Cleomenes I (; Greek Κλεομένης; died c. 490 BC) was Agiad King of Sparta from c. 524 to c. 490 BC. One of the most important Spartan kings, Cleomenes was instrumental in organising the Greek resistance against the Persian Empire of Darius, as well as shaping the geopolitical balance of Classical Greece.
Herodotus's account Most of the life of Cleomenes is known through the Histories of Herodotus, an Athenian historian of the second half of the 5th century.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 124, "Herodotus provides us with practically all our information on Kleomenes". He is one the most important characters of books 5 and 6, covering the decades before the Persian Wars.Hornblower, Herodotus, Book V, pp. 12, 13. Herodotus's account however contains many mistakes, especially on the chronology of several major events, and is also very biased against Cleomenes.Ste. Croix, "Herodotus and King Cleomenes", p. 421, writes "I believe that Herodotus' picture of Cleomenes, overall, is gravely inadequate and in parts misleading". It seems that Herodotus got his information on Cleomenes from his opponents: the descendants of his half-brothers Leonidas and Cleombrotus, as well as those of Demaratus, the other Spartan king who was deposed by Cleomenes in 491.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, pp. 123, 124.Hornblower, Herodotus, Book V, p. 221, mentions that Herodotus could have spoken with the descendants of Demaratus in Asia Minor, where they lived. Herodotus for instance states that Cleomenes's reign was short; however he ruled for about 30 years. Demaratus conversely receives positive treatment in the Histories, even though he betrayed the Greeks to the Persians during the First Invasion of Greece. Paul Cartledge writes that Cleomenes suffered from a damnatio memoriae from the Spartans, notably for having corrupted the Oracle of Delphi in 491.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 130.
Other historians, however, identify aspects of the Herodotean account which do not conform with the negative portrayal of Cleomenes by his opponents, demonstrating that his account was not totally influenced by them. The mistake of Cleomenes's reign has often been identified as a fault of the text, rather than of Herodotus: Wilson's 2015 edition of the text therefore amends the passage by adding ἔτι, meaning still or yet, so that it reads "Cleomenes did not reign for much longer".Hdt. 5.48; Wilson, N. (ed.), Herodoti Hidtoriae Libri V-IX, Oxford Classical Texts, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Elsewhere, Cleomenes dutifully reports to the ephors about an attempt to bribe him,Hdt. 3.148 and, when campaigning at Eleusis, it is Demaratus who unfaithfully deserts him.Hdt. 5.74-5 Herodotus even explicitly states at one point that, unlike Demeratus, Cleomenes was "working for the common good of Greece".Hdt. 6.61
Family background and accession Cleomenes was the son of Anaxandridas II, who belonged to the Agiad dynasty, one of the two royal families of Sparta (the other being the Eurypontids). As his father did not have a son from his first wife (who was also his niece), the ephors forced him to marry another woman, without divorcing his first wife—an unprecedented occurrence of bigamy in Sparta.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 264. His new spouse likely came from the family of the ephor Chilon, an important reformer, who held office in during the mid-6th-century.Ste. Croix, "Herodotus and King Cleomenes", p. 422.Hodkinson, "Female property ownership", p. 10.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, pp. 264, 265, points out that the ephors' concern about Anaxandridas's descent is the first indication of Sparta's manpower problems, which became dire in later centuries Cleomenes was born from this second marriage, but then his father returned to his first wife and had three further sons with her: Dorieus, the future king Leonidas, and Cleombrotus—the latter two were possibly twins. The name Dorieus ("the Dorian") explicitly refers to the Dorian ethnicity of Sparta, and might be a rejection of the ephor Chilon's policy of establishing an amicable relationship with the ethnically different Achaea in the northern Peloponnese.Forrest, History of Sparta, pp. 76, 83.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 110.
The family of Anaxandridas's second wife immediately contested the legitimacy of Dorieus even before his birth, as the ephors attended his birth in order to certify the authenticity of the pregnancy.Hodkinson, "Female property ownership", pp. 10, 11.Griffith-Williams, "The Succession to the Spartan Kingship", p. 49. This shows that there were strong familial rivalries among Spartan royal circles; besides, at the same time, a cousin of Anaxandridas's second wife was also the bride of the future Eurypontid king Leotychidas.Forrest, History of Sparta, p. 83.Hodkinson, "Inheritance, Marriage and Demography: Perspectives upon the Success and Decline of Classical Sparta", in Powell (ed.), Classical Sparta, p. 90–92. In turn, when his father died, Cleomenes's succession was contested by Dorieus, because of his superior "manly virtue". Perhaps this statement is related to a great performance during the agoge—the rigorous military training at Sparta—which Dorieus had to endure, while Cleomenes avoided it as heir-apparent (the only possible exemption).Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 110, 111. Dorieus could have also contested Cleomenes's legitimacy on the ground that he was a son of the king's first wife, who was additionally of royal descent. As Cleomenes was the eldest son, his claim was nevertheless deemed stronger and he became king.Griffith-Williams, "The Succession to the Spartan Kingship", pp. 50, 51. It prompted the departure of Dorieus to colonial ventures in Libya and Sicily, where he died in c.510.Fischer-Hansen, Nielsen, Ampolo, in Hansen (ed.), Inventory, pp. 197.
The date of Cleomenes's accession had been debated among modern scholars for a long time,Carlier, "La vie politique", p. 68, "about 520".L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, p. 356, "c. 521".Cawkwell, "Cleomenes", p. 510 (note 8), "c. 520". until historian David Harvey found that the Greek historian Diodoros of Sicily had confused the length of Cleomenes II's reign (370–309) with that of his earlier namesake. Putting aside Diodoros's error, Harvey states that as Cleomenes came to the throne "a few years earlier than the Plataea incident", he dates the start of his reign to 524–523.Diodorus, xix. 70, 71.Harvey, "The Length of the Reigns of Kleomenes", pp. 356, 357.
Reign During the first years of his reign, Cleomenes adopted prudent diplomacy, rejecting foreign expeditions when solicited, possibly due to the threat of a helot revolt that a defeat in a war abroad would cause.L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, p. 357.
Encounter at Plataea (519 BC) The first known deed of Cleomenes as king is his dealing with the city of Plataea, located between Thebes and Athens. In 519, Herodotus states that Cleomenes happened to be in the vicinity of Plataea, when the Plataeans requested an alliance with Sparta, which he rejected. Instead he advised them to ally themselves with Athens, because he wanted to stir a border conflict between Thebes and Athens, two of the most powerful poleis of central Greece.Herodotus, vi. 108.Ste. Croix, "Herodotus and King Cleomenes", p. 423.L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, p. 360, thinks he rejected the Plataean offer to join the League because the city was "too remote and small". The Plataeans probably wished to avoid their forced incorporation into the Boeotian League, which was being built by Thebes at this time.L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, p. 358. Their Spartan alliance request perhaps indicates that they wanted to become a member of the Peloponnesian League, which was likewise being put in place at this time.L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, pp. 350–353.Konecny et al., Plataiai, pp. 26, 27. G. E. M. de Ste. Croix and Paul Cartledge call this move "a master-stroke" of diplomacy, but other modern scholars do not believe it was Cleomenes's intention to create a rift between Thebes and Athens.Scott, Historical Commentary on Herodotus, p. 376.
Herodotus does not explain why Cleomenes was near Plataea at that time. A number of theories have been advanced to explain it. Perhaps he was marching on Thebes to support an invasion of his ally, Lattamyas of Thessaly, but as the Thebans had defeated the Thessalians at the Battle of Ceressus before he arrived, he took the opportunity to try and undermine them without engaging his forces.Buck, History of Boeotia, p. 114. Another possibility is that he was trying to convince either Megara or Thebes to join the Peloponnesian League, or he was arbitrating between Megara and Athens over the island of Salamis.Roobaert, Isolationnisme et Impérialisme, p. 7, considers these theories as "baseless suppositions" and simply suggests that Cleomenes was on a diplomatic mission to Plataea.L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, p. 360, thinks he was bringing Megara into the League.Scott, Historical Commentary on Herodotus, pp. 375, 376.
The date of this event has been challenged by some modern scholars, who have often suggested 509 rather than 519, as it would better fit with Cleomenes's latter involvement in Athenian politics, but the majority view remains in favour of 519.Forrest, History of Sparta, p. 85, tends towards 509.Buck, A History of Boeotia, pp. 113, 114, favours 519.Ste. Croix, "Herodotus and King Cleomenes", p. 422, supports the date of 519.Roobaert, Isolationnisme et Impérialisme, p. 6 (note 18), is in favour of 519.Hornblower, Commentary on Thucydides, Volume I, pp. 464, 465, supports 519.Konecny et al., Plataiai, p. 26 (note 87), favour 509/508.Scott, Historical Commentary on Herodotus, p. 375, for 519.
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 Persian Empire, which was at the time was subjugating the city-states of the eastern Aegean Sea.Herodotus, iii. 148.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 124. However, with the support of the 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.Roobaert, Isolationnisme et Impérialisme, pp 10, 11. Maeandrius's intentions may have also played a role, as he probably coveted the tyranny of Samos.L. H. Jefery, "Greece before the Persian Invasion", in Boardman et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV, pp. 356, 357.
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 Phasis to Media, while the Spartans would march east from Ephesus.Herodotus, vi. 84. 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'.Roobaert, Isolationnisme et Impérialisme, p. 17, thinks that there might be a layer of truth behind this embassy.Cawkwell, "Cleomenes", p. 510. 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.Cawkwell, "Cleomenes", pp. 510, 511.
Interventions into Athenian politics (511–501 BC) Sparta's War against Hippias (c.511–510 BC)