Archidamus I, also spelled Archidamos I ( grc, Ἀρχίδαμος Α΄), was a

king of Sparta For most of its history, the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek polis, city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the archaic Greece, Archaic age. I ...

, 12th of the

Eurypontids For most of its history, the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it ha ...

. He reigned from c. 660 to c. 645.Cartledge, ''Agesilaos'', p. 23. His relationship to other Spartan kings is unclear. According to Herodotus, Archidamus was the son of

Anaxandridas I Anaxandridas I ( grc-gre, Ἀναξανδρίδας) (reigned from c. 675 to c. 645 BC) was king of Sparta and a member of the Eurypontid dynasty. He was succeeded by king Archidamus I. 7th-century BC rulers 7th-century BC Spartans Eurypontid ...

and fathered

Anaxilas Anaxilas or Anaxilaus ( grc-gre, Ἀναξίλας, Ἀναξίλαος), son of Cretines, was a tyrant of Rhegium (modern Reggio Calabria). He was originally from Messenia, a region in the Peloponnese. Life Anaxilas was master of Rhegium in 494 ...

. According to

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC *Pausanias of Sicily, physician of th ...

, Archidamus was the son of

Anaxidamus Anaxidamus ( grc-gre, Ἀναξίδαμος) was a king of Sparta, 11th of the Eurypontids. Anaxidamus was the son of Zeuxidamus and contemporary with Anaxander, and lived to the conclusion of the Messenian Wars, 668 BC (Paus. iii. 7. § 5.) He was ...

and fathered

Agasicles Agasicles, alternatively spelled Agesicles or Hegesicles ( grc-gre, Ἀγασικλῆς, Ἀγησικλῆς, Ἡγησικλῆς), was a king of Sparta, the 13th of the line of Procles. Son of Archidamus I,Louis Moréri (1732)Le grand dicti ...

. Archidamus was contemporary with the Tegeatan War, which followed soon after the end of the

Second Messenian War The Second Messenian War was a war which occurred ca. 660–650 BC between the Ancient Greek states of Messenia and Sparta, with localized resistance possibly lasting until the end of the century. It started around 40 years after the end of the Fi ...

, in 668 BC. This cites Paus. iii. 7. § 69 comp. 3. § 5. Archidamus is the first Spartan king to bear the word ''damos'' in his name. Previously, royal names of both dynasties often included the word ''laus''. These words already existed during the

Mycenaean era Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...

, in which ''Laos'' meant people and ''damos'' designated a small community, but in the 7th century the latter word acquired a political meaning, that of the citizens as a whole. As the Eurypontids were the junior of the Agiads, it seems that they tried to compensate their inferiority by courting citizens. Then, ''damos''-names often appear among the Eurypontids, such as Damaratos, Zeuxidamos, and the later Archidamos.Cartledge, ''Agesilaos'', p. 23.

References

Bibliography

Paul Cartledge Paul Anthony Cartledge (born 24 March 1947)"CARTLEDGE, Prof. Paul Anthony", ''Who's Who 2010'', A & C Black, 2010online edition/ref> is a British ancient historian and academic. From 2008 to 2014 he was the A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek C ...

, ''Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta'', Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. * 6th-century BC rulers 6th-century BC Spartans Eurypontid kings of Sparta {{AncientGreece-bio-stub