Kleomenes I

Cleomenes is the Latinized version of his name that has come down through time to English. In this website we use the more correct Kleomenes, as this is how his name was spelt in ancient Greece.

Kleomenes was one of the Kings of Sparta in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Although Dorieus was the son of Anaxandrides' first wife and therefore had a better claim to the throne according to tradition, Kleomenes succeeded his father around 520 B.C.

In c519 B.C., Kleomenes was arbitrator in a dispute between Athens and Thebes. It was regarding the status of Plataea, which was Boeotian by geography and ethnicity and whose allegiance was therefor claimed by Thebes, the greatest Boeotian power of that and subsequent times. Kleomenes however, was concerned about Thebes' power, allied Plataea with Athens, as Sparta was then on good terms with them, which was under the rule of a tyrant called Hippias, son of the tyranny's founded Pisistratus.

Around 510 B.C. the Alcmaeonidae family, who had been exiled from Athens, requested that Sparta help them overthrow Hippias, the son of Pisistratus and tyrant of Athens. The Alcmaeonidae, led by Cleisthenes, bribed the oracle at Delphi to tell the Spartans to assist them, and Kleomenes came to their aid. The first attack on Athens was a failure, but Kleomenes personally led the second attack and besieged Hippias and his supporters on the Acropolis. He was unable to force Hippias to surrender, but the Spartans captured some of Hippias' relatives and took them hostage until he agreed to give up the city.

Cleisthenes and Isagoras then fought for control of Athens. Kleomenes came with an armed force to support Isagoras, and they forced Cleisthenes and the Alcmaeonidae family to go into exile for a second time. Kleomenes also abolished the Boule, a council set up by Cleisthenes, and occupied the Acropolis. The citizens of Athens objected to this and forced him out of the city. The following year Kleomenes gathered an army, intending to set up Isagoras as tyrant, and invaded Attica. The Corinthians in his force refused to attack Athens once they learned of Kleomenes' plan, and the invasion failed. Kleomenes realised a democratic Athens threatened Sparta's pre-eminence in Greece, and tried again to gather an army to restore Hippias as tyrant, but Sparta's allies disliked tiranny and refused to help.

Kleomenes was still king when Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletus, came to Sparta to request help for the Ionian Revolt in 499 B.C. Aristagoras was almost able to convince Kleomenes to help, promising an easy conquest of Persia and its riches, but Kleomenes sent him away when he learned how far away Persia really was.

When the Persians invaded Greece after putting down the revolt in 494 B.C., many city-states quickly submitted to them. Among these states was Aegina, so Kleomenes attempted to arrest the major collaborators there. The Aeginetans would not cooperate with him, and the other Spartan king, Demaratus, was also attempting to undermine his efforts. Kleomenes overthrew Demaratus, after first bribing the oracle at Delphi to announce that this was the divine will, and replaced him with Leotychides. The two kings successfully captured the Persian collaborators in Aegina.

Also around 494, Kleomenes invaded Argos, and by fooling the Argive army he killed about 6000 inhabitants. Argos remained a bitter enemy of Sparta for decades after this attack.

Around 490 B.C. Kleomenes was forced to flee Sparta when his plot against Demaratus was discovered, but the Spartans allowed him to return when he began gathering an army in the surrounding territories. However, according to Herodotus he was by this time insane, and the Spartans put him in prison. By the command of his half-brothers, Leonidas I and Kleombrotus, Kleomenes was locked in the stocks 491 B.C.

While in stocks a bloody knife was found near him. Also found were the slices of flesh carved from his legs, hips and belly; despite this his death was ruled a suicide. He was succeeded by Leonidas I, who married his daughter Gorgo.

W.G. Forrest included an interesting paragraph in his book on Sparta that gives evidence for Kleomenes possible paranoid schizophrenia. He states that his inconsistency towards religion (a very ambivalent attitude), his application of inherited principles and his death all are characteristic of this illness.

Forrest also states that Kleomenes' death could have been murder hidden by the Spartans, who used madness as a tool of propaganda. However, Forrest states that he supports the former explanation of insanity.

Another line of thought is that Kleomenes was king of Sparta nearly 25 years before the indedent with Demaratus, and no doubt he used his prestige to influence the priestess at Delphi to denounce Demaratus as legitimate heir. After the machinations at Delphi was discovered and the priestess' bribe was revealed. We can make a leap of faith in thinking that Delphi who we know did punish the priestess, would also deem it necessary that Kleomenes must also be punished, as in the eyes of the gods, a sacrilege like that needed all participants to be punished, but they had no direct was of doing that. And it may be that the Ephors of Sparta took the responsibilities on themselves to have Kleomenes killed on his returned, Leonidas' help would have been needed as well, as he was the future king and they would not have wanted him in charge with a vendetta against them.