Agis II | Wikipedia audio article
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Date: 2018-11-27

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Agis II

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SUMMARY
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Agis II (Greek: Ἄγις; died c. 401 BC) was the 18th Eurypontid king of Sparta, the eldest son of Archidamus II by his first wife, and half-brother of Agesilaus II.  He ruled with his Agiad co-monarch Pausanias.Agis succeeded his father Archidamus II in 427 BC, and reigned a little more than 28 years.  In the summer of 426 BC, he led an army of Peloponnesians and their allies as far as the isthmus, with the intention of invading Attica; but they were deterred from advancing farther by a succession of earthquakes.  In the spring of the following year he led an army into Attica, but ceased his advance fifteen days after he had entered Attica.  In 419 BC, the Argives, at the instigation of Alcibiades, attacked Epidaurus; and Agis with a large force from Lacedaemon set out and marched to the frontier city of Leuctra.  No one, Thucydides tells us, knew the purpose of this expedition. It was probably to make a diversion in favour of Epidaurus.At Leuctra the unfavourable outcome of various sacrifices deterred Agis from proceeding.  He therefore led his troops back, and sent around a notice to the allies to be ready for an expedition at the end of the sacred month of the Carnean festival.  When the Argives repeated their attack on Epidaurus, the Spartans again marched to the frontier town, Caryae, and again turned back, supposedly on account of the aspect of the victims.  In the middle of the following summer of 418 BC the Epidaurians being still hard pressed by the Argives, the Lacedaemonians with their whole force and some allies, under the command of Agis, invaded Argolis.  By a skilful manoeuvre he succeeded in intercepting the Argives, and posted his army advantageously between them and the city.  But just as the battle was about to begin, the Argive generals Thrasyllus and Alciphron met with Agis and prevailed on him to conclude a truce for four months.
Agis, without disclosing his motives, pulled his army back.  On his return he was severely censured in Sparta for having thus thrown away the opportunity of reducing Argos, especially as the Argives had seized the opportunity afforded by his return and taken Orchomenus.  It was proposed to pull down his house, and inflict on him a fine of 100,000 drachmas.  But on his earnest entreaty they contented themselves with appointing a council of war, consisting of 10 Spartans, who needed to be present before he could lead an army out of the city.  Shortly afterwards they received intelligence from Tegea, that, if not promptly reinforced, the party favourable to Sparta in that city would be compelled to surrender.  The Spartans immediately sent their whole force under the command of Agis.  He restored stability at Tegea, and then marched to Mantineia.  By turning the waters to flood the lands of Mantineia, he succeeded in drawing the army of the Mantineans and Athenians down to the level ground.  A battle ensued, in which the Spartans were victorious.  The Battle of Mantinea was reckoned one of the most important battles ever fought between the Grecian states.In 417 BC, when the news reached Sparta of the counter-revolution at Argos, in which the oligarchical and Spartan faction was overthrown, an army was sent there under Agis.  He was unable to restore the defeated party, but he destroyed the long walls which the Argives had begun to extend down to the sea, and took Hysiae.  In the spring of 413 BC, Agis entered Attica with a Peloponnesian army, and fortified Decelea; and in the winter of the same year, after the news of the disastrous fate of the Sicilian expedition had reached Greece, he marched northwards to levy contributions on the allies of Sparta, for the purpose of constructing a fleet.  While at Decelea he acted largely independent of the Spartan government, and received embassies from the disaffected allies of the Athenians, as from the Boeotians and other allies of Sparta.  He seems to have remained at Decelea until t ...