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The Battle of Dyme or Dymae was
a battle that was fought by the Achaean League under the command of their
Strategos, Hyperbatas, and a Spartan army under the command of King Cleomenes
III, and was part of the Cleomenean War. The
battle took in place near Dyme in north-west Achaea and was fought in 226.
Map of Achaia showing location of Dyme
Opponents:Sparta versus Achaean League
Commanders and leaders:
Sparta - Cleomenes III
Achaean League - Hyperbatas, Aratus
Casualties and losses:
Spartans - Low
Achaeans - Heavy
Prelude:
Following the declaration of war against Sparta by the Achaean League in around
229-228, the fighting between the two countries had almost been continuous.
Cleomenes had crushed two Achaean armies under the command of Aratus of Sicyon
at the Battle of Mount Lycaeum and at the Battle of Ladoceia in 227. After
these victories, Cleomenes returned to Sparta and began radical reforms. He
abolished the ephors, changed land laws, cancelled debt, and he also changed
his army into one of the Macedonian style. Following these reforms, Cleomenes
with his reformed army answered to appeals from the city of Mantinea and after
ridding it of its Achaean garrison advanced north into the Achaean heartland.
Battle:
After advancing into Achaea, Cleomenes descended upon Pharae, a founding member
of the League. His aim was to provoke a battle with the Achaeans, or if they
didn't come to meet him in battle, to discredit Aratus. The strategos at the
time was Hyperbatas, however Aratus had complete control of the League. As
Cleomenes was besieging the city of Dyme, the full Achaean army came out to
meet him. When Cleomenes saw them pitch camp, deciding not to battle the enemy
while his rear was exposed to attacks from the garrison of Dyme, he advanced on
the Achaean position. In the pitched battle that followed, the Spartan phalanx
routed the Achaean phalanx with the Achaeans sustaining heavy casualties and
with many of the survivors being captured.
Aftermath:
This defeat crushed the Achaeans and forced them to sue for peace. Cleomenes
offered to give back any cities he seized from the Achaeans and to return any
prisoners he had taken in return for being made strategus of the Achaean
League. It may be however how Plutarch states that the Achaeans, after seeing
his many victories wished for Cleomenes to command them. However, Aratus who
was against this proposal sent ambassadors to the court of King Antigonus III
Doson where he requested Antigonus' aid against the Spartans which he received
in return for giving Acrocorinth to Macedon. In 224, Antigonus advanced into
the Peloponnese with an army of 30,000 men and forced Cleomenes to retreat to
Laconia, the Spartan heartland. In 222, the Macedonian-Achaean army and the
Spartan army clashed at the Battle of
Sellasia which ended in an allied victory. This victory forced Cleomenes to
flee from Greece and go to Egypt.Antigonus took Sparta, making him the first
foreigner to ever capture Sparta.
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