Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

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.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the family of Eurysthenes then, called the Agiadæ, Cleomenes the son of Leonidas was the last king at Sparta: but as to the other branch this is what I have heard. Procles the son of Aristodemus had a son called Sous, whose son Eurypon attained such glory that the family were called Eurypontidæ from him, though till his time they were called Proclidæ. And Eurypon had a son Prytanis, and it was in his days that animosity broke out between the Lacedæmonians and Argives, and even earlier than this quarrel they fought with the Cynurians, but during the succeeding generations, when Eunomus the son of Prytanis and Polydectes the son of Eunomus were kings, Sparta continued at peace. But Charillus the son of Polydectes ravaged the Argive territory, and made a raid into Argolis, and under his leadership the Spartans went out to Tegea, when the Lacedæmonians hoped to take Tegea and slice the district off from Arcadia, following a beguiling oracle. And after the death of Charillus Nicander his son succeeded to the kingdom, and it was in his reign that the Messenians killed Teleclus the king of the other family in the temple of Artemis Limnas. And Nicander invaded Argolis with an army, and ravaged most of the country. And the Asinæans having taken part with the Lacedæmonians in this expedition, not long afterwards paid the penalty to the Argives in the destruction of their country and their own exile. And Theopompus the son of Nicander, who was king after his father, I shall make mention of when I come to the history of Messenia. During his reign came on the contest for Thyrea between the Lacedæmonians and Argives. Theopompus himself took no part in this, partly from old age, but still more from sorrow at the death of his son Archidamus. Not that Archidamus died childless, for he left a son Zeuxidamus, who was succeeded in the kingdom by his son Anaxidamus. It was in his reign that the Messenians evacuated the Peloponnese, having been a second time conquered in war by the Spartans. And Anaxidamus had a son Archidamus, and he had a son Agesicles: and both of them had the good fortune to spend all their life in peace and without wars. And Aristo the son of Agesicles having married a girl who they say was the most shameless of all the girls in Lacedæmon, but in appearance the most beautiful girl next to Helen, had by her a son Demaratus seven months after marriage. And as he was sitting with the ephors in council a servant came and told him of the birth of his son. And Aristo, forgetting the lines in the Iliad[31] about the birth of Eurystheus, or perhaps not knowing them, said it couldn’t be his child from the time. He was sorry afterwards for these words which he had spoken. And when Demaratus was king and in other respects in good repute at Sparta, and had cooperated with Cleomenes in freeing the Athenians from the Pisistratidæ, this thoughtless word of Aristo, and the hatred of Cleomenes deprived him of the kingdom. And he went to Persia to king Darius, and they say his descendants continued for a long time in Asia. And Leotychides, who became king in his place, shared with the Athenians and their General Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron, in the action at Mycale, and also marched into Thessaly against the Aleuadæ. And though he might have reduced all Thessaly, as he was victorious in every battle, he allowed the Aleuadæ to buy him off. And being impeached at Lacedæmon he went voluntarily into exile to escape trial, and became a suppliant at Tegea at the temple of Alean Athene there, and as his son Zeuxidamus had previously died of some illness, his grandson Archidamus succeeded him, on his departure to Tegea. This Archidamus injured the Athenian territory excessively, invading Attica every year, and whenever he invaded it he went through all the country ravaging it, and also captured after a siege the town of Platæa which was friendly to the Athenians. Not that Platæa had ever stirred up strife between the Peloponnesians and Athenians, but as far as in its power lay had made them both keep the peace. But Sthenelaidas, one of the Ephors, a man of great power at Lacedæmon, was mainly the cause of the war at that time. And this war shook Greece, which was previously in a flourishing condition, to its foundation, and afterwards Philip the son of Amyntas reduced it completely, when it was already rotten and altogether unsound.

CHAPTER VIII.

And on the death of Archidamus, Agis the elder of his sons being of age succeeded, and not Agesilaus. And Archidamus had also a daughter called Cynisca, who was most ambitious in regard to the races at Olympia, and was the first woman who trained horses, and the first woman who won the prize at Olympia, though after her several women, especially Lacedæmonian ones, won the prize at Olympia, though none came up to her fame in these contests. But the Spartans seem to me to admire least of all men the glory that proceeds from poetry, for except an epigram on Cynisca composed by some one or other, and still earlier one on Pausanias, composed by Simonides, inscribed on the tripod erected at Delphi, there is no record made by any poet on any of the Lacedæmonian kings. And in the reign of Agis, the son of Archidamus, the Lacedæmonians brought other charges against the people of Elis, but were especially annoyed at their being shut out of the contest at Olympia, and the privileges of the temple there. They therefore sent an envoy with an ultimatum to the people of Elis, bidding them allow the people of Lepreum, and all other resident aliens who were subject to them, to live according to their own laws. And the people of Elis making reply that, when they saw the subject cities of Sparta free, they would immediately set their own free, the Lacedæmonians under King Agis at once invaded Elis. On that occasion the army retired in consequence of an earthquake, when they had advanced as far as Olympia and the River Alpheus, but next year Agis wasted the country and carried off much booty. And Xenias a man of Elis, who was privately friendly to Agis and publicly a champion of the Lacedæmonians, conspired against the populace with the men who were wealthy, but before Agis and the army could come up and cooperate with them Thrasydæus, who was at this time the leader of the populace at Elis, conquered Xenias and his faction in battle and drove them from the city. And when Agis led his army home again, he left Lysistratus the Spartan with a portion of his force, and the refugees from Elis, to cooperate with the men of Lepreum in ravaging the district. And in the third year of the war the Lacedæmonians and Agis made preparations to invade Elis: but the people of Elis and Thrasydæus, who had been reduced by the war to the greatest extremity, made a convention to give liberty to their subject cities, and to raze the fortifications of their town, and to allow the Lacedæmonians to sacrifice to the god at Olympia and to contend in the games. After this Agis kept continually attacking Attica, and fortified Decelea as a constant menace to the Athenians: and after the Athenian fleet was destroyed at Ægos-potamoi, Lysander the son of Aristocritus and Agis violated the solemn oaths which the Lacedæmonians and Athenians had mutually sworn to observe, and at their own responsibility, and not at the bidding of the Spartan community, made an agreement with their allies to cut off Athens root and branch. These were the most notable exploits of Agis in war. And the hastiness of speech of Aristo about the legitimacy of his son Demaratus Agis also imitated in regard to his son Leotychides, for some evil genius put it into his head in the hearing of the Ephors to say that he did not think he was his son. He repented however of his speech afterwards, for when he was carried home sick from Arcadia and had got to Heræa, he solemnly declared before a multitude of witnesses that he did verily believe that Leotychides was his son, and conjured them with entreaties and tears to report what he had said to the Lacedæmonians. But after his death Agesilaus drove Leotychides from the kingdom, reminding the Lacedæmonians of Agis’ former speech, though the Arcadians came from Heræa, and bare witness what they had heard about Leotychides from Agis on his death-bed. And the variance between Agesilaus and Leotychides was heightened by the oracle at Delphi, which ran as follows:—

“Sparta, beware, although thou art so great,

Of having king o’er thee lame of one leg.

For unexpected woes shall then prevail,