List of kings of Sparta

Template:Short description Template:Spartan Constitution 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 had two kings simultaneously, who were called the archagetai,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Refn coming from two separate lines. According to tradition, the two lines, the Agiads ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Template:Transliteration) and Eurypontids ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Template:Transliteration), were respectively descended from the twins Eurysthenes and Procles, the descendants of Heracles, who supposedly conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War. The dynasties themselves, however, were named after the twins' grandsons, the kings Agis I and Eurypon, respectively. The Agiad line was regarded as being senior to the Eurypontid line.<ref name="Cartledge, Paul, The Spartans, Vintage Books, 2003">Cartledge, Paul, The Spartans, Vintage Books, 2003.</ref>

Although there are lists of the earlier purported Kings of Sparta, there is little evidence for the existence of any kings before the middle of the sixth century BC or so.

Spartan kings received a recurring posthumous hero cult like that of the similarly Doric kings of Cyrene.<ref>Pindar and the cult of heroes. By Bruno Currie Page 245 Template:ISBN.</ref> The kings' firstborn sons, as heirs-apparent, were the only Spartan boys expressly exempt from the Agoge; however, they were allowed to take part if they so wished, and this endowed them with increased prestige when they ascended the throne.

Legendary kings of Sparta

Ancient Greeks named males after their fathers, producing a patronymic with the suffix -id-; for example, the sons of Atreus were the Atreids. For royal houses, the patronymic was formed from the name of the founder or of an early significant figure of a dynasty. A ruling family might thus have a number of dynastic names; for example, Agis I named the Agiads, but he was a Heraclid and so were his descendants.

If the descent was not known or was scantily known, the Greeks made a few standard assumptions based on their cultural ideology. Agiad people were treated as a tribe, presumed to have descended from an ancestor bearing its name. He must have been a king, who founded a dynasty of his name. That mythologizing extended even to place names. They were presumed to have been named after kings and divinities. Kings often became divinities, in their religion.

Lelegids

The Lelegid were the descendants of Lelex (a back-formation), ancestor of the Leleges, an ancient tribe inhabiting the Eurotas valley before the Greeks, who, according to the mythological descent, amalgamated with the Greeks

Year	Lelegid	Other notable information
Template:Circa 1600 BC	Lelex	son of Poseidon or Helios, or he was said to be autochthonous
Template:Circa 1575 BC	Myles	son of Lelex
Template:Circa 1550 BC	Eurotas	son of Myles, father of Sparta

Lacedaemonids

The Lacedaemonids contain Greeks from the age of legend, now treated as being the Bronze Age in Greece. In the language of mythologic descent, the kingship passed from the Leleges to the Greeks.

Year	Lacedaemonid	Other notable information
Template:Circa	Lacedaemon	son of Zeus, husband of Sparta
Template:Circa	Amyklas	son of Lacedaemon. He founded Amyklai
Template:Circa	Argalus	son of Amyklas
Template:Circa	Kynortas	son of Amyklas
Template:Circa	Perieres	son of Kynortas
Template:Circa	Oibalos	son of Kynortas
Template:Circa	Tyndareos	(First reign); son of Oibalos and father of Helen
Template:Circa	Hippocoon	son of Oibalos and brother of Tyndareos
Template:Circa	Tyndareos	(Second reign)

Years with no dates (only "Template:Circa ") are unknown

Atreids

The Atreidai (Latin Atreidae) belong to the Late Bronze Age, or the Mycenaean Period. In mythology, they were the Perseids. As the name of Atreus is attested in Hittite documents, this dynasty may well be protohistoric.

Year	Atreid	Other notable information
Template:Circa 1250 BC	Menelaus	son of Atreus and husband of Helen
Template:Circa	Orestes	son of Agamemnon and nephew of Menelaus
Template:Circa	Tisamenos	son of Orestes
Template:Circa	Dion	husband of Amphithea, the daughter of Pronax

Years with no dates (only "Template:Circa") are unknown

Heraclids

The Spartan kings as Heracleidae claimed descent from Heracles, who through his mother was descended from Perseus. Disallowed the Peloponnesus, Heracles embarked on a life of wandering. The Heracleidae became ascendant in the Eurotas valley with the Dorians who, at least in legend, entered it during an invasion called the Return of the Heracleidae; driving out the Atreids and at least some of the Mycenaean population.

File:Pauly-Wissowa III,1, 0067.jpg

Genealogical Tree of the Kings of Sparta

Year	Heraclid	Other notable information
Template:Circa	Aristodemos	son of Aristomachus and husband of Argeia
Template:Circa	Theras (regent)	son of Autesion and brother of Aristodemus's wife Argeia;Template:Refn served as regent for his nephews, Eurysthenes and Procles.

Years with no dates (only "Template:Circa") are unknown

Agiad dynasty

The dynasty was named after its second king, Agis.

Year	Agiad	Other notable information
Template:Circa 930 BC	Eurysthenes	Return of the Heracleidae
Template:Circa 930 – 900 BCTemplate:Refn	Agis I	Subjugated the Helots
Template:Circa 900 – 870 BC	Echestratus	Expelled the CynurensiansTemplate:Refn that were in power.
Template:Circa 870 – 840 BC	LabotasTemplate:Refn
Template:Circa 840 – 820 BC	Doryssus
Template:Circa 820 – 790 BC	Agesilaus I
Template:Circa 790 – 760 BC	Archelaus
Template:Circa 760 – 740 BC	Teleclus	Killed by the Messenians
Template:Circa 740 – 700 BC	Alcamenes	First Messenian War begins
Template:Circa 700 – 665 BC	Polydorus	First Messenian War ends; killed by the Spartan nobleman Polemarchus<ref>A Classical Dictionary By John Lemprière. Pg 618.</ref>
Template:Circa 665 – 640 BC	Eurycrates
Template:Circa 640 – 615 BC	Anaxander
Template:Circa 615 – 590 BC	Eurycratides
Template:Circa 590 – 560 BC	Leon
Template:Circa 560 – 520 BC	Anaxandridas II	Battle of the Fetters
Template:Circa 520 – 490 BC	Cleomenes I	Greco-Persian Wars begins
Template:Circa 490 – 480 BC	Leonidas I	Battle of Thermopylae
Template:Circa 480 – 459 BC	Pleistarchus	First Peloponnesian War begins
Template:Circa 459 – 445 BC, 426 – 409 BC	Pleistoanax	Second Peloponnesian War begins
Template:Circa 445 – 426 BC, 409 – 395 BC	Pausanias	Helped restore democracy in Athens; Spartan hegemony
Template:Circa 395 – 380 BC	Agesipolis I	Corinthian War begins
Template:Circa 380 – 371 BC	Cleombrotus I
Template:Circa 371 – 369 BC	Agesipolis IITemplate:Refn
Template:Circa 369 – 309 BC	Cleomenes II	Third Sacred War begins
Template:Circa 309 – 265 BC	Areus I	Killed in battle against Aristodemus, the tyrant of Megalopolis
Template:Circa 265 – 262 BC	Acrotatus II
Template:Circa 262 – 254 BC	Areus II<ref>A Prosopography of Lacedaemonians, Part 396. By Alfred S. Bradford. Page 44.</ref>
Template:Circa 254 – 242 BC	Leonidas II	Briefly deposed while in exile avoiding trial
Template:Circa 242 – 241 BC	Cleombrotus II
Template:Circa 241 – 235 BC	Leonidas II
Template:Circa 235 – 222 BC	Cleomenes III	Exiled after the Battle of Sellasia
Following the Battle of Sellasia, the dual monarchy remained vacant until Cleomenes III's death in 219.
Template:Circa 219 – 215 BC	Agesipolis III	last Agiad, deposed by the Eurypontid Lycurgus

Eurypontid dynasty

The dynasty is named after its third king Eurypon. Not shown is Lycurgus, the lawgiver, a younger son of the Eurypontids, who served a brief regency either for the infant Charilaus (780–750 BC) or for Labotas (870–840 BC) the Agiad.

Year	Eurypontid	Other notable information
Template:Circa 930 BC	Procles	Return of the Heracleidae
Template:Circa 890 BC	Soos	Son of Procles and father of Eurypon. Likely fictitious.<ref name=":0">Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 90.</ref>
Template:Circa 890 – 860 BC	Eurypon	Likely fictitious.<ref name=":0"/>
Template:Circa 860 – 830 BC	Prytanis	Likely fictitious.<ref name=":0"/>
Template:Circa 830 – 800 BC	Polydectes
Template:Circa 800 – 780 BC	Eunomus	Likely fictitious.<ref name=":0"/>
Template:Circa 780 – 750 BC	Charilaus	Ward and nephew of the Spartan reformer Lycurgus; War with the Argives; destroyed the border-town of Aegys; Battle of Tegea. Perhaps the first historical Eurypontid king.<ref>Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 92.</ref>
Template:Circa 750 – 725 BC	Nicander
Template:Circa 725 – 675 BC	Theopompus	First Messenian War

Currently known two lists of kings: Template:Col-2 According to Herodotus, VIII: 131

Year	Eurypontid	Other notable information
Template:Circa 675 – 660 BC	Anaxandridas I
Template:Circa 660 – 645 BC	Archidamus I
Template:Circa 645 – 625 BC	Anaxilas
Template:Circa 625 – 600 BC	Leotychidas I
Template:Circa 600 – 575 BC	Hippocratidas

Template:Col-2 According to Pausanias, III, 7: 5-6

Year	Eurypontid	Other notable information
Template:Circa 645 – 625 BC	Zeuxidamus
Template:Circa 625 – 600 BC	Anaxidamus
Template:Circa 600 – 575 BC	Archidamus I

Year	Eurypontid	Other notable information
Template:Circa 575 – 550 BC	Agasicles	Contemporary with Leon
Template:Circa 550 – 515 BC	Ariston	Battle of the Fetters.
Template:Circa 515 – 491 BC	Demaratus	deposed
Template:Circa 491 – 469 BC	Leotychidas II	great grandson of Hippocratidas, Greco-Persian Wars
Template:Circa 469 – 427 BC	Archidamus II	Second Peloponnesian War begins
Template:Circa 427 – 401 BCTemplate:Refn	Agis II	Spartan hegemony; Attacked Epidaurus, Leuctra,Template:Refn Caryae, Orchomenos, and Mantineia; Invaded the Argolis; Council of warTemplate:Refn formed to check his powers.
Template:Circa 401Template:Refn – 360 BC	Agesilaus II	Corinthian War begins
Template:Circa 360 – 338 BC	Archidamus III	Third Sacred War begins
Template:Circa 338 – 331 BC	Agis III
Template:Circa 331 – 305 BC	Eudamidas I
Template:Circa 305 – 275 BC	Archidamus IV
Template:Circa 275 – 245 BC	Eudamidas II
Template:Circa 245 – 241 BC	Agis IV
Template:Circa 241 – 228 BC	Eudamidas III
Template:Circa 228 – 227 BC	Archidamus V
Template:Circa 227 – 222 BC	Eucleidas	Actually an Agiad; installed by Cleomenes IIITemplate:Refn in place of Archidamus V. Died in the Battle of Sellasia.
Following the Battle of Sellasia, the dual monarchy remained vacant until Cleomenes III's death in 219.
Template:Circa 219 – 210 BC	Lycurgus	obscure background and possibly of non-royal descent, deposed the Agiad Agesipolis III and ruled alone
Template:Circa 210 – 206 BC	Pelops	son of Lycurgus

Sole kings

Year	Tyrants	Other notable information
Template:Circa 210–207 BC	Machanidas	regent for Pelops
Template:Circa 206–192 BC	Nabis	first regent for Pelops, then usurper, claiming descent from the Eurypontid king Demaratus
Template:Circa 192 BC	Laconicus	last known king of Sparta from Heraclid dynasty

The Achaean League annexed Sparta in 192 BC.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Paul Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, A Regional History 1300–362 BC, London, Routledge, 2002 (originally published in 1979). Template:ISBN
• The Cyclopædia, Volume 20. By Abraham Rees. Page 157+ (List of kings of Sparta on pg. 164).
• Sir William Smith, A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology, and Geography: Partly Based Upon the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Harper & Brothers, 1851.
• Sir William Smith. Abaeus-Dysponteus. J. Murray, 1890.
• Sir William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: Earinus-Nyx. J. Murray, 1876.
• William Smith (Ed.) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: Oarses-Zygia. J. Murray, 1880.

External links

• Livius
• Eurypontids and Agiads Template:Webarchive by Jona Lendering