Dorieus (died c.510 BC; grc-gre, Δωριεύς) was a

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

n prince of the

Agiad dynasty The Agiad dynasty was one of the two royal families of Sparta, a powerful city-state of Ancient Greece. The Agiads were seniors to the other royal house, the Eurypontids, with whom they had an enduring rivalry. Their hypothetical founder was Agis I ...

who is mentioned several times in

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...

. The second son of

Anaxandridas II Anaxandridas II ( grc-gre, Ἀναξανδρίδας) was an Agiad king of Sparta between c. 560 BC and c. 524 BC, father of Leonidas I and grandfather of Pleistarchus. Under the leadership of the ephor Chilon, in office during the middle of th ...

, he was the younger half-brother of Cleomenes I and the elder full brother of both Leonidas I and Cleombrotus. He tried to found a colony in Cinyps (Libya) but failed. He tried again to establish a colony in western Sicily, but was killed by the

Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...

Family

According to

, Anaxandridas II of Sparta had married his niece and was devoted to her. For a long time, the marriage was childless and Sparta's Council of the Ephors, fearing that the line of Eurysthenes would expire, asked Anaxandridas to divorce his wife and remarry. Anaxandridas refused and the Ephors then proposed that he take a second wife, even though bigamy was hitherto unknown in Sparta. Anaxandridas agreed and, shortly after his second marriage, both of his wives became pregnant. Cleomenes, who was the only child of the second wife, was the first-born. Dorieus was born to the first wife a few months later and she then had Leonidas and Cleombrotus, who may have been twins, in the following year. When Anaxandridas died, the Council named Cleomenes as his successor because he was the eldest son. Dorieus challenged the decision but was over-ruled even though, Herodotus says, he was the finest young man of his generation whereas Cleomenes was not right in his head and was on the verge of madness.Herodotus, p. 355.Bury and Meiggs, p. 136.

Colonies

Dorieus asked the Council to select a body of men who would help him to found a settlement elsewhere. Herodotus says he went off in a fit of temper to Libya and made the grave mistake of not consulting the

Delphic Oracle Pythia (; grc, Πυθία ) was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythoness ...

beforehand. A colony was established at Cinyps in the

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

region of modern-day

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

. Three years later, the Greeks were driven out by a Libyan tribe called the Macae who were allied to the

.Speake, p. 217. Dorieus returned to Sparta but soon heard about land in western Sicily which, he was advised, rightly belonged to the Heracleidae, from whom his family claimed descent. This time, Dorieus did consult the Oracle and was told the land was his for the taking so, having re-assembled his followers, he set sail for Sicily. It happened that war was about to break out between the

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these re ...

cities of Croton and Sybaris in the south of Italy. Croton asked Dorieus for help. He agreed and was involved in the attack by Croton on Sybaris. He then progressed with the project to establish a Greek colony at Eryx in Sicily. However, not long after establishing the colony named Herakleia, Dorieus and most of his followers were defeated and killed by the Egestaeans with the support of the Carthaginians. Bury and Meiggs assert that Dorieus was killed c. 510 BC. The remnant of the colonists then went on the southern coast of Sicily and captured Herakleia Minoa. Herodotus points out that if Dorieus had remained in Sparta and had endured living under the kingship of Cleomenes, he would have eventually succeeded him as king of Sparta, as Cleomenes had no sons. Instead it was Dorieus' younger brother Leonidas who succeeded Cleomenes as king and assumed the mantle of an heroic figure by his deeds in the Persian Wars.Herodotus, p. 357.

In popular culture

He features prominently in the novel The Etruscan by Mika Waltari.

References

Sources

Ancient sources

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

, ''

Bibliotheca Historica ''Bibliotheca historica'' ( grc, Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική, ) is a work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, ...

.'' *

Herodotos Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an Classical Greece, ancient Greek historian and geographer from the List of ancient Greek cities, Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later ci ...

, ''

Histories Histories or, in Latin, Historiae may refer to: * the plural of history * ''Histories'' (Herodotus), by Herodotus * ''The Histories'', by Timaeus * ''The Histories'' (Polybius), by Polybius * ''Histories'' by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), ...

''.

Modern sources

* *Vitaliano Merante,
Sulla cronologia di Dorieo e su alcuni problemi connessi
, '' Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Bd. 19, H. 3 (Jul., 1970), pp. 272–294. * Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen (editors), ''An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis'', Oxford University Press, 2004. * * Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg,
Dorieus
, ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Bd. 9, H. 2 (Apr., 1960), pp. 181–215. {{Authority control 6th-century BC births 510 BC deaths 6th-century BC Spartans Ancient Greeks killed in battle Agiad dynasty