurarch
The last king of Sparta, who ruled 207-192 BC. Nabis had made himself
popular amongst his people by reviving Kleomenes III's reforms: he handed out
land, freed many helots etc. This was not an easy feat, and he had help from his
mercenaries to to so.
Nabis then led an attack on the Achaian League, but was defeated in
200 BC. He then allied himself with Philip V of Macedonia,
and was given Argos. Again,
he became popular through the above reforms, but soon he was forced by the Romans
to give up Argos and several
cities by the coast.
When the Romans had left he tried to get these cities back, but failed
miserably and was murdered by the Aeolians in 192 BC. The murderers were apprehended
by the Spartans, and a crowd of people lynched them.
After his death Sparta was declared independent.
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Cheilon, Chilon of Lacedaemon, son of Damagetus, and one of the Seven Sages, flourished towards the commencement of the 6th century B. C. Herodotus (i. 59) speaks of him as contemporary with Hippocrates, the father of Peisistratus, and Diogenes LaΓ«rtius tells us, that he was an old mall in the 52nd Olympiad (B. C. 572), and held the office of Ephor Eponymus in 01. 56 (B. C. 556). In the same author there is a passage which appears to ascribe to Cheilon the institution of the Ephoralty, but this contradicts the other well known and more authentic traditions. On the authority also of Alcidamas the rhetorician (ap. Arist. Rhet. ii. 23.11) we learn, that he was a member of the Spartan senate. It is said that he died of joy when his son gained the prize for boxing at the Olympic games, and that his funeral was attended by all the Greeks assembled at the festival. Such a token of respect seems to have been due not more to his wisdom than to the purity of his life, which, according to Diodorus, was not inconsistent with his doctrine (Comp. Gell. i. 3). Diogenes Laertius mentions him as a writer of Elegiac poems, and records many sayings of his which shew that even at Sparta he may well have been remarkable for his sententious brevity, and several of which breathe also in other respects a truly Spartan spirit. Witness especially his denunciation of the use of gesture in speaking, -legonta me kinein ten cheira: manikon gar. The distinguishing excellence of man he considered to be sagacity of judgment in divining the future, -a quality which he himself remarkably exemplified in his foreboding, afterwards realized, of the evils to which Sparta might at any time be exposed from Cythera (Diog. Laert. i. 68-73; Menag. ad loc.; Plat. Protag.; Plut. de Ei ap. Delph. 3; Ael. V. H. iii. 17; Perizon. ad loc.; Plin. H. N. vii. 32; Diod. Exc. de Virt. et Vit.; Arist. Rhet. ii. 12.14; Herod. vii. 235; comp. Thuc. iv. 53)
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Agathinus (Agathinos), an eminent ancient Greek physician, the founder of a new medical sect, to which he gave the name of Episynthetici. He was born at Sparta and must have lived in the first century after Christ, as he was the pupil of Athenaeus, and the tutor of Archigenes. He is said to have been once seized with an attack of delirium, brought on by want of sleep, from which he was delivered by his pupil Archigenes, who ordered his head to be fomented with a great quantity of warm oil. He is frequently quoted by Galen, who mentions him among the Pneumatici. None of his writings are now extant, but a few fragments are contained in Matthaei's Collection, entitled XXI Veterum et Clarorum Medicorum Graccorum Varia Opuscula, Mosquae, 1808, 4to. The particular opinions of his sect are not exactly known, but they were probably nearly the same as those of the Eclectici.
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Plataean general.
Cheirisophus (Cheirisophos), a Lacedaemonian, was sent by the Ephors with 700 heavyarmed men (800 according to Diodorus), to aid Cyrus in his expedition against his brother Artaxerxes, B. C. 401, and joined the prince on his march at Issus in Cilicia (Diod. xiv 19, 21; Xen. Anab. i. 4.3). After the battle of Cunaxa, Clearchus sent him with others to Ariaeus to make an offer, which however was declined, of placing him on the Persian throne. After the arrest of Clearchus and the other generals, through the treachery of Tissaphernes, Cheirisophus took an active part in encouraging the troops and in otherwise providing for the emergency, and, on the motion of Xenophon, was appointed, as being a Lacedaemonian, to lead the van of the retreating army. In this post we find him subsequently acting throughout the retreat, and cordially cooperating with Xenophon. In fact it was only once that any difference arose between them, and that was caused by Cheirisophus having struck, in a fit of angry suspicion, an Armenian who was guiding them, and who left them in consequence of the indignity (Diod. xiv. 27; Xen. Anab. iii. 2.33, &c., 3.3, 11, 4.38-43, 5.1-6, iv. 1.6, 15-22, 2.23, &c., iii.8, 25, &c., 6.1-3). When the Greeks had arrived at Trapezus on the Euxine, Cheirisophus volunteered to go to his friend Anaxibius, the Spartan admiral at Byzantium, to obtain a sufficient number of ships to transport them to Europe; but he was not successful in his application (Diod. xiv. 30, 31; Xen. Anab v. 1.4, vi. 1.16). On his return to the army, which he found at Sinope, he was chosen commander-in-chief, Xenophon having declined for himself the proffered honour on the express ground of tile prior claim of a Lacedaemonian (Anab. vi. 1.18-33). Cheirisophus, however, was unable to enforce submission to his authority, or to restrain the Arcadian and Achaean soldiers from their profligate attempt to plunder the hospitable Heracleots; and, on the sixth or seventh day from his election, these troops, who formed more than half the army, separated themselves from the rest, and departed by sea under ten generals whom they had appointed. Xenophon then offered to continue the march with the remainder of the forces, under the command of Cheirisophus, but the latter declined the proposal by the advice of Neon, who hoped to find vessels at Calpe furnished by Cleander, the Spartan Harmost at Byzantium, and wished to reserve them exclusively for their own portion of the army. With the small division yet under his command, Cheirisophus arrived safely at Calpe, where he died from the effects of a medicine which he had taken for a fever (Xen. Anab. vi. 2.4.11).
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Cleomenes, son of the general Pausanias, brother of king Pleistoanax, and uncle of king Pausanias, led the Peloponnesian army in their fourth invasion of Attica, in the fifth year of the Peloponnesian war. (B. C. 427.) Cleomenes acted in place of his nephew, Pausanias, who was a minor. (Thuc. iii. 26, and Schol.)
Dercyllidas, (Derkullidas). A Spartan, was sent to the Hellespont in the spring of B. C. 411 to excite the cities there to revolt from Athens, and succeeded in bringing over Abydus and Lampsacus, the latter of which, however, was almost immediately recovered by the Athenians under Stromlichides. (Thuc. viii. 61, 62.) In B. C. 399 he was sent to supersede Thibron in the command of the army which was employed in the protection of the Asiatic Greeks against Persia. On his arrival, he took advantage of the jealousy between Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes to divide their forces, and having made a truce with the latter, proceeded against the midland Aeolis, the satrapy of Pharnabazus, towards whom he entertained a personal dislike, as having been once subjected through his means to a military punishment when he was harmost at Abydus under Lysander. In Aeolis he gained possession of nine cities in eight days, together with the treasures of Mania, the late satrapess of the province. As he did not wish to burden his allies by wintering in their country, he concluded a truce with Pharnabazus, and marched into Bithynia, where he maintained his army by plunder. In the spring of 398 he left Bithynia, and was met at Lampsacus by Spartan commissioners, who announced to him the continuance of his command for another year, and the satisfaction of the home government with the discipline of his troops as contrasted with their condition under Thibron. Having heard from these commissioners that the Greeks of the Thracian Chersonesus had sent an embassy to Sparta to ask for aid against the neighbouring barbarians, he said nothing of his inten tion, but concluded a further truce with Pharnabazus, and, crossing over to Europe, built a wall for the protection of the peninsula. Then returning, he besieged Atarneus, of which some Chiian exiles had taken possession, and reduced it after an obstinate defence. Hitherto there had been no hostilities between Tissaphernes and Dercyllidas, but in the next year, B. C. 397, ambassadors came to Sparta from the Ionians, representing that by an attack on Caria, where the satrap's own property lay, he might be driven into acknowledging their independence, and the ephori accordingly desired Dercyllidas to invade it. Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus now united their forces, but no engagement took place, and a negotiation was entered into, Dercyllidas demanding the independence of the Asiatic Greeks, the satraps the withdrawal of the Lacedaemonian troops. A truce was then made till the Spartan authorities and the Persian king should decide respectively on the requisitions. In B. C. 396, when Agesilaus crossed into Asia, Dercyllidas was one of the three who were commissioned to ratify the short and hollow armistice with Tissaphernes. After this, he appears to have returned home. In B. C. 394 he was sent to carry the news of the battle of Corinth to Agesilaus, whom he met at Amphipolis, and at whose request he proceeded with the intelligence to the Greek cities in Asia which had furnished the Spartans with troops. This service, Xenophon says, he gladly undertook, for he liked to be absent from home,--a feeling possibly arising from the mortifications to which, as an unmarried man (so Plutarch tells us), he was subjected at Sparta. He is said to have been characterized by roughness and cunning,-- qualities denoted respectively by his nicknames of "Scythus" and "Sisyphus," if indeed the former of these be not a corrupt reading in Athenaeus for the second. (Xen. Hell. iii. 1.8-28, ii.1-20, iv. 3.1-3, Anab. v. 6.24 ; Diod. xiv. 38; Plut. Lyc. 15; Atheen. xi.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diphridas, a Lacedaemonian, was sent out to Asia, in B. C. 391, after the death of Thibron, to gather together the relics of his army, and, having raised fresh troops, to protect the states that were friendly to Sparta, and prosecute the war with Struthas. With manners no less agreeable than those of his predecessor, he had more steadiness and energy of character. He therefore soon retrieved the affairs of Lacedaemon, and, having captured Tigranes, the son-in-law of Struthas, together with his wife, he obtained a large ransom for their release, and was thus enabled to raise and support a body of mercenaries. (Xen. Hell. iv. 8.21, 22.) Diphridas, the Ephor, who is mentioned by Plutarch (Ages. 17) as being sent forward to meet Agesilaus, then at Narthacium in Thessaly, and to desire him to advance at once into Boeotia, B. C. 394. (Comp. Xen. Hell. iv. 3.9.) The name Diphridas, as it seems, should be substituted for Diphilas in Diod. xiv. 97.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Ecdicus, (Ekdikos), a Lacedaemonian, was sent out with eight ships, in B. C. 391, to put down the democratic party in Rhodes. On his arrival however at Cnidus, he found that the forces of his opponents doubled his own, and he was therefore obliged to remain inactive. The Lacedaemonians, when they heard that he was not in a condition to effect anything, sent Teleutias with a larger armament to supersede him. (Xen. Hell. iv. 8.20-23 ; comp. Diod. xiv. 79, 97.)
Epitadas, son of Molobrus, was the commander of the 420 Lacedaemonians who were blockaded in the island of Sphacteria in the 7th year of the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 425. He appears to have executed his difficult task with prudence and ability, and was spared by death in the final combat the disgrace of surrender. (Thuc. iv. 8, 31, 38.)
Eteonicus, (Eteonikos), a Lacedaemonian, who in B. C. 412 was lieutenant under the admiral Astyochus, and assisted him in his unsuccessful operations against Lesbos. (Thuc. viii. 23.) He was afterwards harmost in Thasos, but in 410, together with the Lacedaemonian party, was expelled by the Thasians. (Xen. Hell. i. 1.32.) In 406 we find him serving under Callicratidas, who left him to blockade Conon in Mytilene, while he himself went to meet the Athenian reinforcements. After the battle of Arginusae, by means of a stratagem, Eteonicus succeeded in drawing off the land forces to Methymna, while he directed the naval forces to make with all speed for Chios, where he found means of rejoining them not long afterwards. In the course of his stay here, he, with considerable energy and promptitude, defeated a plot forced by some of the troops under his command to seize Chios. (Xen. Hell. i. 6.26, 36, &c., ii. 1.1, &c.) It is probably this Eteonicus whom we find mentioned in the Anabasis (vii. 1.12) apparently serving as an officer under Anaxibius at Byzantium. (B. C. 400.) Eleven years afterwards (389), he is mentioned as being stationed as harmost in Aegina. (Xen. Hell. v. i.1.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eucleides. The brother of Cleomenes III. king of Sparta. He commanded a division of the forces of the latter at the battle of Seliasia, B. C. 223, and by his unskilful tactics in a great degree brought about the defeat of the Lacedaemonians. He fell with the whole of the wing which he commanded. (Polyb. ii. 65, 67, 68; Plut. Philop, Arat., Cleom.)
Eudamidas. A Spartan of some note, who, when the Chalcidians sent to implore aid against Olynthus in B. C. 383, was sent at the head of 2000 men. Before his departure he prevailed on the ephors to commit the next division which should be sent to the command of his brother Phoebidas. The latter, on his march, seized the Cadmea of Thebes; and in consequence of the delay of the main body of the troops thus occasioned, Eudamidas could effect but little. He, however, garrisoned several of the Chalcidian towns; and, making Potidaea his headquarters, carried on tile war without any decisive result. According to Diodorus, he was worsted in several engagements; and it would appear from Demosthenes (de Falsa Legat.), who speaks of three commanders having in this war fallen on the side of the Chalcidians and Lacedaemonians, that in one of these encounters Eudamidas was killed. (Xen. Hell. v. 2.24; Diod. xv. 20, 21.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Euryanax, (Euruanax), a Spartan of the royal house of the Agids. He was the son of Dorieus, and was one of the commanders of the Lacedaemonians at the battle of Plataeae, B. C. 479. (Herod. ix. 10, 53, 55.)
Eurylochus, (Eurulochos), a Spartan commander, in the sixth year of the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 426, was sent with 3000 heavy-armed of the allies, at the request of the Aetolians to act with them against the Messenians of Naupactus, where Demosthenes, whom they had recently defeated, was still remaining, but without any force. Eurylochus assembled his troops at Delphi, received the submission of the Ozolian Locrians, and advanced through their country into the district of Naupactus. The town itself was saved by Acarnanian succours obtained by Demosthenes, on the introduction of which, Eurylochus retired, but took up his quarters among his neighbouring allies with a covert design in concert with the Ambraciots against the Amphilochian Argives, and Acarnanians. After waiting the requisite time he set his army in motion from Proschium, and, by a wellchosen line of march contriving to elude the Amphilochians and their allies, who were stationed to oppose him, effected a junction with his friends at Olpae. Here, on the sixth day following, the enemy, under Demosthenes, attacked him. Eurylochus took the right wing opposed to Demosthenes with the Messenians and a few Athenians; and here, when already taking them on the flank, he was surprised by the assault of an ambuscade in his rear; his troops were routed, himself slain, and the whole army in consequence defeated. (Thuc. iii. 100-102, 105-109.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Gyllus or Gylus, (Gulis, Tullis, Tulos), a Spartan, was Polemarch under Agesilaus at the battle of Coroneia, B. C. 394, against the hostile confederacy of Greek states. On the morning after the battle, Agesilaus, to see whether the enemy would renew the fight, ordered Gylis (as he himself had been severely wounded) to draw up the army in order of battle, with crowns of victory on their heads, and to erect a trophy to the sound of martial instruments. The Thebans, however, who alone were in a position to dispute the field, acknowledged their defeat by requesting leave to bury their dead. Soon after this, Agesilaius went to Delphi to dedicate to the god a tenth of his Asiatic spoils, and left Gylis to invade the territory of the Opuntian Locrians, who had been the occasion of the war in Greece. (Comp. Xen. Hell. iii. 5.3, &c.) Here the Lacedaemonians collected much booty; but, as they were returning to their camp in the evening, the Locrians pressed on them with their darts, and slew many, among whom was Gylis himself. (Xen. Hell. iv. 3. !F 21, 23, Ages. 2. 15; Plut. Ages. 19; Paus. iii. 9.) The Gyllis who is mentioned in one of the epigrams of Damagetus has been identified by some with Othryades, but on insufficient grounds. (Jacobs, Anthol. ii. 40, viii. 111, 112.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hippocrates. A Lacedaemonian, first mentioned as being sent with Epicles to Euboea, to bring away Hegesandridas and his fleet from thence, after the defeat of Mindarus at Cynossema, B. C. 411. (Thuc. viii. 107.) He returned with Hegesandridas to the Hellespont, where he acted as second in command (epistugeus) to Mindarus during the subsequent operations. After the decisive defeat at Cyzicus (B. C. 410), Hippocrates, on whom the chief command now devolved by the death of Mindarus, wrote to Sparta the well-known and characteristic dispatch, "Our good fortune is at an end; Mindarus is gone; the men are hungry; what to do we know not." (Xen. Hell. i. 1.23.) After the arrival of Cratesippidas to take the command at the Hellespont, Hippocrates appears to have been appointed governor or harmost of Chalcedon; and when that city was attacked, in the spring of 408, by Alcibiades and Thrasyllus, he led out his troops to encounter the Athenians, but was defeated, and himself fell in the conflict. (Id. i. 3.5, 6; Diod. xiii. 66; Plut. Alcib. 30.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hippomedon, a Spartan, son of Agesilaus, the uncle of Agis IV. He must have been older than his cousin Agis, as he is said by Plutarch (Agis, 6) to have already distinguished himself on many occasions in war when the young king first began to engage in his constitutional reforms. Hippomedon entered warmly into the schemes of Agis, and was mainly instrumental in gaining over his father Agesilaus to their support. But the latter sought in fact only his own advantage, under the cloak of patriotism; and during the absence of Agis, on his expedition to Corinth to support Aratus, he gave so much dissatisfaction by his administration at Sparta, that Leonidas was recalled by the opposite party, and Agesilaus was compelled to fly from the city. Hippomedon shared in the exile of his father, though he had not participated in his unpopularity. (Plut. Agis, 6, 16.) At a subsequent period we find him mentioned as holding the office for Ptolemy, king of Egypt, of governor of the cities subject to that prince on the confines of Thrace. (Teles. ap. Stobaeum, Flor. vol. ii., ed. Gaisf.; comp. Niebuhr, Kl. Schrift.; Schorn. Gesch. Griech.) We learn from Polybius (iv. 35.13) that he was still living at the death of Cleomenes. in B. C. 220, when the crown would have devolved of right either to him or to one of his two grandchildren, the sons of Archidamus V., who had married a daughter of Hippomedon ; but their claims were disregarded, and Lycurgus, a stranger to the royal family, was raised to the throne.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hipponoidas, a Spartan officer under Agis II., in the battle fought at Mantineia against the Argives and their allies, B. C. 418. He was accused of cowardice for not having obeyed the orders of Agis during the battle, and exiled from Sparta in consequence. (Thuc. v. 71, 72.)
680 - 600
A lame Athenian schoolmaster, sent to Sparta, sings to Spartans, stirs up hindmost in battle, encourages defeated Lacedaemonians, composes dissensions of Spartans, his verses quoted.
Lyric poet from Sparta who lived in the late 7th century. He wrote
patriotic poems where he encouraged his countrymen in their fight during the second
Messenian War.
According to a tradition Tyrtaeus was really a general, whose songs
were sung by his soldiers during the evening meals. Yet another tradition tells
us he really was an Athenian school master.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Alcman (Alkman), called by the Attic and later Greek writers Alcmaeon (Alkmaion),
the chief lyric poet of Sparta, was by birth a Lydian of Sardis. His father's
name was Damas or Titarus. He was brought into Laconia as a slave, evidently when
very young. His master, whose name was Agesidas, discovered his genius, and emancipated
him; and he then began to distinguish himself as a lyric poet. In the epigram
Anthol. Palat. vii. 709, 19, 18 it is said, that the two continents strove for
the honour of his birth; and Suidas calls him a Laconian of Messoa, which may
mean, however, that he was enrolled as a citizen of Messoa after his emancipation.
The above statements seem to be more in accordance with the authorities than the
opinion of Bode, that Aleman's father was brought from Sardis to Sparta as a slave,
and that Alcman himself was born at Messoa. It is not known to what extent he
obtained the rights of citizenship.
The time at which Alcman lived is rendered somewhat doubtful by the
different statements of the Greek and Armenian copies of Eusebius, and of the
chronographers who followed him. On the whole, however, the Greek copy of Eusebius
appears to be right in placing him at the second year of the twenty-seventh Olympiad
(B. C. 671). He was contemporary with Ardys, king of Lydia, who reigned from 678
to 629, B. C., with Lesches, the author of the "Little Hiad," and with Terpander,
during the later years of these two poets ; he was older than Stesichorus, and
he is said to have been the teacher of Arion. From these circumstances, and from
the fact which we learn from himself (Fr. 29), that he lived to a great age, we
may conclude, with Clinton, that he flourished from about 671 to about 631 B.
C. He is said to have died, like Sulla, of the mortus pedicularis (Aristot. Hist.
Anim. v. 31 or 25; Plut. Sulla, 36; Plin. H. N. xi. 33.39).
The period during which most of Alcman's poems were composed, was
that which followed the conclusion of the second Messenian war. During this period
of quiet, the Spartans began to cherish that taste for the spiritual enjoyments
of poetry, which, though felt by them long before, had never attained to a high
state of cultivation, while their attention was absorbed in war. In this process
of improvement Alcman was immediately preceded by Terpander, an Aeolian poet,
who, before the year 676 B. C., had removed from Lesbos to the mainland of Greece,
and had introduced the Aeolian lyric into the Peloponnesus. This new style of
poetry was speedily adapted to the choral form in which the Doric poetry had hitherto
been cast, and gradually supplanted that earlier style which was nearer to the
epic. In the 33rd or 34th Olympiad, Terpander made his great improvements in music.
Hence arose the peculiar character of the poetry of his younger contemporary,
Alcman, which presented the choral lyric in the highest excellence which the music
of Terpander enabled it to reach. But Aleman had also an intimate acquaintance
with the Phrygian and Lydian styles of music, and he was himself the inventor
of new forms of rhythm, some of which bore his name.
A large portion of Alcman's poetry was erotic. In fact, he is said
by some ancient writers to have been the inventor of erotic poetry. From his poems
of this class, which are marked by a freedom bordering on licentiousness, he obtained
the epithets of "sweet" and " pleasant" (pslukus, charieis). Among these poems
were many hymeneal pieces. But the Parthenia, which form a branch of Alcman's
poems, must not be confounded with the erotic. They were so called because they
were composed for the purpose of being sung by choruses of virgins, and not on
account of their subjects, which were very various, sometimes indeed erotic, but
often religious. Alcman's other poems embrace hymns to the gods, Paeans, Prosodia,
songs adapted for different religious festivals, and short ethical or philosophical
pieces. It is disputed whether he wrote any of those Anapaestic war-songs, or
marches, which were called embateria; but it seems very unlikely that he should
have neglected a kind of composition which had been rendered so popular by Tyrtaeus.
His metres are very various. He is said by Suidas to have been the
first poet who composed any verses but dactylic hexameters. This statement is
incorrect; but Suidas sees to refer to the shorter dactylic lines into which Alcman
broke up the Homeric hexameter. In this practice, however, he had been preceded
by Archiochus, from whom he borrowed several others of his peculiar metres: others
he invented himself. Among his metres we find various forms of the dactylic, anapaestic,
trochaic, and iambic, as well as lines composed of different metres, for example,
iambic and anapaestic. The Cretic hexameter was named Alcmanic, from his being
its inventor. The poems of Alcman were chiefly in strophes, composed of lines
sometimes of the same metre throughout the strophe, sometimes of different metres.
From their choral character we might conclude that they sometimes had an antistrophic
form, and this seems to be confirmed by the statement of Hephaestion (p. 134,
Gaisf.), that he composed odes of fourteen strophes, in which there was a change
of metre after the seventh strophe. There is no trace of an epode following the
strophe and antistrophe, in his poems.
The dialect of Alcman was the Spartan Doric, with an intermixture
of the Aeolic. The popular idioms of Laconia appear most frequently in his more
familiar poems.
T he Alexandrian grammarians placed Alcman at the head of their canon
of the nine lyric poets. Among the proofs of his popularity may be mentioned the
tradition, that his songs were sung, with those of Terpander, at the first performance
of the gymnopaedia at Sparta (B. C. 665), and the ascertained fact, that they
were frequently afterwards used at that festival. The few fragments which remain
scarcely allow us to judge how far he deserved his reputation; but some of them
display a true poetical spirit.
Alcman's poems comprised six books, the extant fragments of which are included
in the collections of Neander, H. Stephens, and Fulvius Ursinus.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cinaethon (Kinaithon), of Lacedaemon, one of the most fertile of the Cyclic poets, is placed
by Eusebius in B. C. 765. He was the author of: 1. Telegonia (Telengonia), which
gave the history of Odysseus from the point where the Odyssey breaks off to his
death. 2. Genealogies, which are frequently referred to by Pausanias (ii. 3.7,
18.5, iv. 2.1, viii. 53.2; comp. Schol. ad Hom. Il. iii. 175), and which must
consequently have been extant in A. D. 175. 3. Heracleia (Herakleia), containing
an account of the adventures of Heracles (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. i. 1357). 4.
Oedipodia (Oidipodia), the adventures of Oedipus, is ascribed to Cinaethon in
an ancient inscription, but other authorities speak of the author as uncertain
(Paus. ix. 5.5; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 1760). 5. The Little Iliad (Ilias mikra)
was also attributed by some to Cinaethon.
Dionysodotus (Dionusodotos), a lyric poet of Lacedaemon, who is mentioned along with Alcman, and whose paeans were very popular at Sparta. (Athen. xv.)
Apellas, a sculptor, who made, in bronze, statues of worshipping females (adorantes feminas, Plin. xxxiv. 19.26). He made the statue of Cynisca, who conquered in the chariotrace at Olympia. (Paus. vi. 1.2.) Cynisca was sister to Agesilaus, king of Sparta, who died at the age of 84, in 362 B. C. Therefore the victory of Cynisca, and the time when Apellas flourished, may be placed about 400 B. C. His name indicates his Doric origin.
Callicrates, a Lacedaemonian sculptor, celebrated for the smallness of his works. (Aelian, V. H. i. 17.) He made ants and other animals out of ivory, which were so small that one could not distinguish the different limbs. (Plin. H. N. vii. 21, xxxvi. 5. S. 4.) According to Athenaeus (ix.), he also executed embossed work on vases.
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