Agesilaus II
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2019-01-13

Agesilaus II, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1550 / CC BY SA 3.0

Agesilaus II

Agesilaus II (; "Agesilaos"; c. 444/443 – c. 360 BC), was a king ("basileus") of the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta and a member of the Eurypontid dynasty ruling from 398 to about 360 BC, during most of which time he was, in Plutarch's words, "as good as though commander and king of all Greece," and was for the whole of it greatly identified with his country's deeds and fortunes. Small in stature and lame from birth, Agesilaus became ruler somewhat unexpectedly in his mid-forties. His reign saw successful military incursions into various states in Asia Minor, as well as successes in the Corinthian War; however, several diplomatic decisions resulted in Sparta becoming increasingly isolated prior to his death at the age of 84 in Cyrenaica.

Agesilaus was greatly admired by his friend, the historian Xenophon, who wrote a minor work about him titled "Agesilaus".

Agesilaus was the son of Archidamus II and his second wife, Eupoleia, brother to Cynisca (the first woman in ancient history to achieve an Olympic victory), and younger half-brother of Agis II.

There is little surviving detail on the youth of Agesilaus. Born with one leg shorter, he was not expected to succeed to the throne after his brother king Agis II, especially because the latter had a son (Leotychidas). Therefore, Agesilaus was trained in the traditional curriculum of Sparta, the "agoge." However, Leotychidas was ultimately set aside as illegitimate (contemporary rumors representing him as the son of Alcibiades) and Agesilaus became king in 398, at the age of about forty. In addition to questions of his nephew's paternity, Agesilaus' succession was largely due to the intervention of the Spartan general, Lysander, who hoped to find in him a willing tool for the furtherance of his political designs. Lysander and the young Agesilaus came to maintain an intimate relation (see Pederasty in Ancient Greece), as...