CLEO'MENES, the name of several kings of Sparta. CLEOMENES I., son of Anaxandrides (Herod. v. 39), although not perfectly sane, suc ceeded his father. (Herod. v. 42.) He expelled the Peisistmtidte from Athens (Herod, v. 63, 64), B.C. 510, and espoused the cause of Isagoras in opposition to Cleisthenes [CLErsTnENEs], who however with the seven hundred families that had been banished, afterwards returned and forced him to leave the city. Demaratus, the colleague of Cleomenes, accused him of favouring the Medea, while on an expedition against the iEginetm, and obliged him to return home. By the aid of Leo tychides, a private enemy of Demaratus, and by bribery of the Delphic oracle, theomenes succeeded in effecting the abdication of Demaratua. (Herod. vi. 65, 66.) In a war against the people of Argos (about n.o. 491, Clinton, Fast. p. 425, note x.), Cleomenes was pletely victorious, and burnt a great number of the fugitives in a sacred grove where they had taken refuge. (Herod. vi. 80.) The means by which he had contrived to get rid of Demaratus afterwards becoming known, he was banished into Thessaly and subsequently to Arcadia, where ho endeavoured to stir np the people against the Lacedmrnonians. (Herod. vi. 74.) He was ordered to return, and on his arrival in Sparta he confirmed the belief of his madness by mortally wounding himself (Herod. vi. 75), B.C. 492.
CLEthilEXES II. succeeded his brother Agesipolis II. (Diodor. Sic. xv. CO), no. 370, and reigned sixty-one years : he died B.O. 309. (Clinton, Fast. Ha, pp. 205, 213.) CLE0'atears III, succeeded his father Leonidas on the throne of Sparta ac. 236. Immediately on his accession he set himself to oppose Aratus and the Aehteans, who were endeavouring to draw all the Peloponocsians into their league. The Ephori were averse to the war, and Cleomenes saw no way to attain his ends but by abolishing their power. Accordingly he put four of them to death, and attempted to excuse this act of violence by showing the necessity of restoring the. ancient institutions of Lycurgus, which could not be effected by any other means. He renewed the old Spartan system of education, and himself observed great simplicity in his mode of life. His colleague of
the house of Proclus, a child named Enrydamidaa, the son of Agis IV., died it was said by poison, which Pausanias (2, 9) asserts was adminis tered by the Ephori at the instigation of Cleomenes; but the story appears very improbable. However that may be, on the death of Eurydamidaa, Cleomen shared the kingly power with his own brother Eucleidas. He also abolished the Gerusia, or senate, and transferred their powers to another body (patr6nomi) apparently of his own creating; but this rests solely on the authority of Pausanias. Cleo menea in his invasion of Achtea took several cities, and soon afterwards attacked Argos. In order more effectually to oppose Aratus, who had obtained the assistance of Antigouus, Cleomenes formed an alliance with Ptolemy, king of Egypt. The contending parties fought a decisive battle at Sellasia in Laconica, in which the Lacedmmonians were completely defeated : of 6000 men only 200 survived. After the battle Cleomenes fled to Egypt, where he was hospitably entertained by Ptolemy Euergetes. His son and successor however, Ptolemy Philopator, soon showed considerable jealousy of the royal guest, and accordingly put him in confinement. Cleomenea killed himself in the third year after his flight, and his body was afterwards nailed upon a cross by Ptolemy Philopator, B.C. 220 (Clinton, 'F. H.,' 205). He reigned sixteen years. (Plutarch, Cleom.,' c. 38.) Livy (xxxiv. 26), following Polybius (iv.), represents Cleomenaa as a tyrant ; but Poly bins was a native of a city (Megalopolis) which Cleomenes had destroyed, and the support of the Achnan league was a family concern. The truth appears to be that the great object of Cleomenes was to revive the ancient discipline and institutions of Lycurgus, and to put an end to the luxury and corruption which had crept into the state. If the means which he took were sometimes indefensible, it may perhaps be said in reply that his ends were good, and that such means were not entirely condemned by the positive morality of his age and country.