CHAPTER VI.
And Agesipolis having died childless, the succession devolved upon Cleombrotus, under whom the Lacedæmonians fought against the Bœotians at Leuctra, and Cleombrotus, exposing himself too freely, fell at the commencement of the action. Somehow or other the Deity seems to like to remove the General first in great reverses, as from the Athenians he removed Hippocrates (the son of Ariphron) their General at Delium, and later on Leosthenes their General in Thessaly.
The elder son of Cleombrotus, Agesipolis, did nothing worthy of record, and Cleomenes the younger succeeded after his brother’s death. And he had two sons, of whom the eldest Acrotatus died before his father, and when later on the younger Cleomenes died, there was a dispute who should be king between Cleonymus the son of Cleomenes and Areus the son of Acrotatus. The Senate decided that to Areus the son of Acrotatus and not to Cleonymus belonged the hereditary office. And Cleonymus got mightily enraged at being ejected from the kingdom, though the Ephors endeavoured to induce him by various honours, and by making him commander-in-chief of the army, not to be an enemy to his country. But in spite of this he eventually injured his country in various ways, and even went so far as to invite in Pyrrhus the grandson of Æacus.
And during the reign of Areus the son of Acrotatus, Antigonus the son of Demetrius made an expedition against Athens both by land and sea. And an Egyptian fleet under Patroclus came to the aid of the Athenians, and the Lacedæmonians came out in full force with Areus the king at their head. And Antigonus having closely invested Athens, and barring the Athenian allies from every approach to the city, Patroclus sent messengers and begged the Lacedæmonians and Areus to begin the battle against Antigonus, and when they began he said he would fall on the rear of the Macedonians, for it was not reasonable that his force should attack the Macedonians first, being Egyptians and sailors. Then the Lacedæmonians were eager to bear the brunt of the battle, being animated by their friendship to the Athenians, and the desire to do something that posterity would not willingly forget. But Areus, as their provisions had been consumed, led his army home again. For he thought it sheer madness not to husband their resources, but lavish them all on strangers. And Athens holding out for a very long time, Antigonus made peace on conditions that he might have a garrison at the Museum. And some time after Antigonus himself withdrew the garrison there. And Areus had a son Acrotatus, and he had a son Areus, who was only 8 when he fell sick and died. And as now Leonidas was the only male left of the family of Eurysthenes, though quite an old man, the Lacedæmonians made him king. And it so chanced that Lysander, a descendant of Lysander the son of Aristocritus, especially disliked Leonidas. He associated with himself Cleombrotus, the son in law of Leonidas, and having won him over brought against Leonidas various charges, and the oath he had sworn to Cleonymus his father while quite a boy that he would destroy Sparta. So Leonidas was deposed from the kingdom, and Cleombrotus reigned in his room. And if Leonidas had given way to temper, and (like Demaratus the son of Aristo) had gone and joined the king of Macedonia or the king of Egypt, he would have got no advantage from the subsequent repentance of the Spartans. But as it was when the citizens exiled him he went to Arcadia, and from thence not many years afterwards the Lacedæmonians recalled him, and made him king the second time. And all that Cleomenes the son of Leonidas did, and all his boldness and bravery, and how the Spartan kings came to an end with him, I have previously recorded in connection with Aratus of Sicyon. Nor did I omit the details of Cleomenes’ death in Egypt.