Anaxandridas II
| Anaxandridas II | |
|---|---|
| King of Sparta | |
| Reign | c. 560 BC - c. 520 BC |
| Predecessor | Leon of Sparta |
| Successor | Cleomenes I |
| Died | c. 520 BC |
| Issue | Cleomenes I Dorieus Leonidas I Cleombrotus |
| Dynasty | Agiad |
| Father | Leon of Sparta |
Anaxandridas II (Greek: Ἀναξανδρίδας) was an Agiad king of Sparta between c.560 and 520 BC, father of Leonidas I and grandfather of Pleistarchus. He was succeeded by Cleomenes I.
Biography
Anaxandridas was the son of Leon, who reigned during the first half of the 6th century, between 590 and 560 BC.[1][2] He belonged to the Agiads, one of the two royal dynasties of Sparta (the other being the Eurypontids).
In the middle of the 6th century, under the leadership of the ephor Chilon, in office c.556 BC, Sparta ended its streak of violent conquests, such as in Messenia, and adopted a "philachaean (pro-Achaean) policy".[3] Chilon claimed for Sparta the inheritance of the Achaean kings, who ruled the Peloponnese before the arrival of the Dorians—the invaders that founded classical Sparta.[4] As an example of this policy, the legendary Achaean king Agamemnon started to be worshipped c.550 BC in Amyclae (one of the villages of Sparta).[5]
In c. 560 BC, Anaxandridas II, the new Agiad king of the Spartans, having obtained possession of the bones of the mythical Orestes (son of the Trojan hero Agamemnon) in accordance with an oracle, defeated the Acadian Tegeatae and compelled them to acknowledge the supremacy of Sparta. By the time when the Lydian king Croesus sent his embassy to form an alliance with "the mightiest of the Greeks" (about 554 BC), the war with Tegea, which during the reigns of previous Spartan kings had gone against them, had, under Anaxandridas II and the Spartan Eurypontid king Ariston, been decided in the Spartans' favour. Anaxandridas II and Ariston also had main carriage of the suppression of the tyrannies, and with it the establishment of Spartan hegemony.
With the reigns of Anaxandridas and Ariston commences the period of certain dates, the chronology of their predecessors being doubtful and the accounts in many ways suspicious.
Family
Anaxandridas's first wife was deemed barren. However, due to his love for her, he refused to divorce her. But, the ephors did make Anaxandridas II take a second wife.[6] By her Anaxandridas II had Cleomenes I, and after this, by his first wife he had three sons; Dorieus (father of Euryanas), famous Leonidas I, and Cleombrotus.
Anaxandridas II was succeeded by his son from his second marriage, Cleomenes I.
| Eurycratides | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leon of Sparta | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First wife | Anaxandridas II | Second wife | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dorieus | Leonidas I | Cleombrotus (regent) | Cleomenes I | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
- ^ Forrest, History of Sparta, p. 21, dates his accession c.590, but then p. 73, writes "roughly 580".
- ^ Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 103, dates his accession c.575.
- ^ Huxley, Early Sparta, p. 69.
- ^ Forrest, History of Sparta, pp. 73–79.
- ^ Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 120.
- ^ Abbott, Evelyn (1895). From the earliest times to the Ionian revolt. 1895.- pt. 2. G. P. Putnam. pp. 436–437.
Bibliography
- Paul Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, A Regional History 1300–362 BC, London, Routledge, 2002 (originally published in 1979). ISBN 0-415-26276-3
- W. G. Forrest, A History of Sparta, New York, Norton, 1986. SBN 393004813
- G. L. Huxley, Early Sparta, London, Faber & Faber, 1962. ISBN 0389020400
