Cleomenes I

One of the most important Spartan kings, Cleomenes was instrumental in organising the Greek resistance against the Persian Empire of Darius, as well as shaping the geopolitical balance of Classical Greece.

[7][11][12] Cleomenes was born from this second marriage, but then his father returned to his first wife and had three further sons with her: Dorieus, the future king Leonidas, and Cleombrotus—the latter two were possibly twins.

[15][16] This shows that there were strong familial rivalries among Spartan royal circles; besides, at the same time, a cousin of Anaxandridas' second wife was also the bride of the future Eurypontid king Leotychidas.

[16] Perhaps this statement is related to a great performance during the agoge—the rigorous military training at Sparta—which Dorieus had to endure, while Cleomenes avoided it as heir-apparent (the only possible exemption).

Putting aside Diodoros' error, Harvey states that as Cleomenes came to the throne "a few years earlier than the Plataia incident", he dates the start of his reign to 524–523.

[25][26] During the first years of his reign, Cleomenes adopted prudent diplomacy, rejecting foreign expeditions when solicited, possibly due to the threat of a helot revolt that a defeat in a war abroad would cause.

Croix and Paul Cartledge call this move "a master-stroke" of diplomacy,[34][35] but other modern scholars do not believe it was Cleomenes' intention to create a rift between Thebes and Athens.

Perhaps he was marching on Thebes to support an invasion of his ally, Lattamyas of Thessaly, but as the Thebans had defeated the Thessalians at the Battle of Ceressus before he arrived, he took the opportunity to try and undermine them without engaging his forces.

[38][39][40] The date of this event has been challenged by some modern scholars, who have often suggested 509 rather than 519, as it would better fit with Cleomenes' latter involvement in Athenian politics, but the majority view remains in favour of 519.

[41][42][43][44][45][46][47] In c.516, Cleomenes received an embassy from Maeandrius of Samos asking him for help to expel the tyrant Syloson, a puppet of the Persian Empire, which was at the time was subjugating the city-states of the eastern Aegean Sea.

[51] This story is however suspect, as the Scythian ambassadors later resurfaced to explain the death of Cleomenes, and the proposed alliance looks like a Pan-Hellenic fantasy of Herodotus'.

[52][53] An alternative date of after 494 BC has been proposed, because the mention of Ephesus by Herodotus implies that the city was not under Persian control, which only happened after the Ionian Revolt of 499 – 494.

[55][56] The first Spartan expedition, headed by Anchimolus, took place in c.511, but was defeated by the tyrant Hippias, son of Pisistratus, thanks to the help he received from his Thessalian allies, who had sent a force of 1000 cavalrymen.

[62] Embarrassed by owing the fall of the tyranny to the intervention of a Spartan king, the Athenians later promoted instead the story of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who had murdered Hippias' brother Hipparchus in 514.

Moreover, Plutarch mentions that at the time of Solon, Sparta acted as arbitrator between Athens and Megara for the ownership of Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf.

The pro-Spartan oligarch Isagoras became archon in 508/507, but Cleisthenes promised democratic reforms in order to gain greater support among the citizenry and expand his power-base.

[75][76] Cleomenes likely wanted to show his strength by making a sacrifice in a forbidden place, which was a typical behaviour for conquerors and notably Spartan commanders.

[77][78] Even though the priestess of Athena was the most important cleric in Athens, Herodotus chose not to give her name in order to make her speak as the goddess resisting the Spartan invasion.

[84] In the third day of the siege, Cleomenes realised that his position was hopeless, and negotiated a surrender: the Spartans were allowed to leave with Isagoras, but the supporters of the latter were massacred.

Lawrence Tritle has suggested instead that after Cleomenes retreated from the Acropolis, he captured Eleusis and left Isagoras in charge there until his return with the full army.

The following year, the Spartans and their allies discovered at Eleusis that Athens had retaken this city; without a secure base in Attica, the whole expedition appeared hopeless and was cancelled.

[100] Cleomenes returned south to the Thyreatis, within Spartan territory, in order to board his troops into ships lent by Sikyon and Aegina, two members of the Peloponnesian League.

[106] Despite his crushing victory against Argos, Cleomenes did not try to capture the city, possibly because its defences were too strong, or he failed to install a friendly government.

[9] Arcadia was the central region of the Peloponnese; it counted many small cities that Sparta had always prevented from uniting, applying a divide and rule policy.

[117] According to Herodotus, the oath would have been taken in the city of Nonacris, by the Styx—the river of the Underworld, where normally only gods swore oaths—therefore making Cleomenes commit another sacrilege and suffering from "divine megalomania".

[120][121][122] However, more recent studies have shown that this coinage was probably not political, but connected to the festival of Zeus Lykaios, and that Cleomenes never completed his plans in Arcadia.

Their official explanation was that they had to finish a religious festival, but the philosopher Plato mentioned that it was caused by a revolt of the helots in Messenia, which several historians have linked to the activities of Cleomenes against Sparta at the time.

[125] In support of this theory, the city of Messena in Sicily, was founded in c.488 by refugees from Messenia, and the Spartans made a dedication at Olympia after a victory against the Messenians at the beginning of the 5th century.

[126][127] Facing the threat of a combined revolt from Arcadia and Messenia, the Spartan authorities, notably the ephors, recalled Cleomenes to Sparta.

[132][133][134] Cleomenes' daughter, Gorgo, seems to have transmitted to Herodotus the Spartan "official version" of her father's death, to which she might have participated as she was married to Leonidas.