Cleombrŏtus, son of Pausanias, a king of Sparta after his brother Agesipolis I. He made war against the Bœotians, and lest he should be suspected of treacherous communication with Epaminondas, he gave that general battle at Leuctra, in a very disadvantageous place. He was killed in the engagement, and his army destroyed, B.C. 371. Diodorus, bk. 15.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 13.—Xenophon.——A son-in-law of Leonidas king of Sparta, who for a while usurped the kingdom, after the expulsion of his father-in-law. When Leonidas was recalled, Cleombrotus was banished; and his wife Chelonis, who had accompanied her father, now accompanied her husband in his exile. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 6.—Plutarch, Agis & Cleomenes.——A youth of Ambracia, who threw himself into the sea, after reading Plato’s treatise on the immortality of the soul. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputations, bk. 1, ch. 34.—Ovid, Ibis, li. 493.
Cleomēdes, a famous athlete of Astypalæa, above Crete. In a combat at Olympia, he killed one of his antagonists by a blow with his fist. On account of this accidental murder, he was deprived of the victory, and he became delirious. In his return to Astypalæa, he entered a school and pulled down the pillars which supported the roof, and crushed to death 60 boys. He was pursued with stones, and he fled for shelter into a tomb, whose doors he so strongly secured, that his pursuers were obliged to break them for access. When the tomb was opened, Cleomedes could not be found either dead or alive. The oracle of Delphi was consulted, and gave this answer, Ultimus heroum Cleomedes Astypalæus. Upon this they offered sacrifices to him as a god. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 9.—Plutarch, Romulus.
Cleomĕnes I., king of Sparta, conquered the Argives, and burnt 5000 of them by setting fire to a grove where they had fled, and freed Athens from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ. By bribing the oracle, he pronounced Demaratus, his colleague on the throne, illegitimate, because he had refused to punish the people of Ægina, who had deserted the Greeks. He killed himself in a fit of madness, 491 B.C. Herodotus, bks. 5, 6, & 7.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 3, &c.
Cleomĕnes II., succeeded his brother Agesipolis II. He reigned 61 years in the greatest tranquillity, and was father to Acrotatus and Cleonymus, and was succeeded by Areus I. son of Acrotatus. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 6.
Cleomĕnes III., succeeded his father Leonidas. He was of an enterprising spirit, and resolved to restore the ancient discipline of Lycurgus in its full force, by banishing luxury and intemperance. He killed the Ephori, and removed by poison his royal colleague Eurydamidas, and made his own brother Euclidas king, against the laws of the state, which forbade more than one of the same family to sit on the throne. He made war against the Achæans, and attempted to destroy their league. Aratus the general of the Achæans, who supposed himself inferior to his enemy, called Antigonus to his assistance; and Cleomenes, when he had fought the unfortunate battle of Sellasia, B.C. 222, retired into Egypt, to the court of Ptolemy Evergetes, where his wife and children had fled before him. Ptolemy received him with great cordiality; but his successor, weak and suspicious, soon expressed his jealousy of this noble stranger, and imprisoned him. Cleomenes killed himself, and his body was flayed and exposed on a cross, B.C. 219. Polybius, bk. 6.—Plutarch, Parallel Lives.—Justin, bk. 28, ch. 4.
Cleomĕnes, a man appointed by Alexander to receive the tributes of Egypt and Africa. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 8.——A man placed as arbitrator between the Athenians and the people of Megara.——An historian.——A dithyrambic poet of Rhegium.——A Sicilian contemporary with Verres, whose licentiousness and avarice he was fond of gratifying. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4, ch. 12.——A Lacedæmonian general.
Cleon, an Athenian, who, though originally a tanner, became general of the armies of the state, by his intrigues and eloquence. He took Thoron in Thrace, and after distinguishing himself in several engagements, he was killed at Amphipolis, in a battle with Brasidas the Spartan general, 422 B.C. Thucydides, bks. 3, 4, &c.—Diodorus, bk. 12.——A general of Messenia, who disputed with Aristodemus for the sovereignty.——A statuary. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 8.——A poet who wrote a poem on the Argonauts.——An orator of Halicarnassus, who composed an oration for Lysander, in which he intimated the propriety of making the kingdom of Sparta elective. Cornelius Nepos & Plutarch, Lysander.——A Magnesian, who wrote some commentaries, in which he speaks of portentous events, &c. Pausanias, bk. 10, ch. 4.——A Sicilian, one of Alexander’s flatterers. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 5.——A tyrant of Sicyon.——A friend of Phocion.
Cleōnæ and Cleona, a village of Peloponnesus, between Corinth and Argos. Hercules killed the lion of Nemæa in its neighbourhood, and thence it is called Cleonæus. It was made a constellation. Statius, bk. 4, Sylvæ, poem 4, li. 28.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 417.—Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 32.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 15.—Pliny, bk. 36, ch. 5.——A town of Phocis.
Cleōne, a daughter of Asopus. Diodorus, bk. 4.
Cleonīca, a young virgin of Byzantium, whom Pausanias king of Sparta invited to his bed. She was introduced into his room when he was asleep, and unluckily overturned a burning lamp which was by the side of the bed. Pausanias was awakened at the sudden noise, and thinking it to be some assassin, he seized his sword, and killed Cleonica before he knew who it was. Cleonica often appeared to him, and he was anxious to make a proper expiation to her manes. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 17.—Plutarch, Cimon, &c.