Pleistarchus ( ; died 458 BC) was the Agiad

King 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 ha ...

from 480 to 458 BC.

Biography

Pleistarchus was born as a

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

, likely the only son of King

Leonidas I Leonidas I (; , ''Leōnídas''; born ; died 11 August 480 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. He was the son of king Anaxandridas II and the 17th king of the Agiad dynasty, a Spartan royal house which claimed descent fro ...

and Queen Gorgo. His grandparents were Kings

Anaxandridas II Anaxandridas II (, meaning "descendant of Anaxander") was an Agiad king of Sparta from 560 BC to 524 BC, father of Leonidas I and grandfather of Pleistarchus. Under the leadership of the ephor Chilon, in office during the middle of the 6th cen ...

and

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 Da ...

. He was born from an

avunculate marriage An avunculate marriage (or uncle/aunt-niece/nephew marriage) is a marriage with a parent's sibling or with one's sibling's child—i.e., between an uncle or aunt and their niece or nephew. Such a marriage may occur between biological (consangu ...

– his parents were

uncle An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent, as well as the parent of the cousins. Uncles who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. The female counterpart of an un ...

and

niece In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of an individual's sibling or sibling-in-law. A niece is female and a nephew is male, and they would call their parents' siblings aunt or uncle ...

. His uncle Cleombrotus was his tutor. Pleistarchus' father King Leonidas perished in 480 BC at the

Battle of Thermopylae The Battle of Thermopylae ( ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Polis, Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting over the course of three days, it wa ...

. For the early part of Pleistarchus's reign, his uncle Cleombrotus acted as regent; after Cleombrotus's death in 479 BC, Pleistarchus's cousin Pausanias was

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

. It is unknown whether Pleistarchus was married. He died without an heir, and was succeeded by

Pleistoanax Pleistoanax, also spelled Plistoanax, () was Agiad king of Sparta from 458 to 409 BC. He was the leader of the peace party in Sparta at a time of violent confrontations against Athens for the hegemony over Greece. The son of Pausanias, Pleist ...

, son of Pausanias. He had no known surviving relatives after his death, marking the end of his bloodline.

Notes

{{Kings of Sparta 458 BC deaths 5th-century BC monarchs 5th-century BC Spartans Agiad kings of Sparta Ancient child monarchs Year of birth unknown