Demaratus ( el, Δημάρατος ;

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

: ) was a king of

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 referr ...

from around 515 BC to 491 BC. The 15th of the Eurypontid line, he was the first son born to his father, King Ariston. As king, Demaratus is known chiefly for his opposition to the co-ruling Spartan king,

Cleomenes I Cleomenes I (; Greek Κλεομένης; died c. 490 BC) was Agiad King of Sparta from c. 524 to c. 490 BC. One of the most important Spartan kings, Cleomenes was instrumental in organising the Greek resistance against the Persian Empire of Dariu ...

. He later fled to

Achaemenid Persia The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

, where he was given asylum and land, and fought on the Persian side during the

Second Persian invasion of Greece The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasio ...

Early life

Demaratus, the son of King Ariston (r. c.550–c.515), belonged to the Eurypontid dynasty, one of the two royal families of Sparta (the other being the Agiads). After Ariston had remained childless from his first two wives, he took the wife of Agetus, one of his friends. Less than 10 months later, Demaratus was born, but Ariston rejected his paternity before the ephors. He nonetheless changed his mind later and recognised Demaratus as his son, who succeeded him at his death around 515.

Reign

When Cleomenes attempted to make

Isagoras Isagoras ( grc-gre, Ἰσαγόρας), son of Tisander, was an Athenian aristocrat in the late 6th century BC. He had remained in Athens during the tyranny of Hippias, but after Hippias was overthrown, he became involved in a struggle for power ...

tyrant in Athens, Demaratus tried to frustrate the plans. In 491 BC,

Aegina Aegina (; el, Αίγινα, ''Aígina'' ; grc, Αἴγῑνα) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of the hero Aeacus, who was born on the island an ...

was one of the states that gave the symbols of submission ( earth and water) to Persia. Athens at once appealed to Sparta to punish that act of medism, and

crossed over to the island to arrest those responsible. His first attempt was unsuccessful because of interference from Demaratus, who did his utmost to bring Cleomenes into disfavour at home. In retaliation, Cleomenes urged

Leotychidas Leotychidas II ( grc-gre, Λεωτυχίδας; Doric: ; c. 545 – c. 469 BC) was king of Sparta between 491–476 BC, alongside Cleomenes I and later Leonidas I and Pleistarchus. He led Spartan forces during the Persian Wars from 490 BC to 47 ...

, a relative and personal enemy of Demaratus, to claim the throne on the grounds that the latter was really the son not of Ariston but of Agetus, his mother's first husband. Cleomenes bribed the

Delphic oracle Pythia (; grc, Πυθία ) was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythone ...

to pronounce in favour of Leotychidas, who became king in 491 BC. After the deposition of Demaratus, Cleomenes visited the island of Aegina for a second time. Accompanied by his new colleague, Leotychides, he seized ten of the leading citizens and deposited them at Athens as hostages.

Demaratus and Xerxes

On his abdication, Demaratus was forced to flee. He went to the court of Persian King

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of D ...

, who gave him the cities of Teuthrania and Halisarna, around

Pergamum Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on th ...

, where his descendants

Eurysthenes Eurysthenes ( el, Εὐρυσθένης, "widely ruling") was king of Sparta and one of the Heracleidae in Greek mythology. He was a son of Aristodemus and Argia, daughter of Autesion. He had a twin brother, Procles. Together they received the la ...

and Procles still ruled in the early 4th century BC. Demaratus accompanied

on his invasion of Greece in 480 BC and is alleged to have warned Xerxes not to underestimate the Spartans before the

Battle of Thermopylae The Battle of Thermopylae ( ; grc, Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, label= Greek, ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lastin ...

: Xerxes also asked Demaratus about his knowledge of the Greeks and if they would put up a fight against the Persian army. In response, Demaratus spoke favourably about the Greeks even after he had been deposed and exiled from Sparta:Herodotus. The Landmark Herodotus: the Histories. New York: Pantheon Books, 2007., 6.64, 452

Greek exiles in Achaemenid Empire

Demaratus was one of several Greeks aristocrats who took refuge in the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

after reversals at home. Other famous cases were

Themistocles Themistocles (; grc-gre, Θεμιστοκλῆς; c. 524–459 BC) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As ...

and Gongylos. In general, they were generously rewarded by the Achaemenid kings, received land grants to support them and ruled over various cities in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. Demaratus's family continued to flourish in Asia as subjects of the Persians, and several of his descendants have been identified. One of them was likely Demaratus, the son of Gorgion, who was restored to Sparta in the early 3rd century BC and was in turn the putative great-grandfather of

Nabis Nabis ( grc-gre, Νάβις) was the last king of independent Sparta. He was probably a member of the Heracleidae, and he ruled from 207 BC to 192 BC, during the years of the First and Second Macedonian Wars and the eponymous " War against Nab ...

, the last king of Sparta (ruled 207–192).Cartledge, ''Hellenistic and Roman Sparta'', pp. 61, 62.

References

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...

Anabasis, ii. j. 3, vii. 8. 17
Hellenica
iii. I. 6 *

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of ...

i. 29 f *

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known fo ...

v. 75, vi. 50–70, vii ; *

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

iii. 4, 3–5, 7, 7–8; *

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

xi. 6; *

Polyaenus Polyaenus or Polyenus ( ; see ae (æ) vs. e; grc-gre, Πoλύαινoς, Polyainos, "much-praised") was a 2nd-century CE Greek author, known best for his ''Stratagems in War'' ( grc-gre, Στρατηγήματα, Strategemata), which has been pr ...

ii. 20; *

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born ...

, De benefici-is, Vi. 31, 4–12

Bibliography

Paul Cartledge Paul Anthony Cartledge (born 24 March 1947)"CARTLEDGE, Prof. Paul Anthony", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010online edition/ref> is a British ancient historian and academic. From 2008 to 2014 he was the A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek C ...

& Antony Spawforth, ''Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, A tale of two cities'', London and New York, Routledge, 2002 (originally published in 1989). *Brenda Griffith-Williams,
The Succession to the Spartan Kingship, 520-400 BC
, ''

Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies The Institute of Classical Studies is a research institution associated with the University of London and a member of the School of Advanced Study. The institute is a national and international research institute in the languages, literature, his ...

'', Vol. 54, No. 2 (2011), pp. 43–58".

External links

Demaratus on the Spartan Way of Living

DEMARATUS – Encyclopaedia Iranica
{{Ancient Olympic winners 6th-century BC births 5th-century BC deaths 6th-century BC rulers 5th-century BC rulers 6th-century BC Spartans 5th-century BC Spartans Eurypontid kings of Sparta Battle of Thermopylae Ancient Greek emigrants to the Achaemenid Empire Year of birth unknown People of the Greco-Persian Wars Military personnel of the Achaemenid Empire Rulers in the Achaemenid Empire