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Plato called the ephors tyrants, who ran Sparta as despots while the kings were little more than generals. [16] Up to two ephors would accompany a king on extended military campaigns as a sign of control, and they held the authority to declare war during some periods in Spartan history. [17]
It was also the time of the Olympic Games, and therefore the Olympic truce, and thus it would have been doubly sacrilegious for the whole Spartan army to march to war. [50] [51] On this occasion, the ephors decided the urgency was sufficiently great to justify an advance expedition to block the pass, under one of its kings, Leonidas I.
Sthenelaidas is the first known Spartan outside the royal families to play a decisive role in shaping Sparta's foreign policy since Hetoimaridas, geronte in 475, and Chilon, ephor c. 556 BC. [13] He was the father of the Spartan general Alcamenes, who probably inherited his hawkish stance against Athens. [14]
Leonidas I (/ l i ə ˈ n aɪ d ə s,-d æ s /; Ancient Greek: Λεωνίδας, Leōnídas; born c. 540 BC; died 11 August 480 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. He was the son of king Anaxandridas II and the 17th king of the Agiad dynasty, a Spartan royal house which claimed descent from the mythical demigod Heracles.
On his return to Sparta from Athens, Pausanias was prosecuted for betrayal before a supreme court made of the Gerousia (composed of 28 gerontes and the two kings) and the five ephors. [27] Although he had worked with Pausanias to bring Lysander down, the initiative of the trial came from Agis II, with the obvious encouragement of Lysander's ...
For most of its history, the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously, who were called the archagetai, [1] [n 1] coming from two separate lines.
A king could even be prosecuted before a special court of 34 members, made of the Gerousia and the five ephors (the defendant king could not sit in the Gerousia during the trial). [13] A famous case was the trial of king Pausanias in 403; accused of betrayal for having restored democracy in Athens , he was nonetheless acquitted by a 19-15 ...
Cleomenes I (/ k l iː ˈ ɒ m ɪ n iː z /; Greek Κλεομένης; died c. 490 BC) was Agiad King of Sparta from c. 524 to c. 490 BC. 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.