Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Acrotatus

ACRO'TATUS (Ἀκρότατος). 1. The son of Cleomenes II. king of Sparta, incurred the displeasure of a large party at Sparta by opposing the decree, which was to release from infamy all who had fled from the battle, in which Antipater defeated Agis, B. C. 331. He was thus glad to accept the offer of the Agrigentines, when they sent to Sparta for assistance in B. C. 314 against Agathocles of Syracuse. He first sailed to Italy, and obtained assistance from Tarentum; but on his arrival at Agrigentum he acted with such cruelty and tyranny that the inhabitants rose against him, and compelled him to leave the city. He returned to Sparta, and died before the death of his father, which was in B. C. 309. He left a son, Areus, who succeeded Cleomenes. (Diod. xv. 70, 71; Paus. i. 13. § 3, iii. 6. § 1, 2; Plut. Agis 3.)

2. The grandson of the preceding, and the son of Areus I. king of Sparta. He had unlawful intercourse with Chelidonis, the young wife of Cleonymus, who was the uncle of his father Areus; and it was this, together with the disappointment of not obtaining the throne, which led Cleonymus to invite Pyrrhus to Sparta, B. C. 272. Areus was then absent in Crete, and the safety of Sparta was mainly owing to the valour of Acrotatus. He succeeded his father in B. C. 265, but was killed in the same year in battle against Aristodemus, the tyrant of Megalopolis. Pausanias, in speaking of his death, calls him the son of Cleonymus. but he has mistaken him for his grandfather, spoken of above. (Plut. Pyrrh. 26 - 28; Agis, 3; Paus. iii. 6. § 3, viii. 27. § 8, 30. § 3.) Areus and Acrotatus are accused by Phylarchus (ap. Athen. iv. p. 142, b.) of having corrupted the simplicity of Spartan manners.