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CLEOMENES III

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 494 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLEOMENES III ., the son and successor of See also:

Leonidas II., reigned about 235–219 B.C. He made a determined See also:attempt to reform the social See also:condition of See also:Sparta along the lines laid down by See also:Agis IV., whose widow Agiatis he married; at the same See also:time he aimed at restoring Sparta's See also:hegemony in the Peloponnese. After twice defeating the forces of the Achaean See also:League in See also:Arcadia, near See also:Mount Lycaeum and at See also:Leuctra, he strengthened his position by assassinating four of the ephors, abolishing the ephorate, which had usurped the supreme See also:power, and banishing some eighty of the leading oligarchs. The authority of the See also:council was also curtailed, and a new See also:board of magistrates, the patronomi, became the See also:chief See also:officers of See also:state. He appointed his own See also:brother Eucleidas as his colleague in See also:succession to the Eurypontid Archidamus, who had been murdered. His social reforms included a redistribution of See also:land, the remission of debts, the restoration of the old See also:system of training (aya yi7) and the See also:admission of picked See also:perioeci into the See also:citizen See also:body. As a See also:general Cleomenes did much to revive Sparta's old See also:prestige. He defeated the See also:Achaeans at Dyme, made himself See also:master of See also:Argos, and was eventually joined by See also:Corinth, Phlius, See also:Epidaurus and other cities. But See also:Aratus, whose See also:jealousy could not See also:brook to see a Spartan at the See also:head of the Achaean league called in Antigonus Doson of See also:Macedonia, and Cleomenes, after conducting successful expeditions to See also:Megalopolis and Argos, was finally defeated at Sellasia, to the See also:north of Sparta, in 222 or 221 B.C. He took See also:refuge at See also:Alexandria with See also:Ptolemy Euergetes, but was arrested by his successor, Ptolemy Philopator, on a See also:charge of See also:conspiracy. Escaping from See also:prison he tried to raise a revolt, but the attempt failed and to avoid See also:capture he put an end to his See also:life. Both as general and as politician Cleomenes was one of Sparta's greatest men, and with him perished her last See also:hope of recovering her See also:ancient supermacy in See also:Greece.

See See also:

Polybius ii. 45-70, V. 35-39, viii. 1; See also:Plutarch, Cleomenes; Aratus, 35-46; See also:Philopoemen, 5, 6; See also:Pausanias ii. 9; Gehlert, De Cleomene (See also:Leipzig, 1883) ; Holm, See also:History of Greece, iv. cc. 10, 15. (M. N.

End of Article: CLEOMENES III

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