Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 229: Affairs in Sparta

“Diopetus, are you really a Spartan?” Lysander sneered, “Don't forget Demaratus!”

There was an uproar among the elders, Demaratus – a permanent disgrace of the Spartans.

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Although the Spartan soldiers advocate strength and loathe pleasures, they don't dislike beautiful women. While the best criterion for judging their future wife is her fertility, the beauty and morality of the Spartan women is a standard criterion for judging her becoming the mother of their future children. Since childhood, the Spartan women participated in the training together with the men which gave them their own unique beauty. They have long blonde hair, strong bodies and elegant legs. While the birth of an ugly daughter will make her parents feel frustrated, however, there is still a chance for their daughter to change, that is, for them to come to an ancient sanctuary next to the grave of Helen and pray to the bronze statue of Helen, which is said to make the child grow up beautiful.

A hundred years ago, a pair of Spartan parents prayed to Helen for their ugly daughter, and the priestess in charge of the sanctuary then grabbed the child's long hair and made a prediction after seeing the child's appearance, ‘She will become the loveliest woman in Lacedaemon.’

As time went by, the girl became a famous beauty that had even fascinated the Spartan king, so the king used his power to snatched her from her husband. But only seven months after getting taken by the king, the new queen then gave birth to a son. Is the father of the child the king or the commoner? However, the Spartans of that time did not delve into it too deeply. Then this child grew up and eventually became a king, he was Demaratus.

When Demaratus succeeded, Cleomenes, another Spartan king, had been in the throne for five years. However, Cleomenes had a much more difficult time succeeding the throne, because his father could not make his wife pregnant, the Ephors asked him to divorce his wife and remarry. However, he hesitated and had instead chosen bigamy. But then the first wife gave birth to Cleomenes, while the second wife gave birth to three sons. However, the king had already loved his second wife deeply, and had naturally preferred her children and Cleomenes was not favored by his father. The king had also trained his half-brother Dorieus and had designated him as the legal heir, and the people also think that Dorieus was the finest young man among his generation. However, after the king's sudden death, the traditional Spartans believed that Cleomenes, who was born to the king's first wife, had the priority in inheriting the throne, so Cleomenes, who succeeded the throne, exiled his brothers on the ground of sending Dorius to colonize the western Mediterranean. (T/N: This part is wrong. First, Cleomenes is the child of Ananxandridas II and his second wife and is also the eldest among the siblings, while the first wife of Ananxandridas II gave birth to 3 sons(Dorieus, Leonidas(yes, the legendary Leonidas), Cleombrotus). Secondly, ‘the traditional Spartans’ made Cleomenes as the king because he is the oldest among the brothers. Thirdly, Cleomenes did not exile his half-brothers, it is just Dorieus being impulsive and not wanting to be under his brother, so he left in order to establish a colony but tragically failed twice.)

Cleomenes is shrewd, resourceful, ambitious and eager for power. So how could Demaratus, who had just succeeded the throne, be his opponent? And so, Demaratus, who has no foundation, had been overtaken by Cleomenes. And for more than 20 years, Cleomenes held the power alone in Sparta, he defeated Argos, controlled Arcadia, intervened in Delphi and even interfered in the political situation in Athens…all of these had expanded the power of Sparta to northern Greece. At this time, the king of Persia, Xerxes, was ready to invade Greece again and he had also learned from the mistake of Darius, and so, he sent a large number of spies to Greece in order to divide and alienate the city-states. Aegina, an island city-state not far from the Peloponnesian Peninsula, had offered Earth and Water* to Persia, due to this, Cleomenes denounced this treachery and decided to punish Aegina. (T/N: Earth and Water symbolized that those who surrender to Persia will give up all their rights over their land and every product of land, and by giving the earth and water, they recognized the Persian authority over everything, even their lives will now belong to the king of Persia.)

The people of Aegina had to rush to Demaratus, another Spartan king, for help. And Demaratus was very happy to cause trouble for his political opponent, so he secretly joined hands with the elders in the Gerousia who were not willing to fight with Persia and actively provided support. This infuriated Cleomenes, and made him to finally decide to solve this intolerable coregency once and for all. Therefore, at the council meeting that Cleomenes initiated, he questioned the life of Demaratus. Not only did Cleomenes win over the people of Demaratus and most of the elders, but he had also bribed the priests of Delphi, so that the oracle they had requested would be detrimental to Demaratus. Hence, Demaratus was deposed from his throne and defected to Xerxes.

However, the complacency of the victorious Cleomenes did not last long, because his bribery to Delphi was soon leaked, which angered the Spartans. When he was found guilty, he first fled Sparta then later returned. But after returning, he was relieved of his power, and from then on, he just kept on drinking, beating and yelling at people, which made everyone think that he became crazy. His two half-brothers, Leonidas and Cleombrotus then locked him in the temple and announced that he became mad. However, the next day, the people found him dead with the flesh of his body being mutilated using the knife in his hand.

This had caused a huge commotion! Everyone kept on saying that this is Cleomenes’ punishment for his desecration and the public generally recognized the cause as, ‘suicide.’

Soon after, Leonidas became king. But in private, the rumors that were spread from time to time says that Cleomenes died at the hand of his two brothers.

And the reason why Leonidas led 300 of his personal guards to Thermopylae to defend against the Persian army was because the situation forced him to do so, while also proving his innocence to the Spartans.

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This was a treacherous history for the Spartans, and could even be said to be a disgrace. Everyone in the assembly hall fell in silence for a moment.

Cleostidas, the assembly's speaker, simply declared, “The election for the new king begins!”

Both Agesilaus and Leotychides have their own shortcomings and have their own supporters. Therefore, the debate between both sides was mainly to fight over the neutral elders…and the result of the final vote – Agesilaus won.

With tears of humiliation, Leotychides glared at the elders who congratulated Agesilaus with hatred, and then left quietly….

Then Cleostidas asked the guards to allow the five Ephors who had been waiting outside the assembly hall to enter and announce the results of the elections to them.

The Ephors then went to Agesilaus. Agesilaus stood solemnly and listened as they read aloud, “The great Zeus stands as witness, according to the result of the Gerousia's voting, we declared by the divine blood of Heracles that Agesilaus is the king of Sparta!”

No matter how hard it was for Agesilaus to maintain his calm, his voice still trembled as he swore, “I, Agesilaus, swear in the name of Zeus that I will govern and rule Sparta according to the laws of the city-state!”

And the Ephors responded at the same time, “As long as you keep your oaths, we will ensure that your kingship will last forever!”

In the year of 398 B.C., Agesilaus became the king of Sparta.

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At the southeastern end of Sicily, Dionysius led the infantry, soldiers and warships of Syracuse to march westward along the southern coast of sicily.

While liberating the city of Kamarina, which was forced to pay tribute to Carthage, Dionysius learned about “Theonia defeating Crotone” and had made him silent for a moment, and then said to the attendant beside him, “Immediately write to Philistus and say that I agreed to the request of Locri to send reinforcements as soon as possible!”

Then he ordered the heralds to urge the army, which was about to take a rest day, to continue marching westward.

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“Crotone has made peace with Theonia!” Umakas, the archon of Taranto, was surprised after receiving the news from Crotone, “I didn't expect that Theonia, which was a small city-state a year ago and had even needed our protection to survive, has now rapidly developed and become a powerful union in Magna Graecia!”

The former archon, and now elder of the council, Disitimas, sighed, “Fortunately, we are allied with Theonia!”

Umakas shook his head, “The safety of Taranto must not depend on the promise of others!” and firmly added, “We should speed up the conquest of the Messapians and strengthen the power of Taranto as soon as possible, so that we can have the confidence to talk face to face with Theonia!”

“Our attack on Manduria has caused great casualties to our citizens! But you still went to attack Brindisi, which will cause even more citizens of Taranto to die! How could the council agree to your radical approach!” Said Disitimas, with some indignation.

Umakas looked at Disitimas with a trace of contempt in his gaze, “Disitimas, my good friend, you still don't understand! This is not only the will of the majority of the statesmen, but is also the will of the masses! Stimulated by the rapid rise of Theonia, the people had already become tired of the decades of inaction of the council! And they hate how they get harassed by the Messapians every year! They want change! Although they are casualties among the citizens, it is much more difficult for the Messapians to invade our territory after we become the master of Manduria! I believe that once Archytas learned that Crotone was forced to make peace with Theonia, he will also increase his attack on Brindisi even without our urging!”

After a moment of silence, Disitimas hesitatingly said, “I am a little worried that such a large-scale attack will stimulate the Peucetians in the north, who were of the same race as the Messapians….”

“So if we don't attack, they will not regard us as an enemy?” Umakas retorted, “As long as we capture Brindisi, we will not only cut off the connection between the Messapians and the north, but will also link up the trade with the Adriatic Sea, which give us a lot of benefits in doing so…if we encounter the Peucetians just like what you have said and see our city being almost empty and take this opportunity to attack, then we can still-”

Umakas then looked at Disitimas, and soon, Disitimas understood what he meant and sighed, “Ask our ally Theonia for help!”

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Although Lysias tried his best to defend Milo, the ecclesia still made a decision to sentence him by “expulsion, and to not allow him to return for ten years”.