Marcus Niebuhr Tod

“ The son and successor of Agesilaus II., reigned 360–338 B.C. During his father’s later years he proved himself a brave and capable officer. In 371 he led the relief force which was sent to aid the survivors of the battle of Leuctra. Four years later he captured Caryae, ravaged the territory of the Parrhasii and defeated the Arcadians, Argives and Messenians in the “tearless battle,” so called because the victory did not cost the Spartans a single life. In 364, however, he sustained a severe reverse in attempting to relieve a besieged Spartan garrison at Cromnus in south-western Arcadia. ”

“ Aristodemus offered his own daughter, and when her lover, hoping to save her life, declared that she was no longer a maiden, he slew her with his own hand to prove the assertion false. In the thirteenth year of the war, Euphaes, the Messenian king, died. As he left no children, popular election was resorted to, and Aristodemus was chosen as his successor, though the national soothsayers objected to him as the murderer of his daughter. ”

“ In 294 B.C. he was defeated at Mantineia by Demetrius Poliorcetes, who invaded Laconia, gained a second victory close to Sparta, and was on the point of taking the city itself when he was called away by the news of the successes of Lysimachus and Ptolemy in Asia Minor and Cyprus.
Plut. Agis, 3, Demetrius, 35; Pausanias, i. 13. 6, vii. 8. 5; Niese, Gesch. der griech. u. ”

“ G. F. Schömann, Antiquities of Greece: The State (Eng. trans., 1880) , pp. 234 ff.; De ecclesiis Lacedaemoniorum (Griefswald, 1836) [=Opusc. academ. i. pp. 87 ff.] ; C. O. Müller, History and Antiquities of the Doric Race (Eng. trans., 2nd ed. 1839) , book iii. ”

“ For further details see Pausanias iv.; Polyaenus ii. 31; G. Grote, History of Greece, pt. ii. chap. vii.; M. Duncker, History of Greece, Eng. trans., book iv. chap, viii.; A. Holm, History of Greece, Eng. trans., vol. i. chap. ”