{short description of image}  
 

ARCHIDAMUS II

 

This is an extract from the wikipedia entry

 
 

Archidamus II was a Eurypontid king of Sparta who reigned from approximately 476 to 427. His father was Zeuxidamus (called Cyniscos by many Spartans). Zeuxidamus married and had a son, Archidamus. However, Zeuxidamus died before his father, Leotychidas. After the death of his son and heir, Leotychidas married Eurydame, the sister of Menius and daughter of Diactorides. While they had no male offspring, they did have a daughter, Lampito, whom Leotychidas gave in marriage to his grandson Archidamus. They had a son Agis II. Archidamus' later second marriage was to Eupoleia. To them were born a son, Agesilaus II, and a daughter, Cynisca.

Rule:
Archidamus ascended the Spartan throne after his grandfather, Leotychidas, was banished around 476 after being accused of bribery. Archidamus was one of the kings of Sparta in the years preceding the Peloponnesian War. His coolness and presence of mind are said to have saved the Spartan state from destruction on the occasion of the great earthquake of 464, but this story must be regarded as at least doubtful. In 446 he reached agreement with Pericles on the Thirty Years' Peace between Athens and Sparta, bringing an end to the First Peloponnesian War, which had been raging since c. 460. (with the possible exception of a 5-years peace established in 451). During the negotiations that preceded the Peloponnesian War, he did his best to prevent, or at least to postpone, the inevitable struggle, but was overruled by the war party. He invaded Attica at the head of the Peloponnesian forces in the summers of 431, 430 and 428, and in 429 conducted operations against Plataea. He died probably in 427, certainly before the summer of 426, and was succeeded on the Spartan throne by his son, Agis II .

 

Return to Xenophon. Return to Ruscity. Return to Rushistory. Return to Ukraine.