Cleomenes I.

Cleomenes I , the son of Anaxandridas II with a concubine, was a king of Sparta from the house of the Agiads . His half-brothers were Dorieus , Cleombrotos and Leonidas I.

Accession to the throne

Cleomenes was the eldest son of Anaxandridas. Nevertheless, as the eldest son of the principal wife , Dorieus laid claim to royal rule after the death of her father. The ephors chose Cleomenes. Therefore, Dorieus left Sparta and tried together with a larger group of Spartans and other Greeks to found a new city on the North African coast between Cyrene and Carthage . The enterprise failed, however, which is why the settlers moved on to southern Italy and Sicily, where they were destroyed by rival Phoenician colonists.

Battle with Athens

He directed 510 BC. The procession to Attica , which the Spartans , prompted by an oracle from Delphi , undertook to expel the Peisistratids . Since the reforms of Kleisthenes did not appeal to the Spartans, Cleomenes again moved into Athens, drove out Kleisthenes and 700 other families and installed Isagoras as archons and a council of 300 spartan-minded people. When Cleomenes went to the Acropolis and wanted to enter the Temple of Athena , a priestess tried to prevent him, as no Dorian was allowed to enter the temple. Cleomenes is said to have answered: "Woman, I am not a Dorian, but an Achaean."

An uprising by the Athenians in 508 BC BC Isagoras to leave the Attic area. Cleomenes then gathered a new army, consisting largely of allies, and advanced in 506 BC. BC to Eleusis before. He devastated the country and did not stop at orgasm, the grove of the Eleusinian goddesses. When, shortly before the battle against the Athenians, the war goal, which Cleomenes had previously concealed from his allies, was revealed, Demaratos , the Spartan co-king of the Eurypontid family , left the ranks, the Corinthians, who were friends with Athens, and other allies also withdrew, and Cleomenes was to retreat forced.

Kleisthenes had returned to Athens, and with him democracy. Since this was not the intention of Cleomenes, he wanted to help the Peisistratiden Hippias , whom he had driven out himself, to regain power. However, he found no allies for this.

War with Argos

In 494 BC In BC Cleomenes landed with ships on the coast of the Argolis, near the cities of Tiryns and Nauplia . He defeated the Argive army in the battle of Sepeia . The survivors fled and holed up in the sacred grove of Argos . Kleomenes pretended that various fighters had been ransomed. When these left the grove, however, they were struck down. When no more Argives came out, Cleomenes had the grove set on fire, and so 5000 Argives died. But now he renounced the siege of the city that had been robbed of its armed forces, which brought him a justification process in Sparta. His adversaries accused him of bribery. However, he was acquitted. The reason given was that it would have been a shame to take action against Telesilla and the Argive women. In addition, the oracle he received, which promised him the conquest of Argos, would not have meant the city but the sacred grove. According to Pausanias , this happened right after Cleomenes' accession to the throne around 510 BC. Chr.

Demarato's disempowerment

492 BC He was supposed to punish the Aeginetes who had given the ambassadors of Darius earth and water as a sign of their submission. He wanted to arrest the Persian sympathizers, but could not do so without Demaratos' help.

In revenge, he brought the complaint against him that he was not the real son of King Ariston . When he saw Demaratos, he is said to have said that he was not his son. He bribed Kobon, the son of Aristophantos. This persuaded the priestess of the Delphic oracle to give Perialla a corresponding prophecy. Demaratus was now ousted and Leotychidas succeeded him. Later he fled to Darius in Susa . When the bribery became known, Cleomenes also fled to Thessaly.

When he called for an uprising against Sparta from Arcadia , the Spartans brought him back, presumably to have him better under control. Cleomenes I is said to have committed mad suicide shortly afterwards, an allegation that perhaps was intended to cover up his murder. Since he left no male descendants, he was followed by his brother Leonidas I , the hero of the Battle of Thermopylae .

More stories

As Maeandrius after the death of Polycrates of Samos fled, he came to Sparta. He wanted to win Cleomenes over and offered him gold and silver tableware. Cleomenes was able to withstand this, however, and had Maiandrios expelled from the country by the ephors so as not to be tempted after all.

The Milesian Aristagoras , who 500 BC When asked for help against Persia in Sparta and offered large sums of money for the same, Cleomenes, warned by his nine-year-old daughter Gorgo , refused.

swell

• Herodotus , Histories 3,148; 5.39-97; 6.50-108; 7.148. 205, 239.
• Pausanias, travels in Greece 2,20,8-10; 3,3,9; 3,4,1-7; 3.7.8.

literature

• Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Kleomenes 3rd In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , Sp. 579 f.

Remarks

1. ^ Oswyn Murray : Early Greece. Munich 1982, p. 327.
2. ↑ Herodotus 5, 72, 3; here after Oswyn Murray: Early Greece. Munich 1982, p. 325, the appeal to the alleged Achaianism of the Spartans was then part of Sparta's politics.
3. ^ Oswyn Murray: Early Greece. Munich 1982, p. 329.

predecessor	Office	successor
Anaxandridas II.	King of Sparta 520–490 BC Chr.	Leonidas I.