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[German version] (Σθενελαίδας; Sthenelaḯdas). Spartiate, one of the éphoroi and the leader of the apella , who in 432 BC, with reference to the complaints of Spartan sýmmachoi (Peloponnesian League) and despite the warnings of the king Archidamus [1] II, called for an active containment of the power of Athens. Unusually, he held the vote not by acclamation but by calling for those for and against to stand in separate places, and was thus able to carry through the resolution that Athens had broken the 446 BC peace treaty (…

[German version] (Ἐπιτάδευς; Epitádeus). An ephor from Sparta; according to Plutarch (Agis 5), out of anger against his son, he passed a law making it permissible to give away or pass on house and   kleros at will, no doubt with the aim of increasing the number of Spartiates. Plutarch dates this  rhetra vaguely to 404 BC, but cites this law as the reason for significant differences in wealth amongst the Spartiates in c. 250 BC. Aristotle (Pol. 1270a 15-34) seems to see the deplorable state of affairs in Sparta's cosmos in the mid-4th cent. BC as a consequence of this…

[German version] (Ἀγχίμολος; Anchímolos). In Aristot. Ath. Pol. 19,5 and schol. Aristoph. Lys. 1153 (Anchimolios in Hdt. 5,63,2) high-ranking Spartan, who in 511 BC was supposed to expel the  Peisistratids from Athens and landed with hoplites at Phalerum. In expectation of the invasion  Hippias had, however, called upon 1,000 Thessalian horsemen for help and prepared the landing-point for their attack. A. fell, the rest of his hoplites fled. Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum)

[German version] (Ξενάρης; Xenárēs). Spartiate, probably identical to the son of Cnidis who, as harmost ( Harmostaí [2]) in Heraclea [1] Trachinia in the winter of 420/19 BC, fell in battle against the Aenianes, the Dolopes and other tribes in that territory (Thuc. 5,51,2). As éphoros in 421/20 BC, X. and his colleague in office Cleobulus [3] rejected the alliance between Sparta and Athens concluded after the Peace of Nicias [1]. After unofficial negotiations with the Boeotians and the Corinthians, the two managed to conclude a special a…

[German version] (Λαβώτας; Labṓtas). Legendary Spartan king of the house of the Agiads. During his (fictional) reign (traditionally 1025/4-989/8 BC), Sparta is said to have fought against Argus for the first time (Apollod. FGrH 244 F 62; Hdt. 1,65; 7,204; Plut. Mor. 224c; Paus. 3,2,3f.). Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum)

[German version] Spartan olympic champion; died in 403 BC during a skirmish in Piraeus against resistance fighters who freed Athens from the rule of the ‘Thirty’ ( Triakonta) (Xen. Hell. 2,4,33). Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum)

(Ζευξίδαμος/ Zeuxídamos). [German version] [1] King of Sparta, c. 700 BC Was considered a Spartan king of the house of the Eurypontids and a son of Archidamus, is supposed to have been the successor to his grandfather Theopompus [1] towards the end of the 8th cent. BC, but is not mentioned in Hdt. 8,131, appearing only in Pausanias' list of Spartan kings (3,7,6; 4,15,3) into which he was probably inserted only in the 4th cent. BC [1. 97; 2. 344 f.]. Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum) [German version] [2] Son of Leotychidas [2] II Eurypontid, son of the Spartan king Leotychidas [2] II (…

[German version] (Τήλεκλος; Tḗleklos). King of Sparta, who according to legend played an important role a generation before the beginning of the first Messenian War. As a person he is probably historical; he is supposed to have conquered Amyclae, Pharis and Geronthrae (Paus. 3,2,6) and settled several places in Dentheliatis (Denthalii) with Laconic colonists (Str. 8,4,4). His killing by Messenians allegedly led to the first of the Messenian Wars (Paus. 4,4,2-3). Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum) Bibliography M. Meier, Aristokraten und Damoden, 1998, 85-87, 102-106.

[German version] (προξενία/ proxenía, πρόξενος/ próxenos). The term proxenía denotes the function of a 'public guest' ( próxenos), i.e. one citizen's representing one Greek community in another 'state'. It is a specifically Greek institution, traceable to the protection of foreigners (Xenoi; Aliens, the position of [III]) and first attested in a late 7th cent. BC resolution of the 'people' ( dâmos) of Corfu  (ML 4). In the 5th cent. BC, proxenía moreover became an Athenian instrument of control in the Delian League, where próxenoi represented Athenian interests, reporting if n…

[German version] (Ῥαμφίας; Rhamphías). Spartiate, father of Clearchus [2] (Thuc. 8,8,2). Member of the last Spartan delegation before the outbreak of the Peloponnesisan War (431 BC) that in Athens signaled a willingness for peace if the Athenians returned "independence to the Hellens" (Thuc. 1,139,3). R. was supposed to reinforce the army of Brasidas in the summer of 422 but in Thessaly he received news of his death and returned to Sparta. Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum)

(πρυτάνεις/ prytáneis, sg. πρύτανις/ prýtanis, 'principal, first'). [German version] I. Individual chief magistrates Designation for holders of the highest power or official authority. The original meaning 'ruler' is given expression in the epic name Prýtanis (Hom. Il. 5,678), in Zeus' appellation in Aeschylus (Prom. 169), as well as in the verb form applied to the Roman emperor and empress ( prytaneúein; Phil. in Flaccum 126; Procop. Arc. 17,27). In the course of the institutionalization of the organs of the polis and during the 'Great' Greek Colonizati…

(Χιλωνίς; Chilōnís). [German version] [1] Legendary wife of king Theopompus Legendary figure, said to be the wife of king  Theopompus, whom she is supposed to have freed from imprisonment by Messenians (Polyaenus, Strat. 8,34; Quint. Inst. 2,17,20; Plut. Lycurgus 7,2; Mor. 779e). Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum) [German version] [2] Wife of Cleonymus, 3rd cent. BC Wife of  Cleonymus, son of Cleomenes II; she committed adultery with Acrotatus, later to be king; after the death of Cleonymus, who had left Sparta because of her, and joined Pyrrhus, she apparently married Acrotatus (Syll.3 …

[German version] (Πασιππίδας; Pasippídas). Spartiate and naval commander in the eastern Aegaean in 410/409 BC probably in the role of naúarchos; he was charged with conspiring in Thasos to stage an uprising against a group favouring Sparta and the harmost Eteonicus. He fled, but as early as 409 was sent as a legate to Persia (Xen. Hell. 1,1,32; 1,3,13). Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum)

[German version] (Σωφάνης/ Sōphánēs). Athenian from Decelea, son of Eutychides (Hdt. 6,92,3; 9,73,1). In 490 BC after the battle of Marathon he refused to honour Miltiades [2] with a wreath (Plut. Cimon 8,1), since the victory was understood to be a success of the dêmos as a whole [1. 193]. S. distinguished himself by particular bravery in the Athenians' war with Aegina in 488/7 (Hdt. 6,92; 9,75; Paus. 1,29,5) and in the battle of Plataeae in 479 (Hdt. 9,73-75; Plut. Cato maior 29,2). He fell in 465/4 as a stratēgós and one of the commanders of the colonists who advanced from Ennea…

[German version] (Ἱππίτας; Hippítas). Confidant of the Spartan king Cleomenes III, whom he accompanied to Alexandria after the battle of Sellasia, where he had himself killed willingly after the latter's failed uprising against Ptolemy IV in 219 BC (Pol. 5,37,8; Plut. Cleomenes 37,6-13). Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum)

[German version] (Κλεαρίδας; Klearídas). Spartan, son of Cleonymus. Appointed by  Brasidas in 423 BC as commander at Amphipolis, C. proved himself after Brasidas' death in 422. After the peace of  Nicias he did not surrender the polis entrusted to him to the Athenians so its inhabitants would not be exposed to retaliation (Thuc. 5,21; 34). Unimpressed by the instructions of the leading committees in Sparta he instigated considerable new tensions between Sparta and Athens.  Peloponnesian War Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum)

[German version] (Ἀποικία; apoikía). Settlement of a group of colonists or their descendants outside the territory of a particular mother city ( Metropolis); the latter having sent out a proportion of its citizens as ‘emigrants’ (ἄποικοι, ápoikoi) to found a ‘colony’, or even encouraged the citizens of other poleis to take part in a new foundation. The leader of the undertaking was usually an oikist nominated by the mother city. Especially during the great period of ‘Greek colonization’ of c. 750-550/500 BC, many new communities arose, often being autonomous poleis which could be r…

[German version] (Βρασίδας; Brasídas). Son of the respected Spartiate Tellis, who was one of those who took the oath sealing the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC (Thuc. 2,25; 5,19; 24).B. distinguished himself right at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War when he freed the Messenian coastal city of Methone which was surrounded by Athenians. That was probably the reason for his appointment in 431/30 as eponymous ephor (Diod. Sic. 12,43,2) and military ‘adviser’ at a relatively young age. In 429 he was adviser to admiral  Cnemus in the so-called second sea battle of Naupactus and…

[German version] (Ἀστύοχος; Astýochos). Spartan nauarch in 412/11 BC. In the summer of 412 his attempt to gain Lesbos failed (Thuc. 8,22f.); his operations between Lesbos, Chios, Erythrae and Clazomenae were luckless (8,31-33). Dissatisfied with his administration, Sparta sent ‘advisors’ with extraordinary powers to his headquarters in Milet in the winter of 412/11 (Thuc. 8,39,1f.). After advances as far as Cnidus and Rhodes he signed the third Spartan-Persian contract in the spring of 411, in whic…

[German version] (Ἐλευθερολάκωνες; Eleutherolákōnes). League of Laconian coastal settlements; as former perioikoi settlements, they were placed under the protection of the Achaean Confederacy following the defeat of Nabis by the Romans in 195 BC. After the failure of the Achaean uprising in 146 BC, they were permitted to unite in the koinòn tôn Lakedaimoníōn (κοινὸν τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων) (Liv. 35,13,2; 38,31,2) [2. 51]. In 21 BC, Augustus reorganized the league [1. 60], which was thenceforth known as koinòn tôn Eleutherolakṓnōn (Str. 8,366; Paus. 3,21,6f.; IG V 1 1161; 116…