Cleonymus (Agiad)

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Cleonymos (* around 340 BC; † after 272 BC) was a member of the Spartan royal house of the Agiads . 309/308 BC In the succession to the throne, he made 303/302 BC. A not very glorious Italian campaign and tried in 272 BC. BC with the help of King Pyrrhus of Epirus in vain to recapture the Spartan throne.

Failed attempt to succeed the throne

Cleonymos was the second son of the Spartan king Cleomenes II and the younger brother of Akrotatos. Because of his allegedly violent and tyrannical character, he was unable to succeed his father after the death of his father (309/308 BC), and his nephew Areus I , the son of the late Akrotatos, ascended the throne in his place . Because of this resignation, Cleonymus was extremely bad at speaking to his countrymen, and he allegedly passed his anger on to his son, who was to take over the government of Sparta as Leonidas II .

Expedition to Italy

A few years later, with the consent of the Spartan leadership, Cleonymos sailed to Italy as a mercenary leader to support Taranto against the Lucanians . So it happened in 303/302 BC. To Kleonymos' military engagement on the Apennine peninsula. There are two different reports on this from the Sicilian historian Diodorus and the Roman annalist Titus Livius . The relationship between the two sources is unclear. The ancient historian Thomas Lenschau suspects that they describe two different campaigns of Cleonymos, with the one depicted by Diodorus a year before that depicted by Livy.

According to Diodor's report, Cleonymos sailed to Taranto with 5,000 mercenaries he had recruited on Tainaron , took an equal number of other mercenaries into his service there and, together with the soldiers from Taranto, commanded over 30,000 infantrymen and 2,000 cavalrymen. Faced with this large army, the Lucanians were quickly ready for peace. Next, Cleonymus turned against Metapont , which he conquered. The citizens of the city had to give him the large sum of 600 talents of silver. He also took 200 noble girls hostage. He is said to have continued it not only to ensure the loyalty of Metaponton, but also to satisfy his debauchery. Now Cleonymos first considered waging war against King Agathocles of Syracuse in order to free the Sicilian Greeks, but then sailed to the Greek island of Korkyra , quickly captured it and set up his military base here. The Diadochi Kassander and Demetrios I Poliorketes proposed alliances to him, but he probably did not accept them because he did not want to operate in the east, but wanted to turn his attention back to Italy because of the defeat of Taranto. Once there, he only made short-term victorious conquests, but suffered a setback in a night attack. As 20 of his ships were also destroyed by a storm at the same time, Kleonymos thought it advisable to leave the Italian theater of war and return to Korkyra.

According to Thomas Lenschau, the following year, 302 BC BC, another, namely the campaign of Cleonymus to Italy described by Livius. The Roman historian first reports that after his landing in southern Italy, Cleonymos conquered a place called Thuriae in the area of ​​the Sallentines that could not be precisely located . There there was then a dispute with the Romans , but this was reported differently by the various annalists consulted by Livy. According to one version, Cleonymus was defeated in a battle by the consul Marcus Aemilius Paullus and had to retreat to his ships; According to another version, however, there was no hostile encounter between the Spartan prince and the Romans, since Cleonymus had sailed before the appearance of the dictator Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus sent against him . The ancient historian Friedrich Münzer prefers the second variant. Cleonymos now turned north with his fleet and sailed the Adriatic to the coast of the Venetians . From the mouth of the Meduacus (today Brenta ) he drove upstream to the area of ​​Patavium (today Padua ) and plundered the surrounding villages. But the local population counterattacked and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Spartan prince. Cleonymos' losses are probably exaggerated by Livius: he is said to have lost four fifths of his fleet. The people of Patavium displayed the looted pieces in the Temple of Juno and celebrated their victory on each anniversary of the battle by holding mock battles from ships. Cleonymos retreated after his defeat, but the further course of his campaign is unknown, as Livius does not provide any information on this.

Campaigns in Greece

Cleonymos' fate over the next ten years is unknown. It wasn't until 293 BC. It appears again in the sources. At that time he apparently lived again in his hometown Sparta in harmony with the state leadership and was given command of an army that was supposed to support the Boeotians against Demetrios Poliorketes; but when this approached, Cleonymos withdrew and abandoned his allies. Kleonymos is not mentioned for the next 15 years. Around 279 BC He conquered Troizen from the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas . He also took part in operations against Messene and Zarax .

Already at an advanced age, Cleonymos married the beautiful Chilonis , who, as the daughter of Leotychidas, belonged to the second Spartan royal house of the Eurypontids . But Chilonis fell in love with her husband's young great-nephew, Akrotatos . This was the son of Areus I, who once successfully contested the throne with Cleonymus. Deeply offended, Kleonymos left his hometown and tried successfully to persuade Pyrrhus, who had just returned from the Italian theater of war, to campaign against Sparta. Perhaps he fought under Pyrrhus first in Macedonia , taking Edessa in the process . Then both moved in 272 BC. Against Sparta. The Molossian king wanted Cleonymus to get the throne of Sparta. The capture of the city finally failed and Pyrrhus turned against Argos . After that, Cleonymus is no longer mentioned in the sources, so that his later fate is unknown.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plutarch , Pyrrhos 26; see. Pausanias 3, 6, 2.
  2. ^ Pausanias 3: 6, 7.
  3. ↑ Diodor 20, 104-105 (dated 303/302 BC); Livy 10, 2 (dated 302 BC).
  4. ↑ Thomas Lenschau, RE XI 1, column 732.
  5. ↑ Diodorus 20, 104 f.
  6. ↑ Friedrich Münzer : Iunius 62) , in: RE X 1, Sp. 1027-1030, here: 1029f.
  7. ^ Livy 10: 2, 1-14.
  8. ↑ Plutarch, Demetrios 39.
  9. ↑ Polyainos 2, 29, 1; Frontinus , strategemata 3, 6, 7.
  10. ↑ Pausanias 3, 24, 1f .; 4, 28, 3.
  11. ↑ Plutarch, Pyrrhos 26, 14ff.
  12. ^ So Thomas Lenschau, RE XI 1, Sp. 732 on Polyainos 2, 29, 2.
personal data
SURNAME Cleonymus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of the Spartan King Cleomenes II.
DATE OF BIRTH around 340 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 272 BC Chr.