page_title: War against Nabis
section_title: Notes
hierarchical_section_title: War against Nabis / Notes
context_page_description: The Laconian War of 195 BC was fought between the Greek city-state of Sparta and a coalition composed of Rome, the Achaean League, Pergamum, Rhodes, and Macedon.
  During the Second Macedonian War, Macedon had given Sparta control over Argos, an important city on the Aegean coast of Peloponnese. Sparta's continued occupation of Argos at the end of war was used as a pretext for Rome and its allies to declare war. The anti-Spartan coalition laid siege to Argos, captured the Spartan naval base at Gythium, and soon invested and besieged Sparta itself. Eventually, negotiations led to peace on Rome's terms, under which Argos and the coastal towns of Laconia were separated from Sparta and the Spartans were compelled to pay a war indemnity to Rome over the next eight years. Argos joined the Achaean League, and the Laconian towns were placed under Achaean protection.
  As a result of the war, Sparta lost its position as a major power in Greece. Subsequent Spartan attempts to recover the losses failed and Nabis, the last sovereign ruler, was eventually murdered.
context_section_description: Traditionally, Sparta had been ruled by two kings, one of the Eurypontid dynasty and one of the Agiad dynasty. However, decades before Nabis took power in a military coup, the traditional Spartan constitution had already crumbled. In 227 BC, the Agiad king Cleomenes III killed four of the five ephors (elected guards of the constitution) and deposed, perhaps murdered, the Eurypontid king Archidamus V. His new co-ruler became his brother Eucleidas, also a member of the Agiad dynasty, but on the Eurypontid throne. They undertook social reforms and received subsidies from Ptolemaic Egypt with the ambition of reforming and strengthening the Spartan military in Macedonian fashion. This possible threat to the Macedonian hegemony in Greece was crushed by the Antigonids in the Battle of Sellasia and the Ptolemys ceased their financial support. From the consequent banishment of Cleomenes III, in 222 BC, until 219 BC, Sparta was a republic without kings. In 219 BC, the Agiad Agesipolis III and the Eurypontid Lycurgus were made kings. Lycurgus deposed Agesipolis in 215 BC, although the latter spent years trying to retake his throne and led a force of Spartan exiles in the Roman-Spartan War. Lycurgus reigned by himself until his death in 210 BC. His successors were his son Pelops, as Eurypontid king, and the tyrant Machanidas, who claimed no royal origin. They reigned together until 207 BC, when Machanidas was slain by Philopoemen in the Battle of Mantinea. After Machanidas' death, Nabis seized the throne in a coup and had Pelops murdered.
  The correct title for Nabis' office is ambiguous. He himself claimed descent from the Eurypontid Spartan king Demaratus and is presented with the title basileus on coins. On the other hand historians such as Livy and Polybius referred to him with the title of tyrant because he had overthrown the old government of Sparta. The home countries of both authors, Rome and the Achean League, were involved in this conflict and considered a possible restoration of one of the toppled governments during this war.
  Cretan in this context can mean someone from the island of Crete, but it also meant a fighting style of archers that could alternately fight with sword and shield. This style was introduced by the inhabitants of Crete, but the troops referred to as Cretans or Cretan archers were by no means all Cretan, particularly in mercenary forces.
  Piracy included not only seaborne ventures against trade ships, but also amphibious operations against coastal settlements with the aim of capturing inhabitants and selling them as slaves. Plautus, a Roman playwright of this time, described the result of such a raid in his play Poenulus.
caption: On one side is the head of Nabis with a short beard, whiskers and a bound laurel wreath that is tied at the back of his neck. The other side shows the inscription ΒΑΙΛΕΟΣ (Doric Greek for βασιλέως, basileos [genitive of βασιλεύς, basileus "sovereign/(king)"]) and ΝΑΒΙΟΣ (Doric Greek for Νάβιδος, Nabidos [genitive of Νάβις, Nabis]).[42]
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2007:02:04 11:13:45", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5254", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "408", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "186"}