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CLEOMENES I

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 494 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLEOMENES I . was the son of Anaxandridas, whom he succeeded about 520 B.C. His See also:

chief exploit was his crushing victory near See also:Tiryns over the Argives, some 6000 of whom he burned to See also:death in a sacred See also:grove to which they had fled for See also:refuge (See also:Herodotus vi. 76-82). This secured for See also:Sparta the undisputed See also:hegemony of the Peloponnese. Cleomenes' interposition in the politics of central See also:Greece was less successful. In 510 he marched to See also:Athens with a Spartan force to aid in expelling the Peisistratidae, and subsequently returned to support the oligarchical party, led by Isagoras, against See also:Cleisthenes (q.v.). He expelled seven See also:hundred families and transferred the See also:government from the See also:council to three hundred of the oligarchs, but being blockaded in the See also:Acropolis he was forced to capitulate. On his return See also:home he collected a large force with the intention of 3 Dom See also:Chapman (ut supra, p. 158) says during the Neoplatonist reaction under See also:Julian 361-363, to which See also:period he also assigns the Homilies.making Isagoras See also:despot of Athens, but the opposition of the Corinthian See also:allies and of his colleague See also:Demaratus caused the expedition to break up after reaching See also:Eleusis (See also:Herod. v. 64-76; See also:Aristotle, See also:Ath. Pol. 19, 20).

In 491 he went to See also:

Aegina to punish the See also:island for its submission to See also:Darius, but the intrigues of his colleague once again rendered his See also:mission abortive. In revenge Cleomenes accused Demaratus of See also:illegitimacy and secured his deposition in favour of See also:Leotychides (Herod. vi. 50-73). But when it was discovered that he had bribed the Delphian priestess to substantiate his See also:charge he was himself obliged to flee; he went first to See also:Thessaly and then to See also:Arcadia, where he attempted to foment an See also:anti-Spartan rising. About 488 B.C. he was recalled, but shortly afterwards, in a See also:fit of madness, he committed See also:suicide (Herod. vi. 74, 75). Cleomenes seems to have received scant See also:justice at the hands of Herodotus or his informants, and See also:Pausanias (iii. 3, 4) does little more than condense Herodotus's narrative. In spite of some failures, largely due to Demaratus's See also:jealousy, Cleomenes strengthened Sparta in the position, won during his. See also:father's reign, of See also:champion and See also:leader of the Hellenic See also:race; it was to him, for example, that the Ionian cities of See also:Asia See also:Minor first applied for aid in their revolt against See also:Persia (Herod. v. 49-51). For the See also:chronology see J. See also:Wells, See also:Journal of Hellenic Studies (1905), p.

193 if., who assigns the Argive expedition to the outset of the reign, whereas nearly all historians have dated it in or about 495 B.c.

End of Article: CLEOMENES I

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