Pausanias Analysis

Cleomenes, son of Leonidas, was the last king at Sparta from the line of Eurysthenes, known as the Agiadae. Regarding the other royal house, I have heard the following account. Procles, son of Aristodemus, named his son Soüs. Eurypontes, the son of Soüs, gained such great renown that this royal house took its name from him and was thereafter called the Eurypontidae, although before him it had been known as the Procleidae.

The son of Eurypon was Prytanis. It was during the reign of Prytanis, son of Eurypon, that hostility first arose between the Lacedaemonians and the Argives; even earlier they had already waged war against the Cynurians. But the following generations, while Eunomus, son of Prytanis, and Polydectes, son of Eunomus, were kings, continued to dwell in peace at Sparta.

Charillos, son of Polydectes, ravaged the territory of the Argives—for he was indeed the one who invaded the Argolid. A few years afterward, under the command of this same Charillos, the Spartans also undertook a campaign against the Tegeans, when the Lacedaemonians hoped to capture Tegea and cut off the plain of Tegea from Arcadia, trusting in a deceptive oracle.

After Charillus died, Nicander, son of Charillus, succeeded to the throne. During Nicander's reign occurred the incident involving the Messenians against Teleclus, the king of the other royal house, at the sanctuary of Limnatis. Nicander also invaded Argolis with an army and caused considerable devastation in most of the land. The Asinaeans, having assisted the Lacedaemonians in this undertaking, soon afterward paid the penalty to the Argives, bringing great destruction upon their own country and forcing themselves into exile.

Theopompus, son of Nicander, who became king after Nicander, will be mentioned again by me later on, when my narrative progresses to the account of Messenia. While Theopompus was still reigning in Sparta, the contest concerning the district called Thyreatis arose between the Lacedaemonians and the Argives; but Theopompus himself did not take part in this battle, being prevented mostly by old age and grief. Indeed, during Theopompus' lifetime, Archidamus succeeded him in authority.

Nevertheless, Archidamus did not die childless, but left behind his son Zeuxidamus. Zeuxidamus' son Anaxidamus succeeded to the throne. During his reign, the Messenians fled from the Peloponnese, having been overcome by the Spartans in war for the second time. The son of Anaxidamus was Archidamus, and the son of Archidamus was Agesicles; these two both happened to pass the entirety of their lives in peace, being free from wars.

To Ariston son of Agesikles was married a woman who, it is said, among the maidens of Sparta was the most repulsive, yet who became the most beautiful of all women through the intervention of Helen. To this woman, after having been wedded to Ariston, was born a son, Demaratos, after only seven months. As Ariston was sitting at the time with the ephors in council, a servant arrived, bringing the news that a child had been born to him. Ariston, either forgetting the passage in the Iliad regarding the birth of Eurystheus or never having understood it at all, declared that this child could not possibly be his own because of the short duration of the months.

Indeed, this man previously mentioned experienced remorse afterwards. As for Demaratus, while ruling as king and gaining honor in Sparta in other matters as well, and having joined with Cleomenes to free the Athenians from the Peisistratids, it was the ill-temper of Ariston and the hostility of Cleomenes which reduced him to a private citizen. They say that, after he went to King Darius in Persia, his descendants remained in Asia for a long time.

Leotychides, who became king in place of Demaratus, took part with the Athenians and their general Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron, in the action at Mycale. Afterwards he also campaigned against the Aleuadae in Thessaly; and though it was in his power to subdue all Thessaly, as he was consistently victorious in battle, he accepted gifts from the Aleuadae.

Brought to trial in Sparta, he voluntarily fled to Tegea, and there became a suppliant in the sanctuary of Athena Alea. Meanwhile, his son Zeuxidamus died of disease while Leotychides was still living and had not yet gone into exile. After Leotychides withdrew to Tegea, Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, succeeded him in kingship. This Archidamus inflicted particularly severe damage upon the Athenians' land, invading Attica yearly with an army, and whenever he invaded, he ravaged it everywhere. Furthermore, since the Plataeans were friendly toward the Athenians, he captured their city by siege.

However, Archidamus did not at all hasten the outbreak of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. Indeed, as far as lay within his power, he endeavored to prolong the truce between them. It was rather Sthenelaidas, a man influential in Sparta in other respects also, who, serving as ephor at that time, was primarily responsible for bringing about the war; and this conflict deeply unsettled Greece, which was already standing on shaky ground, and later Philip, son of Amyntas, found it weakened and not entirely sound, and finally brought it utterly to ruin.