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Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II (; ; 445/4 – 360/59 BC) was king of Sparta from 400 to 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Although brave in combat, Agesilaus lacked the diplomatic skills to preserve Sparta's position, especially against the rising power of Thebes, which reduced Sparta to a secondary power after its victory at Leuctra in 371 BC. Despite the traditional secrecy fostered by the Spartiates, the reign of Agesilaus is particularly well-known thanks to the works of his friend Xenophon, who wrote a large history of Greece (the '' Hellenica'') covering the years 411 to 362 BC, therefore extensively dealing with Agesilaus' rule. Xenophon furthermore composed a panegyric biography of his friend, perhaps to clean his memory from the criticisms voiced against him. Another historical tradition—much more hostile to Agesilaus t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Kings Of Sparta
For most of its history, the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek Polis, city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the archaic Greece, Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had diarchy, two kings simultaneously, who were called the ''archagetai'', coming from two separate dynasty, lines. According to tradition, the two lines, the Agiad dynasty, Agiads (, ) and Eurypontids (, ), were respectively descended from the twins Eurysthenes and Procles, the descendants of Heracles, who supposedly conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War. The dynasties themselves, however, were named after the twins' grandsons, the kings Agis I and Eurypon, respectively. The Agiad line was regarded as being senior to the Eurypontid line.Cartledge, Paul, ''The Spartans'', Vintage Books, 2003. Although there are lists of the earlier purported Kings of Sparta, there is little evidence for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hellenica
''Hellenica'' () simply means writings on Greek (Hellenic) subjects. Several histories of the 4th-century BC Greece have borne the conventional Latin title ''Hellenica'', of which very few survive.Murray, Oswyn, "Greek Historians", in John Boardman, Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray, ''Greece and the Hellenistic World'' (Oxford History of the Classical World I, 1986; 1988) p. 192.Thomas, "Introduction," xxvi. The most notable of the surviving histories is the ''Hellenica'' of the Ancient Greek writer Xenophon (also known as ''Hellenika,'' or ''A History of My Times''). The work was intended as a continuation of Thucydides' ''History of the Peloponnesian War'', which was left unfinished and ends abruptly in the year 411 BC.Xenophon (2010), Thomas, David, "Introduction," p. x. Xenophon's ''Hellenica'' covers the years 411-362 BC, through the end of the Peloponnesian War and its aftermath.Thomas, "Introduction," ix. ''Hellenica'' is usually considered to be a difficult work for modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pederasty In Ancient Greece
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an older male (the ''erastes'') and a younger male (the '' eromenos'') usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods. Some scholars locate its origin in initiation ritual, particularly rites of passage on Crete, where it was associated with entrance into military life and the religion of Zeus. It has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and may have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosocial culture, which was characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and the social seclusion of women. Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in ancient literature and philosophy. The argument has recently been made that idealization was universal in the Archaic period; criticism began in Athens as part of the general Classical Athenian reassessment of Archaic culture. Scholars have de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonidas I
Leonidas I (; , ''Leōnídas''; born ; died 11 August 480 BC) was king of the Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. He was the son of king Anaxandridas II and the 17th king of the Agiad dynasty, a Spartan royal house which claimed descent from the mythical demigod Heracles. Leonidas I ascended to the throne in , succeeding his half-brother king Cleomenes I. He ruled jointly along with king Leotychidas until his death in 480 BC, when he was succeeded by his son, Pleistarchus. At the Second Greco-Persian War, Leonidas led the allied Greek forces in a last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC), attempting to defend the pass from the invading Persian army, and was killed early during the third and last day of the battle. Leonidas entered myth as a hero and the leader of the 300 Spartans who died in battle at Thermopylae. While the Greeks lost this battle, they were able to expel the Persian invaders in the following year. Life According to Herodotus, Leonidas' mot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agoge
The ( in Attic Greek, or , in Doric Greek) was the training program prerequisite for Spartiate (citizen) status. Spartiate-class boys entered it at age seven, and would stop being a student of the agoge at age 21. It was considered violent by the standards of the day, and was sometimes fatal. The was divided into three age groups, paides, paidiskoi, and hēbōntes, roughly corresponding to young boys (7-12), adolescents (12-20), and young men (20-30). The deliberately deprived boys of food, sleep, and shelter. It involved cultivating loyalty to Sparta through military training (e.g., pain tolerance), hunting, dancing, singing, and rhetoric. There seems to have been ritual beating. It was intensely competitive, and the boys were encouraged to use violence against each other; by Plutarch's account, this included sexual violence by hēbōntes against paides, while Xenophon says the relationships were widely but wrongly considered to be sexual. Participants were required to li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agesilaus I
Agesilaus I (; ), son of Doryssus, was the 6th king of the Agiad line at Sparta, excluding Aristodemus. According to Apollodorus of Athens, he reigned forty-four years, and died in 886 BC. Pausanias makes his reign a short one, but contemporary with the legislation of Lycurgus.Osbert Henry Fynes-Clinton, ''Fasti hellenici'', Vol. I, 1834, p. 335 He was succeeded by his son Archelaus. His grandson was Teleclus Teleclus or Teleklos (Greek: Τήλεκλος) was the 8th Agiad dynasty king of Sparta during the eighth century BC. He was the son of King Archelaus and grandson of King Agesilaus I. Pausanias reports that Teleclus' reign saw the conquest of .... References 9th-century BC Greek people 9th-century BC monarchs Agiad kings of Sparta 880s BC deaths Year of birth unknown 8th-century BC Spartans {{Greece-noble-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Olympic Games
The ancient Olympic Games (, ''ta Olympia''.), or the ancient Olympics, were a series of Athletics (sport), athletic competitions among representatives of polis, city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece. They were held at the Panhellenic sanctuary, Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, Olympia, in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a aition, mythological origin. The originating Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. These Olympiads were referred to based on the winner of their ''Stadion (running race), stadion'' sprint, e.g., "the third year of the eighteenth Olympiad when Ladas of Argos won the ''stadion''". They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Greece in the Roman era, Roman rule in the 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archaeological evidenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynisca
Cynisca (; or Kyniska, ; born ) was a wealthy Spartan princess. She is famous for being the first woman to win at the Olympic Games. Cynisca first entered the Olympics in 396 BC, where she won first prize competing with a team of horses she had trained herself. In 392 BC, Cynisca entered her horses in the Olympics for a second time and was awarded another victory in the same event. Name The name ''Cynisca'' means 'female puppy' or 'little hound' in Ancient Greek. She was named after her grandfather Zeuxidamus, who was also called ''Cyniscos''. Sarah B. Pomeroy suggest that this unusual name could have been a nickname for a tomboyish woman and it alludes to an interest in hunting. It is possible that the name is derived from the hunting traditions of the Spartan elite. Per Cartledge, it could have been a tribute to a species of a Spartan hound that was renowned as scenter during hunting. Pomeroy notes that the names of her close female relatives point to equestrian interests in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eupolia
Eupolia (in ancient Greek: ), was an aristocrat and queen of Sparta. Likely originating from the ranks of the Spartan aristocracy, she married Archidamus II. Eupolia is also the mother of Agesilaus II, a major king of Sparta, Cynisca, the first woman to have won the ancient Olympic Games, and their younger brother Teleutias. After the death of Archidamus II, she remarried a certain Theodorus. Several elements suggest that this marriage was desired, as Theodorus was less wealthy than she was; Agesilaus II intervened to finance the couple. Biography The character, like other female figures of ancient Greece, is difficult to access through sources, which exclusively link her to men. Probably originating from an important aristocratic family of the city, she was the daughter of Melesippidas and the second wife of Archidamus II, with whom she had a certain son, Agesilaus II, and a probable daughter, Cynisca. She was said to have been of small stature, as Archidamus reportedly fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archidamos II
Archidamus II ( ; died 427/6 BC) was a king of Sparta who reigned from approximately 469/8 BC to 427/6 BC. 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 Eupolia. The Ephors objected to this union, arguing that due to Eupolia's short stature, “She will bear us kinglets instead of kings”. He married her nonetheless and was for that fined by the Ephors. To them were born a son, Agesilaus II, and a daughter, Cynisca. Rule Archidamus gained the Spartan throne after his grandfather, Leotychidas, was banished around 469 or 468 BC after being acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallel Lives
* Culture of ancient Greece Culture of ancient Rome Ancient Greek biographical works Ethics literature History books about ancient Rome Cultural depictions of Gaius Marius Cultural depictions of Mark Antony Cultural depictions of Cicero Depictions of Julius Caesar in literature Cultural depictions of Pompey Cultural depictions of Marcus Junius Brutus Cultural depictions of Marcus Licinius Crassus Cultural depictions of Theseus Cultural depictions of Romulus and Remus Cultural depictions of Cato the Younger Cultural depictions of Sulla Cultural depictions of Alexander the Great The ''Parallel Lives'' (, ''Bíoi Parállēloi''; ) is a series of 48 biographies of famous men written in Greek by the Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest Plutarch, probably at the beginning of the second century. The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. While any historically valuable similarities are often forced, these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutarch
Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', a series of biographies of illustrious Greeks and Romans, and ''Moralia'', a collection of essays and speeches. Upon becoming a Roman citizen, he was possibly named Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (). Family Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea, about east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia. His family was long established in the town; his father was named Autobulus and his grandfather was named Lamprias. His brothers, Timon and Lamprias, are frequently mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which speak of Timon in particular in the most affectionate terms. Studies and life Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy in Athens under Ammonius of Athens, Ammonius from AD 66 to 67. He attended th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
