PELOPONNESIAN WAR.) • (3) AGIS II., son of Archidamus III., of the Eurypontid line, succeeded his father in 338 B.C., on the very day of the battle of Chaeronea. During Alexander's Asiatic campaign he revolted against Macedonia (333 B•e.) and, with the aid of Persian money and ships and a force of 8,000 Greek mercenaries, gained con siderable successes in Crete. In the Peloponnese he routed a force under Corragus and, although Athens held aloof, he was joined by Elis, Achaea (except Pellene) and Arcadia, with the exception of Megalopolis, which the allies besieged. Antipater marched rapidly to its relief at the head of a large army, and the allied force was defeated after a desperate struggle (331) and Agis was slain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See Pausanias iii. 1o. 5; Diodorus xvii. 48, 62, 63; Bibliography.-See Pausanias iii. 1o. 5; Diodorus xvii. 48, 62, 63; Justin xii. I ; Quintus Curtius iv., 1, 39, vi., I ; Arrian, Anabasis, ii. 13.
(4) AGIs III., son of Eudamidas II., of the Eurypontid family, succeeded his father, probably in 245 B.C., in his loth year, at a time when the unequal distribution of land and wealth and the diminution in the number of full citizens threatened to ruin Sparta. He determined to restore the traditional institutions of Lycurgus. Lysander as ephor proposed on behalf of Agis that all debts should be cancelled and that Laconia should be divided into 19,500 lots, of which 4,500 should be given to Spartiates, whose number was to be recruited from the best of the perioeci and foreigners, and the remaining 15,000 to perioeci who could bear arms. The abolition of debts was carried into effect, but the land distribution was put off on various pretexts by Agesilaus, the king's uncle, who wished to preserve his estates. At this point Aratus appealed to Sparta to help the Achaeans in repelling an expected Aetolian attack, and Agis was sent to the Isthmus at the head of an army. During his absence his enemies gained the upper hand, and on his return Agis, after a mock trial, was strangled in prison, his mother and grandmother sharing the same fate (241).
See Plutarch's biography. ,Pausanias' accounts (ii. 8. 5, vii. 7. 3, viii. 1o. 5-8, 27. 13) of his attack on Megalopolis, his seizure of Pellene and his death at Mantinea fighting against the Arcadians, Achaeans and Sicyonians are without foundation (J. C. F. Manso, Sparta, iii. 2. 123-127, 1800-05). See also Manso, op. cit. iii. I. 276-302 ; B. Niese, Geschichte der griechischen and makedonischen Staaten, ii. 299-303 (1884).