Editing Cleomenes I (section)

=== Foreign embassies (c.517–c.513 BC) ===
In c.516, Cleomenes received an embassy from Maeandrius of [[Samos]] asking him for help to expel the tyrant [[Syloson]], a puppet of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]], which was at the time was subjugating the city-states of the eastern [[Aegean Sea]].<ref>Herodotus, iii. 148.</ref><ref name=":0">Cartledge, ''Sparta and Lakonia'', p. 124.</ref> However, with the support of the [[Ephor|ephors]], Cleomenes refused and they expelled Maeandrius from the Peloponnese. Perhaps Cleomenes did not want to commit the Peloponnesian League to long-distance wars, especially against the Persian Empire.<ref>Roobaert, ''Isolationnisme et Impérialisme'', pp 10, 11.</ref> Maeandrius' intentions may have also played a role, as he probably coveted the [[Tyrant|tyranny]] of Samos.<ref>L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., ''Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV'', pp. 356, 357.</ref>

In about 513, [[Darius the Great]] invaded [[Scythia]], which prompted the latter to send an embassy to Sparta in order to request an alliance against the Persians. Herodotus says the Scythians offered to go from the river [[Rioni|Phasis]] to [[Media (region)|Media]], while the Spartans would march east from [[Ephesus]].<ref>Herodotus, vi. 84.</ref> This story is however suspect, as the Scythian ambassadors later resurfaced to explain the death of Cleomenes, and the proposed alliance looks like a Pan-Hellenic fantasy of Herodotus'.<ref>Roobaert, ''Isolationnisme et Impérialisme'', p. 17, thinks that there might be a layer of truth behind this embassy. </ref><ref>Cawkwell, "Cleomenes", p. 510.</ref> An alternative date of after 494 BC has been proposed, because the mention of Ephesus by Herodotus implies that the city was not under Persian control, which only happened after the [[Ionian Revolt]] of 499 – 494.<ref>Cawkwell, "Cleomenes", pp. 510, 511.</ref>