Agis succeeded his father
Archidamus II in 427 BC, and reigned a little more than 26 years. In the summer of 426 BC, he led an army of
Peloponnesians and their allies as far as the
isthmus, with the intention of invading
Attica; but they were deterred from advancing farther by a succession of earthquakes. In the spring of the following year he led an army into Attica, but ceased his advance fifteen days after he had entered Attica. In 419 BC, the
Argives, at the instigation of
Alcibiades, attacked
Epidaurus; and Agis with a large force from
Lacedaemon set out and marched to the frontier city of Leuctra. No one,
Thucydides tells us, knew the purpose of this expedition. It was probably to make a diversion in favour of Epidaurus. At Leuctra the unfavourable outcome of various sacrifices deterred Agis from proceeding. He therefore led his troops back, and sent around a notice to the allies to be ready for an expedition at the end of the sacred month of the
Carneia festival. When the Argives repeated their attack on Epidaurus, the Spartans again marched to the frontier town,
Caryae, and again turned back, supposedly on account of the aspect of the victims. In the middle of the following summer of 418 BC the Epidaurians, being still hard-pressed by the Argives, the Lacedaemonians with their whole force and some allies, under the command of Agis, invaded
Argolis. By a skilful manoeuvre he succeeded in intercepting the Argives, and posted his army advantageously between them and the city. But just as the battle was about to begin, the Argive generals
Thrasyllus and Alciphron met with Agis and prevailed on him to conclude a truce for four months. Agis, without disclosing his motives, pulled his army back. On his return he was severely censured in Sparta for having thus thrown away the opportunity of reducing Argos, especially as the Argives had seized the opportunity afforded by his return and taken
Orchomenus. It was proposed to pull down his house, and inflict on him a fine of 100,000
drachmas. But on his earnest entreaty they contented themselves with appointing a council of war, consisting of 10 Spartans, who needed to be present before he could lead an army out of the city. Shortly afterwards they received intelligence from
Tegea, that, if not promptly reinforced, the party favourable to Sparta in that city would be compelled to surrender. The Spartans immediately sent their whole force under the command of Agis. He restored stability at Tegea, and then marched to
Mantineia. By turning the waters to flood the lands of Mantineia, he succeeded in drawing the army of the Mantineans and Athenians down to the level ground. A battle ensued, in which the Spartans were victorious. The
Battle of Mantinea was reckoned one of the most important battles ever fought between the Grecian states. In 417 BC, when the news reached Sparta of the counter-revolution at Argos, in which the
oligarchical and Spartan faction was overthrown, an army was sent there under Agis. He was unable to restore the defeated party, but he destroyed the long walls which the Argives had begun to extend down to the sea, and took
Hysiae. In the spring of 413 BC, Agis entered
Attica with a Peloponnesian army, and fortified
Decelea; and in the winter of the same year, after the news of the disastrous fate of the
Sicilian Expedition had reached Greece, he marched northwards to levy contributions on the allies of Sparta, for the purpose of constructing a fleet. While at Decelea he acted largely independent of the Spartan government, and received embassies from the disaffected allies of the Athenians, as from the
Boeotians and other allies of Sparta. He seems to have remained at Decelea until the end of the
Peloponnesian War. In 411 BC, during the administration of
the Four Hundred, he made an unsuccessful attempt on
Athens itself. Afterwards the focus of the Peloponnesian War shifted to Asia Minor, and
Lysander assumed a greater role in the siege of Athens. After victory was secured, Agis voted to charge his
Agiad co-monarch
Pausanias with treason, but Pausanias was acquitted. In 401 BC, the command of
the war against the notoriously disloyal
Elis was entrusted to Agis, who in the third year compelled the Eleans to sue for peace, acknowledge the freedom of their
Perioeci (
Triphylians and others), and allow Spartans to take part in the
Olympic Games and sacrifices. He was buried in Sparta, with unparalleled solemnity and pomp. However, others claim that, judging from the sources, Leotychides was a man at the time of Agis's death, and Alcibiades as his father was a later replacement for a now unknown lover. ==References==