Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/813

Rh CLEOMENES. party, heir to the throne of the I'roclidae, and he was invited by Cleoraenes to return ; but no sooner had he set foot in Sparta than he was assassinated. This crime also is charged upon Clcomenos by the Achaean party, and among them by Polybius. Thfc truth cannot now be ascertained, but every circumstance of the case seems to fix the guilt upon the Ephors. Clcomencs had everything to hope, and tlie Ephors everything to fear, from the association of Archidanuis in his councils. Cleo- menes, it is true, did nothing to avenge the crime : but the reason of this was, that the time for liis attack upon the Ephors was not yet come ; and thus, instead of an evidence of his guilt, it is a striking proof of his patient resolution, that he submitted to incur such a suspicion rather than to peril the object of his life by a premature move- ment. On the contrar)-, he did everj'thing to ap- pease the party of the Epliors. He bribed them largely, by the help of his mother Cratesicleia, who even went so far as to marry one of the chief men of the oligarchical party. Through the influence thus giiined, Cleomenes was pennitted to continue the war ; he took Leuctra, and gained a decisive victory over Anitus beneath its walls, owing to the impetuosity of Lydiadas, who was killed in the battle. The conduct of Amtus, in leaving Lydiadas unsupported, though perhaps it saved his army, disgusted and dispirited the Achacans to such a degree, that they made no further efforts during this campaign, and Cleomenes was left at leisure to effect his long-cherished revolution during the winter which now came on. (b. c. 226 — 225.) Having secured the aid of his father-in-law, Megistonus, and of two or three other persons, he first weakened the oligarchical party by drafting many of its chief supporters into his army, with which he then again took the field, seized the Achaean cities of Heraea and Asea, threw supplies into Orchomenus, beleaguered Mantineia, and so wearied out his soldiers, that they were glad to be left in Arcadia, while Cleomenes himself marched back to Sparta at the head of a force of mercenaries, surprised the Ephors at table, and slew all of them, except Agesilaus, who took sanctuary in the temple of Fear, and had his life granted afterwards by Cleomenes. Having struck this decisive blow, and being supported not only by his mercenaries, but also by the remains of the party of Agis, Cleo- menes met with no further resistance. He now propounded his new constitution, which is too closely connected with the whole subject of the Spartan polity to be explained within the limits of this article. All that can be said here is, that he extended the power of the kings, abolished the Ephorate, restored the community of goods, made a new division of the lands, and recruited the body of the citizens, by bringing back the exiles and by raising to the full franchise the most deserving of those who had not before possessed it. He also restored, to a great extent, the ancient Spartan system of social and military discipline. In the completion of this reform he was aided by the phi- losopher Sphaerus. The line of the Proclidae being extinct, he took his brother Eucleidas for his colleague in tlie kingdom. In his own conduct he set a fine example of the simple virtue of an old Spartan. From this period must be dated the contest be- tween the Achaeans and Cleomenes for the supre- CLEOMENES. '05 macy of Oreece, which Polybius calls the Cleomenic war, and which lasted three years, from B. c. 225 to the battle of Sellasia in the spring of B. c. 222. For its details, of which a slight sketch is given under Aratus, the reader is referred to the histo- rians. Amidst a career of brilliant success, ('leo- menes committed some errors, but, even if he had avoided them, he could not but have been over- powered by the united force of Macedonia and the Achaean league. The moral character of the war is condensed by Niebuhr into one just and forcible sentence : — " Old Aratus sacrificed the freedom of his country by an act of high treason, and gave up Corinth rather than establish the freedom of Greece by a union among the Peloponnesians, which would have secured to Cleomenes the influence and power he deserved." {History of Rome^ iv. p. 226.) From the defeat of Sellasia, Cleomenes returned to Sparta, and having advised the citizens to sub- mit to Antigonus, he fled to his .illy, Ptolemy Eu- ergetes, at Alexandria, where his mother and children were alreadj' residing as hostages. Any hope he might have had of recovering his kingdom by the help of Ptolemy Euergetes was defeated by the death of that king, whose successor, Ptolemy Philopator, treated Cleomenes with the greatest neglect, and his minister, Sosibius, imprisoned him on a charge of conspiracy against the king's life. Cleomenes, with his attendants, escaped from prison, and attempted to raise an insurrection against Ptolemy, but finding no one join him, he put himself to death, (b. c. 221 — 220.) His reign lasted 16 years. He is rightly reckoned by Pau- sanias (iii. 6. § 5) as the last of the Agidae, for his nominal successor, Agesipolis III., was a mere puppet. He was the last truly great man of Sparta, and, excepting perhaps Philopoemen, of all Greece. (Plutarch, Cleom., Aral. ; Polyb. ii. v., &c. ; Droysen, GeschicMe der Hellenismus, vol. ii. bk. ii. c. 4 ; Manso, Sparta, vol. iii.) [P. S.] CLEO'MENES (KAeo^t'i/Tjs), Spartans of the royal family of the Agidae, but not kings. 1. Son of the general Pausanias, brother of king Pleistoanax, and uncle of king Pausanias, led the Peloponnesian army in their fourth invasion of Attica, in the fifth year of the Peloponnesian war. (b. c. 427.) Cleomenes acted in place of his nephew, Pausanias, who was a minor. (Thucyd. iii. 26, and Schol.) 2. Son of Cleombrotus II., and uncle and guar- dian of Agesipolis III,, b. c. 219. (Polyb. iv. 35. § 12; AgesipolisIII., Cleombrotus II.) [P.S.] CLEO'MENES, a Greek of Naucratis in Egypt, was appointed by Alexander the Great as nomarch of the Arabian district {v6/j.os) of Egypt and re- ceiver of the tributes from .ill the districts of Egypt and the neighbouring part of Africi. (b. c. 331.) Some of the ancient writers s.iy that Alex- ander made him satrap of Egypt ; but this is in- correct, for Arrian expressly states, that the other nomarchs were independent of him, except that they had to pay to him the tributes of their dis- tricts. It would, however, appcir that he had no difficulty in extending his depredations over all Eg}'pt, and it is not unlikely that he would assume the title of satrap. His rapacity knew no bounds v he exercised his office solely for his own advantage. On the occurrence of a scarcity of com, which was less severe in Egypt than in the ndghbourinj^