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Plutarch · c. AD 46-after 119

Life of Cleomenes

Κλεομένης
Ancient Sources / Plutarch / Life of Cleomenes

Plutarch's Life of Cleomenes tells of Cleomenes, the Agiad king of Sparta who revived the reforms of Agis, abolished the ephorate and fought the Achaeans under Aratus and then the Macedonian king Antigonus. It covers his early wars against Aratus, his killing of the ephors, his defeat by Antigonus at Sellasia and his death in Egypt. It is paired with the Life of Agis, and the two Spartan Lives together are set beside the Lives of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

Read from the start
Text
Greek original with English translation, 15 passages, about 13200 words in English.
Translator
Bernadotte Perrin (1921)
Edition
Bernadotte Perrin (ed. and trans.), Plutarch's Lives, vol. 10, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1921 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus)
Cite as
Plutarch, Life of Cleomenes 1.1 (by chapter, section)

Contents · 15 passages

  1. 1.1–3.5Cleomenes, Agiatis and the Stoic Sphaerus; he becomes king944 words
  2. 4.1–5.3Cleomenes against Aratus; the murder of Archidamus614 words
  3. 6.1–9.4Leuctra and Lydiadas; Cleomenes kills the ephors; the temple of Fear1083 words
  4. 10.1–11.3Cleomenes abolishes the ephorate and redistributes the land821 words
  5. 12.1–13.5The theatre in Megalopolitan territory; the simple life of a Spartan king751 words
  6. 14.1–16.6Mantineia, Dymae and the Achaeans; Aratus calls in Antigonus896 words
  7. 17.1–19.4Cleomenes takes Argos and Corinth992 words
  8. 20.1–21.4Antigonus at the Oneian hills; the revolt of Argos665 words
  9. 22.1–7The death of Agiatis; Cratesicleia goes to Egypt as a hostage552 words
  10. 23.1–26.4Cleomenes captures and destroys Megalopolis1474 words
  11. 27.1–28.5The battle of Sellasia: Antigonus defeats Cleomenes739 words
  12. 29.1–31.6Cleomenes leaves Sparta; Antigonus' death; Therycion's counsel925 words
  13. 32.1–34.3Cleomenes at the court of Ptolemy in Egypt837 words
  14. 35.1–37.7Cleomenes' imprisonment and his rising in Alexandria1245 words
  15. 38.1–39.3The deaths of Cratesicleia and the wife of Panteus; the serpent over Cleomenes690 words

More by Plutarch

English translation by Bernadotte Perrin (1921). Original text: Bernadotte Perrin (ed. and trans.), Plutarch's Lives, vol. 10, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, 1921 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.