Cleomenes III

Aratus of Sicyon, the strategos of the Achaean League, helps liberate Athens from Macedonian rule and consolidates power in central Greece.

In the Peloponnese, Cleomenes III ascends the throne of Sparta in 235 BCE and begins a program of reform aimed at restoring traditional Spartan discipline while weakening the influence of the ephors, elected officials who wield extraordinary political power, although they have sworn to uphold the rule of Sparta's kings.

When, in 229 BCE, the ephors send Cleomenes to seize a town on the border with Megalopolis, the Achaeans declare war.

Cleomenes responds by ravaging Achaea.

At Mount Lycaeum, he defeats an army under Aratus of Sicyon that had been sent to attack Elis, and then routs a second army near Megalopolis.

In quick succession, Cleomenes clears the cities of Arcadia of their Achaean garrisons before crushing another Achaean force at Dyme.

Combining a narrow Spartan nationalism with a visionary idealism, Cleomenes begins to break the power of the oligarchy within the aristocracy, abolish the debts owed by poor farmers to rich landlords, and redistribute the land.

The ideological revolution spreads; everywhere there is demand for “division of land and cancellation of debts.”

Sparta’s King Leonidas II dies in 235 BCE; his son succeeds him as Cleomenes III, who, seeking to increase Sparta’s power, institutes several social reforms.

Megalopolis joins the Achaean League after 234 BCE and again successfully repels an attempted Spartan conquest.

The Achaean League's gains in the Peloponnesus are threatened by the hostility of Sparta, ruled from 235 by Cleomenes III, whose wife (Agis' widow), has won him to the need for nationalist revolution.

In this, she has had the support of Cleomenes' stoic tutor Sphaerus, who seems to have read a remarkable utopian narrative composed around 250 by an otherwise obscure author named Iambulus.

The Achaean League, on commencing hostilities with Sparta in 228, allies itself with Rome.

Cleomenes defeats the armies of the Achaean confederacy at Mount Lycaeum and Ladoceia, near Megalopolis, in 227BCE.

He bribes the ephors, the main governmental body, later in the year to allow him to continue his campaign against the Achaeans.

Having succeeded with his bribe, Cleomenes advances into the territory of Megalopolis and captures the village of Leuctra.

In response, an Achaean army arrives to relieve the city and inflicts a minor defeat on the Spartan army based nearest the city walls.

Cleomenes is therefore obliged to retreat with his troops across a series of ravines.

Aratus orders the Achaeans not to pursue the Spartans across the ravine, but Lydiadas of Megalopolis disobeys the order and charges with the cavalry in pursuit of the Spartans.

Cleomenes, taking advantage of the difficult terrain and the scattered cavalry, sends his Cretan and Tarentine soldiers against Lydiadas.

They rout the cavalry, and Lydiadas is among the dead.

The Spartans, encouraged by these events, charge against the main Achaean forces and defeat the entire army.

The Achaeans are so outraged and demoralized by Aratus' failure to support Lydiadas that they make no further attacks in this year.

Cleomenes, now confident of the strength of his position, begins plotting against the ephors.

He first recruits his stepfather, persuading him of the need to do away with the ephors.

Cleomenes contends they could then make the ephors' property common to all citizens and work toward the achievement of Spartan supremacy in Greece.

Having won over his stepfather, Cleomenes starts preparing his revolution.

Employing the men he considers most likely to oppose him (probably in an attempt to get them killed), he captures Heraea and Asea.

He also brings in food for the citizens of Orchomenus—which the Achaeans are besieging—before camping outside Mantinea.

This campaign exhausts his opponents, who ask to remain in Arcadia so they can rest.

Cleomenes then advances upon Sparta with his mercenaries and sends some loyal followers to slay the ephors.

All of the five ephors are killed, with the exception of Agylaeus, who manages to escape and seeks sanctuary in a temple.

With the ephors vanquished, Cleomenes initiates his reforms.

Combining a narrow Spartan nationalism with a visionary idealism, he begins to break the power of the oligarchy within the aristocracy, abolish the debts owed by poor farmers to rich landlords, and redistribute the land.

He also reintroduces the common meals and restores the simplicity of life and the education for character that had been traditional in Sparta.

The revolution spreads; everywhere there is demand for “division of land and cancellation of debts.” First, he hands over his land to the state; he is soon followed by his stepfather and his friends, and then by the rest of the citizens.

He divides up all of the Spartan land, awarding an equal lot to each citizen.

He increases the citizen population by granting citizenship to some perioeci, who constitute the Spartan middle class, but do not at this time have Spartan citizenship.

Expanding the citizen population means that Cleomenes can build a larger army; he trains four thousand hoplites and restores the old Spartan social and military discipline.

He also strengthens his army by introducing the Macedonian sarissa (pike).

Ptolemy III of Egypt offers continued assistance to Cleomenes on the condition that the Spartan king offer his mother and children as hostages.

Cleomenes hesitates but his mother, after learning of Ptolemy's offer, goes voluntarily to Egypt.

Cleomenes, reigning without a colleague, had recalled the exiled Archidamus V, twenty-seventh Spartan king of the Eurypontid line, but Archidamus was assassinated shortly after his return in 227. (The historian Polybius accuses Cleomenes of the murder, but Plutarch is probably right in attributing it to those who had caused the death of Agis and who feared his brother's vengeance.)

Cleomenes completes his reforms by placing his brother, Eucleidas, in charge, making him the first Agiad king on the Eurypontid throne.

The citizens of Mantinea appeal to Cleomenes in 226 BCE to expel the Achaean garrison from the city.

One night, he and his troops creep into the city and remove the Achaean garrison before marching off to …

…nearby Tegea.

From Tegea, the Spartans advance into Achaea, where Cleomenes hopes to force the League to face him in a pitched battle.

Cleomenes advances with his army to …

…Dyme and is met at nearby Hecatobaeum by the entire Achaean army.

The Spartans rout the Achaean phalanx in the battle that follows, killing many of the Achaeans and capturing others.

Following this victory, Cleomenes captures the city of Lasium and presents it to the Elians.

The Achaean League is demoralized by this battle; …