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Chilonis (daughter Of Leotychidas)
Chilonis ( el, Χιλονίς) was a Spartan princess, daughter of Leotychidas, wife of Cleonymus, then Acrotatus, with whom she had Areus II. She is known from Plutarch's "Life of Pyrrhus". Biography Her much older husband Cleonymus, a son of Cleomenes II, had not been allowed to succeed to his father's throne because of his violent and tyrannical behaviour, and had spent many years away from Sparta as a soldier of fortune. Chilonis was unfaithful to him with Acrotatus, son of the king Areus I. Areus was away with his army in Gortyn, Crete (272 BC) when Cleonymus attacked his homeland with the help of Pyrrhus of Epirus. Chilonis preferred death to a return to her husband; in Plutarch's account of the battle, she kept a rope tied around her neck ready to commit suicide in the case of defeat. With the help of their women, the Spartans, led by Acrotatus, were able to withstand the attack,Plutarch, ''Life of Pyrrhus'', 27-28. until the return of the king from Gortyn. He was able to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sparta
Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece. Given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the leading force of the unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars, in rivalry with the rising naval power of Athens. Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), from which it emerged victorious after the Battle of Aegospotami. The decisive Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended the Spartan hegemony, although the city-state maintained its political independence until its forced integration into the Achaean League in 192 BC. The city nevertheless ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleonymus Of Sparta
Cleonymus ( grc, Κλεώνυμος) was a member of the Spartan royal family of the Kings of Sparta, Agiads. Biography Cleonymus was the second son of Cleomenes II and a pretender to the Spartan throne. He did not succeed his father (died 309/308 BC), allegedly because he was violent and tyrannic. His nephew Areus I became new king instead. Hence, he nursed a grudge against his fellow Spartans. To help Taranto against the Lucanians, Lucani, Cleonymus went as mercenary leader to southern Italy with the backing of the Spartan administration (303 BC). There are two different accounts of his Italian expedition; one written by Diodorus Siculus and one by Livy. But the connection between the two sources is unclear. The historian Thomas Lenschau supposes that they describe two different campaigns by Cleonymus: the one described by Diodorus Siculus may have taken place in 303 BC and the one described by Livy in 302 BC. According to Diodorus Siculus, Cleonymus raised such a large army ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acrotatus (king Of Sparta)
Acrotatus ( el, Ἀκρότατος; died 262 BC) was an Agiad King of Sparta from 265 to 262 BC. He was the son of Areus I, and grandson of Acrotatus. He had unlawful intercourse with Chilonis, the young wife of Cleonymus, uncle of his father Areus. It was this, together with the disappointment of not obtaining the throne, which led Cleonymus to invite Pyrrhus to Sparta in 272. Areus was then absent in Crete, and the safety of Sparta was mainly owing to the valor of Acrotatus who successfully held off the Siege of Sparta. He succeeded his father in 265, but was killed shortly thereafter (possibly in the same year) in battle against Aristodemus the Good, the tyrant of Megalopolis. Pausanias, in speaking of his death, calls him the son of Cleonymus, but he has mistaken him for his grandfather, mentioned above. Areus and Acrotatus are accused by Phylarchus of having corrupted the simplicity of Spartan manners.Phylarchus, ''ap. Athen.'' iv. p. 142, b He was succeeded by his so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Areus II
Areus II ( grc, Ἀρεύς Β΄) was Agiad King of Sparta from 262 to 254 BC. He never reigned as he was still a child when he died. He was succeeded by his cousin Leonidas II, who had served as regent. Life Areus was the son of Acrotatus () and Chilonis, who belonged to the Agiad dynasty, one of the two royal families at Sparta (the other being the Eurypontids). He was named after his grandfather Areus I (). His father died early in his reign at the Battle of Megalopolis in 262, towards the end of the Chremonidean War, during which Areus I had likewise fallen in battle three years earlier. Areus II was still a minor at the time, and his cousin Leonidas was appointed regent. Leonidas was the son of Cleonymus, who had also been regent to his nephew Areus I in 309. However, Areus II never reigned as he died still a child in 254, and Leonidas succeeded him (). Areus II was honoured by a proxeny decree by the city of Delphi in 255/254. This decree shows the transformation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and ''Moralia'', a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was possibly named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (). Life Early life Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea, about east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia. His family was long established in the town; his father was named Autobulus and his grandfather was named Lamprias. His name is derived from Pluto (πλοῦτον), an epithet of Hades, and Archos (ἀρχός) meaning "Master", the whole name meaning something like "Whose master is Pluto". His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleomenes II
Cleomenes II ( grc-gre, Κλεομένης; died 309 BC) was king of Sparta from 370 to 309 BC. He was the second son of Cleombrotus I, and grandfather of Areus I, who succeeded him. Although he reigned for more than 60 years, his life is completely unknown, apart from a victory at the Pythian Games in 336 BC. Several theories have been suggested by modern historians to explain such inactivity, but none has gained consensus. Life and reign Cleomenes was the second son of king Cleombrotus I (), who belonged to the Agiad dynasty, one of the two royal families of Sparta (the other being the Eurypontids). Cleombrotus died fighting Thebes at the famous Battle of Leuctra in 371. His eldest son Agesipolis II succeeded him, but he died soon after in 370. Cleomenes' reign was instead exceptionally long, lasting 60 years and 10 months according to Diodorus of Sicily, a historian of the 1st century BC. In a second statement, Diodorus nevertheless tells that Cleomenes II rei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acrotatus II
Acrotatus ( el, Ἀκρότατος; died 262 BC) was an Agiad King of Sparta from 265 to 262 BC. He was the son of Areus I, and grandson of Acrotatus. He had unlawful intercourse with Chilonis, the young wife of Cleonymus, uncle of his father Areus. It was this, together with the disappointment of not obtaining the throne, which led Cleonymus to invite Pyrrhus to Sparta in 272. Areus was then absent in Crete, and the safety of Sparta was mainly owing to the valor of Acrotatus who successfully held off the Siege of Sparta. He succeeded his father in 265, but was killed shortly thereafter (possibly in the same year) in battle against Aristodemus the Good, the tyrant of Megalopolis. Pausanias, in speaking of his death, calls him the son of Cleonymus, but he has mistaken him for his grandfather, mentioned above. Areus and Acrotatus are accused by Phylarchus of having corrupted the simplicity of Spartan manners.Phylarchus, ''ap. Athen.'' iv. p. 142, b He was succeeded by his so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Areus I
Areus I ( grc-gre, Ἀρεύς; c. 320 or 312 – 265 BC) was Agiad King of Sparta from 309 to 265 BC. His reign is noted for his attempts to transform Sparta into an Hellenistic period, Hellenistic kingdom and to recover its former pre-eminence in Ancient Greece, Greece, notably against the kings Antigonus II Gonatas, Antigonos Gonatas of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia and Pyrrhus of Epirus, Pyrrhus of Epirus (ancient state), Epirus. The first part of Areus' reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and regent Cleonymus of Sparta, Cleonymus, a skilled general who campaigned in Greece and abroad at the head of mercenary armies. Areus' first record in the scanty ancient sources took place in 281 BC, when he led an alliance of Greek city-states to challenge Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonian control over Greece, but was rapidly defeated by the Aetolian League, Aitolian League (allied with Macedonia). In 275 BC, Cleonymus defected to Pyrrhus of Epirus, who launche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gortyn
Gortyn, Gortys or Gortyna ( el, Γόρτυν, , or , ) is a municipality, and an archaeological site, on the Mediterranean island of Crete away from the island's capital, Heraklion. The seat of the municipality is the village Agioi Deka. Gortyn was the Roman capital of Creta et Cyrenaica. The area was first inhabited around 7000 BC. It is located in the valley of Messara in the south of the Psiloritis mountain, in the current position of the settlements of Metropolis and Agioi Deka, and near the Libyan Sea. Municipality The municipality Gortyna was formed as part of Greece's 2011 local government reform by merging the following four former municipalities, each of which became municipal units: * Agia Varvara *Gortyna * Kofinas *Rouvas The municipality has an area of , the municipal unit . Geography Climate History There is evidence of human occupation in Gortyn as far back as the Neolithic era (7000 BC). Many artifacts have been found from the Minoan period (2600–1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete rests about south of the Greek mainland, and about southwest of Anatolia. Crete has an area of and a coastline of 1,046 km (650 mi). It bounds the southern border of the Aegean Sea, with the Sea of Crete (or North Cretan Sea) to the north and the Libyan Sea (or South Cretan Sea) to the south. Crete and a number of islands and islets that surround it constitute the Region of Crete ( el, Περιφέρεια Κρήτης, links=no), which is the southernmost of the 13 top-level administrative units of Greece, and the fifth most populous of Greece's regions. Its capital and largest city is Heraklion, on the north shore of the island. , the region had a population of 636,504. The Dodecanese are located to the no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrrhus Of Epirus
Pyrrhus (; grc-gre, Πύρρος ; 319/318–272 BC) was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period.Plutarch. ''Parallel Lives'',Pyrrhus... He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king (Malalas also called him toparch) of Epirus. He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome, and had been regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity. Several of his victorious battles caused him unacceptably heavy losses, from which the term " Pyrrhic victory" was coined. Pyrrhus became king of Epirus in 306 BC at the age of 13, but was dethroned by Cassander four years later. He saw action during the Wars of the Diadochi and regained his throne in 297 BC with the support of Ptolemy I Soter. During what came to be known as the Pyrrhic War, Pyrrhus fought Rome at the behest of Tarentum, scoring costly victories at Heraclea and Asculum. He proceeded to take over Sicily from Carthage but was soon driven out, and lost a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kings Of Sparta
For most of its history, the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously, who were called the ''archagetai'', coming from two separate lines. According to tradition, the two lines, the Agiads (, ) and Eurypontids (, ), were respectively descended from the twins Eurysthenes and Procles, the descendants of Heracles, who supposedly conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War. The dynasties themselves, however, were named after the twins' grandsons, the kings Agis I and Eurypon, respectively. The Agiad line was regarded as being senior to the Eurypontid line.Cartledge, Paul, ''The Spartans'', Vintage Books, 2003. Although there are lists of the earlier purported Kings of Sparta, there is little evidence for the existence of any kings before the middle of the sixth century BC or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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