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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.
Since the Spartans did not know who was born first, they opted for a diarchy, a college of two kings with the same power; Eurysthenes being the first Agiad, Prokles the first Eurypontid. [1] Modern scholars consider instead Agis I and Eurypon to be the founders of each dynasty, as they give their name to their descendants, not the mythical twins.
Agis II (Ancient Greek: Ἄγις; died c. 399 BC) was the 18th Eurypontid king of Sparta, the eldest son of Archidamus II by his first wife, and half-brother of Agesilaus II. [2] He ruled with his Agiad co-monarch Pausanias. [3]
Cleomenes III (Ancient Greek: Κλεομένης) was one of the two kings of Sparta from 235 to 222 BC. He was a member of the Agiad dynasty and succeeded his father, Leonidas II. He is known for his attempts to reform the Spartan state. From 229 to 222 BC, Cleomenes waged war against the Achaean League under Aratus of Sicyon.
Agis II died while returning from Delphi between 400 and 398. [ii] After his funeral, Agesilaus contested the claim of Leotychidas, the son of Agis II, using the widespread belief in Sparta that Leotychidas was an illegitimate son of Alcibiades—a famous Athenian statesman and nephew of Pericles, who had gone into exile in Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, and then seduced the queen.
Although Sparta was a diarchy, with two kings of equal powers, Areus completely eclipsed the kings of the Eurypontid dynasty. [108] Nothing is known of Areus' co-king Archidamus IV after his defeat against Demetrios Poliorketes in 294, and Archidamus' son Eudamidas II is the most obscure of all the Spartan kings; the dates of their reign are ...
A ceremony was organised in Sparta to celebrate the king's return, which—according to Thucydides—used the same ancient sacrifices and songs as during the foundation of Sparta. The purpose of this ceremony was to reassert the authority of Pleistoanax over his son Pausanias, who had nominally reigned since 445.
The Gerousia (γερουσία) was the council of elders in ancient Sparta. Sometimes called Spartan senate in the literature, it was made up of the two Spartan kings, plus 28 men over the age of sixty, known as gerontes. The Gerousia was a prestigious body, holding extensive judicial and legislative powers, which shaped Sparta's policies.