Cleomenes I

King of Sparta (r. c. 519-490 b. c.e.)

Born: Date unknown; Sparta, Greece Died: c. 490 b. c.e.; Sparta, Greece Category: Government and politics; military

Life Cleomenes I (klee-AHM-uh-neez) succeeded his father, King An-axandrides, to the throne around 519 b. c.e. Initially, his half brother Dorieus challenged his ascendancy, but Cleomenes was planted firmly in power when Dorieus left Sparta to establish a colony elsewhere.

Cleomenes I wanted to fight against Athens’s tyranny and to expand Sparta’s boundaries and influence outward, even into Greece. After a naval failure, he led a land expedition against Athens that succeeded in trapping the Athenian dictator, Hippias, and members of his government on the Acropolis. Spartans captured Hippias’s children as they were being smuggled out of Athens and ransomed them to force Hippias to accede to the Spartans’ demands and leave the city.

Overseen by Cleomenes I, Cleisthenes and Isagoras ruled Athens. Years later, when a struggle between them threatened civil war, Cleomenes ordered Cleisthenes out of Athens. He exiled seven hundred supporting Athenian families and threatened to replace Cleisthenes’ Council of Five Hundred with a three-hundred-member council supportive of Isagoras. Isagoras was Cleomenes’ protege, and Athenians did not appreciate his efforts to install him on their throne. Struggles continued until Isagoras’s entire party was executed. Isagoras was able to escape.

Cleisthenes and his seven hundred supporting families returned to Athens and began negotiations with Darius of Persia for a possible alliance. On hearing of Athens’s deceit, Cleomenes gathered an army to attack the city. Cleomenes’ co-monarch, Demaratus, joined the military forces to demonstrate unanimous Spartan support for the campaign. Cleomenes’ main goal for the attack on Athens was to return Isagoras to the throne, not to punish it for its recent negotiations with Persia, as many thought. When Demaratus discovered the true nature of the campaign, the two monarchs argued. Corinthian forces who had joined the Spartans refused to participate and went home. The campaign failed.

Early in the fifth century, Sparta’s ancient enemy, Argos, refused to pay tribute. Cleomenes led his armies northward to Argosian territory to reestablish Sparta’s authority. Before crossing the Erasinos River, Spartans offered sacrifices to the gods for support. Believing the sacrifices did not satisfy the gods, Cleomenes boarded his men on ships and instead attacked the Argosians at Sepeia. His victory was complete by about 494 b. c.e., but, in a controversial move, Cleomenes pursued a number of Argosians to a grove where they had taken refuge. Calling them out under the pretense of arranging for their ransom, Cleomenes executedfifty of Argos’s leading citizens. Again citing religious reasons, he decided not to attack Argos and went home.

Three years later, a Persian invasion of Athens appeared imminent. Cleomenes received word that a number of local islands were paying homage to King Darius the Great of Persia, in particular the strategically located Aegina. Athens appealed to Cleomenes for support. Cleomenes led military forces to Aegina in 491 b. c.e. to arrest leading members of the offending parties. He was met by Krio, known as “the Ram.” Krio refused to acknowledge Cleomenes’ power to arrest, stating that he did not have Spartan governmental support for his campaign. If Sparta supported his cause, Krio asserted, both Spartan kings would have come to Aegina. Because of arguments between the monarchs in the struggle against Athens, Spartan law forbade any two rulers from participating together in the same campaign.

Cleomenes believed his co-king, Demaratus, was behind Krio’s words and decided to try to remove him from office. He revived old rumors that Demaratus was illegitimate and therefore had no claim to the Spartan throne. When the oracle at Delphi was consulted as to his paternity, she affirmed his illegitimate status, and Spartans replaced Demaratus with his enemy Leotychides. Rumors began that Cleomenes had bribed the prophetess.

For a few months, Cleomenes and Leotychides worked well together. They further strengthened the Peloponnese against the Persian threat and managed to arrest Aeginetan leaders who opposed them. However, reports of Cleomenes’ bribery of the Delphic oracle grew. Cleomenes became so unpopular that he was forced to flee to Thessaly and later Arcadia. While in Arcadia, Cleomenes put together a military force to retake his own city. He was recalled to Sparta where, on his return, his family had him arrested.

Cleomenes reportedly stabbed himself to death; however, it is also possible that his Ephorian enemies killed him.

Significance Though some historians claim that Cleomenes I suffered from intermittent mental illness, his actions in office and on the military front show him to have been a capable strategist. Rumors of madness may have been spread by his enemies to justify forcing him out of Sparta. Though he may not have spread Spartan rule as far as he desired, Cleo-menes increased Sparta’s power more than any ruler before him.

Further Reading

Boardman, John, Jasper Griffin, and Oswyn Murray, eds. The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Forrest, W. G. A History of Sparta, 950-192 B. C. 2d ed. London: Duckworth, 1980.

Grimal, Pierre. Hellenism and the Rise of Rome. New York: Delacorte Press, 1968.

Huxley, G. L. Early Sparta. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970.

Walbank, F. W. The Hellenistic World. Rev. ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Leslie A. Stricker

See also: Cleisthenes of Athens; Delphic Oracle; Hippias of Athens; Leonidas.