Areus I (; 320 or 312 – 265 BC) was the Agiad King of Sparta from 309 to 265 BC. His reign is noted for his attempts to transform Sparta into a Hellenistic kingdom and to recover its former pre-eminence in Greece, notably against the kings Antigonos Gonatas of Macedonia and Pyrrhus of Epirus.
The first part of Areus' reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and regent Cleonymus, a skilled general who campaigned in Greece and abroad at the head of mercenary armies. Areus' first record in the scanty ancient sources was in 281 BC, when he led an alliance of Greek city-states to challenge Macedonian control over Greece, but was rapidly defeated by the Aitolian League (allied with Macedonia). In 275 BC, Cleonymus defected to Pyrrhus of Epirus, who launched an invasion of the Peloponnese in 272 BC. Areus nevertheless repelled the attack and pursued Pyrrhus until his death in Argos. Thanks to the prestige of this victory, Areus established another alliance, in 267 BC with Athens and Egypt against the Macedonian king Antigonos Gonatas. The following Chremonidean War was, however, a disaster for the Spartan-led Greeks; Areus died in battle near Corinth in 265 BC.
Although the military activity of Areus shows that Sparta had temporarily regained some of its former glory, the main interest of his reign is the introduction of Hellenistic features in traditionally austere Sparta. For the first time in centuries, prominent artists are found in Sparta—likely attracted by the sponsorship of Areus, who probably built the first theatre in the city. Areus is also known as the king who first minted coins in Sparta, money having hitherto been banned. His posture as a Hellenistic king brought him considerable international prestige, but altered the constitutional order of the city, notably by eclipsing kings of the other Spartan royal dynasty, the Eurypontids.
In order to facilitate his recruitment of Jewish mercenaries, Areus claimed a shared ancestry with the Jews, who answered favourably and later repeatedly renewed their friendship with Sparta, even though the reality of this Spartan-Jewish connection is disputed.
Family background and regency Areus was the son of Acrotatus, and the grandson of Cleomenes II (), king of Sparta of the Agiad dynasty, one of the two royal families at Sparta (the other being the Eurypontids). As Cleomenes' reign was very long, his son Acrotatus died before him, and Areus succeeded his grandfather in about 309.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, pp. 24, 26. Karl Julius Beloch has suggested that Areus was born shortly after his father had come back from a mission in Sicily in 312.Beloch, Grechische Geschichte, vol. 4, part 2, pp. 157, 158.McQueen, "The Eurypontid House", p. 165 (note 13). Paul Cartledge favours an earlier date, about 320.Oliva, Sparta and her Social Problems, pp. 205 (note 4), 206, also supports an earlier birthdate for Areus.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, p. 221 (note 5).
Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century AD, as well as Plutarch, tell that since Areus was still a young child in 309, Cleomenes' second son Cleonymus contested the claim of his nephew, but the Gerousia—the supreme assembly at Sparta—still upheld the traditional linear succession of the Spartan kingship, and ruled in favour of Areus.Pausanias, Laconia, iii. 6 § 2.Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 26.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, pp. 26, 27, accepts Pausanias' account. However, this story may be a retrojection from Pausanias in light of the later opposition between Areus and Cleonymus.Françoise Ruzé & Jacqueline Christien, Sparte, p. 326. Moreover, succession disputes were normally settled before the ekklesia—the citizen assembly at Sparta—not the Gerousia, as in 400 when Agesilaus II was chosen king against the initial claim of his nephew Leotychidas. Cleonymus was then made the regent of Areus, thus indicating that he did not challenge the oligarchic order.Marasco, Sparta, pp. 31–38.
Cleonymus retained a prominent place during the first half of Areus' reign, commanding mercenary armies with official support, such as in 303, when Sparta sent him to help Tarentum against Lucanians and the Roman Republic.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, p. 27. Pausanias further tells that Cleonymus was given the command of the army as a compensation for his denied claim on the throne, but this is probably another invention as there is nothing unusual for the regent to receive such command. For example, in 479, Pausanias won the Battle of Plataea as regent to his younger cousin Pleistarchus.Marasco, Sparta, p. 37.
Nothing is known of Areus until 281, principally because of the loss of several ancient sources, but also because Sparta was now only a regional power of lesser interest for ancient historians, who did not record its activity.McQueen, "The Eurypontid House", p. 163.
Reign
Fifth Sacred War (281–280 BC)
In 281–280, the Wars of the Diadochi—the former generals of Alexander the Great—came to an end with the deaths of Lysimachus, king of Macedonia, and Seleucus, founder of the Seleucid Empire. In Greece, many cities immediately attempted to recover their independence from the new Macedonian king Antigonos Gonatas, and Sparta is found leading allies for the first time since the defeat of Agis III at Megalopolis in 331.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, p. 28. Sparta did not frontally attack Macedonia though, targeting instead its weaker ally, the Aitolian League, which had taken control of the Panhellenic sanctuary of Delphi a few years before. Since the Second Sacred War in the 440s, Sparta had assumed the role of Delphi's protector and Areus denounced the profanation of sacred soil by the Aitolians.Grainger, The League of the Aitolians, p. 105. The attack on the Aitolian League may have been determined by the impossibility of passing through the Isthmus of Corinth, which was heavily garrisoned by Macedonia (in the Acrocorinth fortress); Areus' plan was possibly to win a victory against the Aitolians, then attack Corinth from both the north and south.Marasco, Sparta, p. 71. This war is sometimes called the Fifth Sacred War by modern scholars, named after the other Sacred Wars for the control of Delphi.Rousset, Le territoire de Delphes, pp. 216, 217.Graninger, Cult and Koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly, pp. 121–123 (note 38).
Areus was chosen by several other states to lead the alliance against the Aitolians, perhaps because the campaigns of Cleonymus made a good impression, and Sparta was seen as producing capable commanders again.Kralli, The Hellenistic Peloponnese, pp. 116, 117. Modern historians however disagree on the extent of this alliance as most of this war is known from Justin, a Roman historian of the 2nd century AD, whose account is very short.Justin, xxiv. 1.Kralli, The Hellenistic Peloponnese, p. 116, she summarises the historiography p. 139 (note 8). The only certain allies of Sparta were the four Achaian cities of Patrai, Tritaia, Dyme and Pharai (which soon after founded the Achaian League), and most of the Arcadians (without Megalopolis), because Areus would not have been able to cross the Peloponnese to Aitolia without their support.Kralli, The Hellenistic Peloponnese, p. 118. Other possible allies were Megara, Boeotia, Argos, Epidauros, Elis, Athens and Western Crete, but the state of evidence is very thin.Marasco, Sparta, p. 66, accepts Argos, Epidauros, Megara and Boeotia, but rejects Elis and Athens as "doubtful".Habicht, Athens from Alexander to Antony, pp. 130, 131, rejects Athens.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, p. 29, considers Boeotia, Megara, and "some towns in the Argolid" as Spartan allies.Christien, "Areus et le concept de symmachie", p. 167, rejects Argos, but tentatively adds Thebes and Western Crete.Kralli, The Hellenistic Peloponnese, pp. 119, 120, accepts Epidaurus, but considers an alliance with Elis and Argos "much more dubious", and does not discuss possible allies outside the Peloponnese.
Areus then crossed the Corinthian Gulf and landed in the Kirrhan plain, in the southwest of Delphi. Despite posturing as the liberator of Delphi's sacred land, Areus let his soldiers disperse to plunder the area; as a result, the Aitolians inflicted a resounding defeat on Areus' scattered army, although the figures cited by Justin are improbable: he says that 500 Aitolians killed 9000 Spartans and allies.Grainger, The League of the Aitolians, p. 96. Grainger dates the war from 280.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, p. 29. In fact, Areus might have commanded 3,000 men at most. The Spartans likely buried their dead on the spot, either in a polyandrion near Delphi, or in a place called Lakonikon in the Kirrhan plain.Rousset, Le territoire de Delphes, pp. 170, 216, 217.Anne Jacquemin, "Sparte et Delphes du IVe siècle av. J.-C. au IIe siècle av. J.-C., Un déclin inscrit dans l’ espace sacré", in Legras & Jacqueline Christien (ed.), Sparte hellénistique, pp. 144, 145 The new alliance collapsed following Areus' defeat, likely because his military leadership was by now discredited.Kralli, The Hellenistic Peloponnese, p. 120. Another possibility is that as Antigonos Gonatas was far away campaigning in Asia, the Peloponnesians did not feel threatened enough to stay in the alliance.Marasco, Sparta, p. 73.
The defection of Cleonymus (275 BC) After the defeat of Areus, military operations were headed by Cleonymus again.Kralli, The Hellenistic Peloponnese, p. 121. He is recorded in 279 campaigning against Messenia, which prevented them from sending aid to the Aitolians, who were facing an invasion of Gallic tribes.Françoise Ruzé & Jacqueline Christien, Sparte, p. 330. Sparta recovered the border area of Denthaliates, which had been lost after the Battle of Leuctra in 371.Marasco, Sparta, pp. 74, 75. Between 279 and 276, Cleonymus took the Macedonian garrison of Troezen in the Argolis and is also mentioned in Crete, acting as peacemaker between the cities of Polyrrennia and Phalasarna.Marasco, Sparta, pp. 75, 76, 78, 79, 84, 85.Christien, "Areus et le concept de symmachie", p. 169. This policy of intervening into Cretan affairs was continued by Areus, as Polyrrennia later built a statue in his honour.Marasco, Sparta, p. 85. The island produced a lot of mercenaries, on which Sparta relied for its operations. Crete was furthermore one of the few places where Sparta could extend its influence without angering any of the big three Hellenistic kingdoms (Macedonian, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid).Marasco, Sparta, pp. 84, 89, 90.
Cleonymus was therefore given all the military commands between 279 and 275, probably because he was seen as more capable than Areus following the king's defeat against the Aitolians, a situation that must have concerned Areus.Marasco, Sparta, pp. 93, 94. In addition, Plutarch tells that Cleonymus married a much younger woman named Chilonis,Marasco, Sparta, pp. 95–97. who was the daughter of a Leotychidas, a name commonly found in the Eurypontid dynasty, the other royal family of Sparta. As daughters could inherit property in Sparta, Chilonis was a particularly attractive bride, because of her royal descent and wealth. It shows that Cleonymus tried to get closer to the other king, Archidamus IV, and therefore enhance his status within Sparta. However, Areus sent his son Acrotatus to seduce Chilonis in order to thwart the political ambitions of his uncle Cleonymus.Marasco, Sparta, pp. 97, 98, does not write that Areus sent his son to seduce Chilonis.Cartledge, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, pp. 29, 30. In 275, angered Cleonymus left Sparta and went into exile in Epirus, as he had been familiar with its king Pyhrrus since his command in Italy in 303.Marasco, Sparta, pp. 101, 102.
War against Pyrrhus (272 BC)