During the first years of his reign, Cleomenes adopted prudent diplomacy, rejecting foreign expeditions when solicited, possibly due to the threat of a
helot revolt that a defeat in a war abroad would cause.
Encounter at Plataea (519 BC) The first known deed of Cleomenes as king is his dealing with the city of
Plataea, located between
Thebes and
Athens. In 519,
Herodotus states that Cleomenes happened to be in the vicinity of Plataea, when the Plataeans requested an alliance with Sparta, which he rejected. Instead he advised them to ally themselves with Athens, because he wanted to stir a border conflict between Thebes and Athens, two of the most powerful
poleis of central Greece. The Plataeans probably wished to avoid their forced incorporation into the
Boeotian League, which was being built by Thebes at this time.
G. E. M. de Ste. Croix and
Paul Cartledge call this move "a master-stroke" of diplomacy, Herodotus does not explain why Cleomenes was near Plataea at that time. A number of theories have been advanced to explain it. Perhaps he was marching on Thebes to support an invasion of his ally, Lattamyas of
Thessaly, but as the Thebans had defeated the Thessalians at the Battle of Ceressus before he arrived, he took the opportunity to try and undermine them without engaging his forces. Another possibility is that he was trying to convince either
Megara or Thebes to join the Peloponnesian League, or he was arbitrating between Megara and Athens over the island of
Salamis. The date of this event has been challenged by some modern scholars, who have often suggested 509 rather than 519, as it would better fit with Cleomenes's latter involvement in Athenian politics, but the majority view remains in favour of 519.
Foreign embassies (c.517–c.513 BC) In c.516, Cleomenes received an embassy from Maeandrius of
Samos asking him for help to expel the tyrant
Syloson, a puppet of the
Persian Empire, which was at the time was subjugating the city-states of the eastern
Aegean Sea. However, with the support of the
ephors, Cleomenes refused and they expelled Maeandrius from the Peloponnese. Perhaps Cleomenes did not want to commit the Peloponnesian League to long-distance wars, especially against the Persian Empire. Maeandrius's intentions may have also played a role, as he probably coveted the
tyranny of Samos. In about 513,
Darius the Great invaded
Scythia, which prompted the latter to send an embassy to Sparta in order to request an alliance against the Persians. Herodotus says the Scythians offered to go from the river
Phasis to
Media, while the Spartans would march east from
Ephesus. This story is however suspect, as the Scythian ambassadors later resurfaced to explain the death of Cleomenes, and the proposed alliance looks like a Pan-Hellenic fantasy of Herodotus'. An alternative date of after 494 BC has been proposed, because the mention of Ephesus by Herodotus implies that the city was not under Persian control, which only happened after the
Ionian Revolt of 499 – 494.
Interventions into Athenian politics (511–501 BC) Sparta's War against Hippias (c.511–510 BC) In the 500s, Cleomenes meddled four times in Athenian politics, which ultimately led to the creation of democracy in Athens. The first Spartan expedition, headed by
Anchimolus, took place in c.511, but was defeated by the tyrant
Hippias, son of
Pisistratus, thanks to the help he received from his
Thessalian allies, who had sent a force of 1000 cavalrymen. In 510, Sparta sent a bigger force commanded by Cleomenes, who went to
Attica by land. The Spartans defeated the
Thessalian mercenaries of Hippias, then besieged Hippias in the
Acropolis, where he had sought shelter with his supporters. The tyrant surrendered after the Spartans captured his sons by chance; he then went into exile in the Persian Empire. The war against Hippias was consistent with the policy of removing tyrants followed by Sparta during the late 6th century. Moreover, the tyrants of Athens were known for their Persian sympathies (called
Medism), which Cleomenes started to vigorously fight throughout Greece at this time. Hippias was also a friend of
Argos, another one of Sparta's enemies. Embarrassed by owing the fall of the tyranny to the intervention of a Spartan king, the Athenians later promoted instead the story of
Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who had murdered Hippias's brother
Hipparchus in 514. This theory remains controversial as several other opinions place the Megara arbitration in c.519, at the same time as the Plataea incident.
Athenian Revolution (507 BC) In Athens, a struggle took place between aristocratic factions headed by
Cleisthenes and
Isagoras for the control of the city. The pro-Spartan
oligarch Isagoras became
archon in 508/507, but Cleisthenes promised democratic reforms in order to gain greater support among the citizenry and expand his power-base. Now on the losing side, Isagoras called for help from his friend Cleomenes, whom it was rumoured was also in love with Isagoras's wife. Cleomenes obtained the exile of Cleisthenes through diplomacy, but Isagoras still felt unsafe, and requested intervention by his Spartan friend. Cleomenes personally came to Athens with a small bodyguard, possibly thinking that his prestige would be enough to change the political course of the city. However, the boule rejected the dissolution order; this act of resistance triggered a large revolt among the Athenians. Taken by surprise, Cleomenes and Isagoras sought shelter on the Acropolis, where they were besieged. While stuck on the Acropolis, Cleomenes tried to enter the
Old Temple of
Athena Polias, but the priestess barred him access, saying that the temple was forbidden to
Dorians—the ethnic group of the Spartans (Athenians were
Ionians). Cleomenes likely wanted to show his strength by making a sacrifice in a forbidden place, which was a typical behaviour for conquerors and notably Spartan commanders. Even though the priestess of Athena was the most important cleric in Athens, Herodotus chose not to give her name in order to make her speak as the goddess resisting the Spartan invasion. Cleomenes famously replied: "Woman, I am not Dorian but Achaean". A descendant of Chilon, Cleomenes therefore attempted to present himself as less alien to the Athenians by claiming an Achaean identity. His reply to the priestess also conveys a second meaning, as it can be translated by "I am not Dorieus", the name of his rival half-brother. In the third day of the siege, Cleomenes realised that his position was hopeless, and negotiated a surrender: the Spartans were allowed to leave with Isagoras, but the supporters of the latter were massacred.
Boeotian War (506 BC) Revengeful after the humiliation he suffered, Cleomenes set up a large coalition against Athens, gathering the Peloponnesian League, Boeotia, and
Chalcis (on the island of
Euboea), which pushed Athens to seek an alliance with Persia—another reason for Cleomenes's intervention. The goal was again to install Isagoras as tyrant. However, once the Peloponnesian army arrived at
Eleusis in Western Attica, the Corinthians refused to continue and returned home.
Demaratus, the Eurypontid king, similarly disagreed with Cleomenes and took the rest of the allies with him back to the Peloponnese, thus effectively calling off the invasion. As a result, the Athenians easily defeated the Boeotians, then Chalkis. Several modern historians find this change of mood unconvincing and have offered alternative theories. Lawrence Tritle has suggested instead that after Cleomenes retreated from the Acropolis, he captured Eleusis and left Isagoras in charge there until his return with the full army. The following year, the Spartans and their allies discovered at Eleusis that Athens had retaken this city; without a secure base in Attica, the whole expedition appeared hopeless and was cancelled.
Simon Hornblower thinks that the Peloponnesians only learned about the alliance between Athens and Persia once they reached Eleusis, and they did not want to go to war with the latter. While near Eleusis, Cleomenes may have destroyed some trees in the sacred area of the city, probably for military reasons. This failed invasion had several consequences. Firstly, a law was passed in Sparta forbidding the two kings to go on campaign at the same time, in order to avoid another dangerous disagreement on the field. Secondly, the organisation of the Peloponnesian League was considerably amended. Sparta had to concede its allies the creation of a League congress, in which the allies could vote on declaring war and making peace. Hippias then left Greece for good, perhaps to the island of
Chios. Although some scholars have assumed this reversal of Sparta's foreign policy was Cleomenes's doing, it seems that he played no part in this, because Herodotus does not mention him at all. Ste.Croix instead writes that Sparta's support of Hippias came from Cleomenes's opponents in the city, who considered the new regime in Athens to be more hostile to Sparta than Hippias.
The Ionian Revolt and its Aftermath In 499,
Aristagoras, the tyrant of
Miletus, came to Sparta to request help from King Cleomenes with the
Ionian Revolt against
Persia. Aristagoras nearly persuaded Cleomenes to help, promising an easy conquest of Persia and its riches, but Cleomenes sent him away when he learned about the long distance to the heart of Persia. Aristagoras attempted to bribe him by offering silver. Cleomenes declined, so Aristagoras began offering him more and more. According to
Herodotus, once Aristagoras offered Cleomenes 50 talents of silver, Cleomenes's young daughter
Gorgo warned him not to trust a man who threatened to corrupt him.
War against Argos (494 BC) In 494, a fifty years' peace that had been signed between Sparta and Argos expired, leading to a new war. This peace had been possibly concluded after a Spartan victory for the control the
Thyreatis, the border area between the two cities, won by Anaxandridas II. Cleomenes's motivations may have been either to weaken a rival in the Peloponnese, or to punish Argos for its
Medism. The campaign only involved Sparta, not the Peloponnesian League, and perhaps only
Spartian citizens, without the
perioeci who usually fought alongside them in battle. They were at least 2,000 Spartan soldiers, with an equal number of
helots. The ships landed on the other side of the
Argolic Gulf, at
Tiryns and
Nauplia, two subject cities of Argos. A large pitched battle took place at Sepeia, near Tiryns, where the entire Argive army was wiped out, perhaps up to 6,000 men. Ste.Croix thinks the battle was "the greatest slaughter of hoplites [...] in any war between two Greek states". The survivors fled to a sacred ground nearby, but Cleomenes put the grove on fire and killed the Argives. He then dismissed most of his army but a thousand soldiers and moved to
Mycenae, in the northeast of Argos. On his way, he stopped at the
Heraion of Argos, the great temple of
Hera, where he committed another sacrilege by flogging the priest who tried to prevent him from performing a sacrifice in the temple. In both cases, Cleomenes had ordered his accompanying helots to commit the sacrileges, probably to shield the Spartiates from the religious consequences. Cleomenes remained in the vicinity of Argos in the aftermath of the battle in order to create two independent city-states out of Tiryns and Mycenae, thus cutting Argos's access to its best harbour at Nauplia. Despite his crushing victory against Argos, Cleomenes did not try to capture the city, possibly because its defences were too strong, or he failed to install a friendly government. On his return to Sparta, Cleomenes was accused of bribery before the ephors for having spared Argos after the battle. A trial took place before the
Gerousia or the
ecclesia. Cleomenes explained that after having taken the sacred grove of Argos, the oracle's forecast regarding the capture of Argos had been fulfilled—since they shared the same name, and was therefore acquitted.
Deposition of Demaratus (491 BC) When the Persians invaded
Greece after putting down the Ionian revolt in 493, many
city-states quickly submitted to them fearing a loss of trade. Among these states was
Aegina. So in 491, Cleomenes attempted to arrest the major collaborators there. The citizens of Aegina would not cooperate with him and the Eurypontid Spartan king,
Demaratus attempted to undermine his efforts. Cleomenes overthrew Demaratus, after first bribing the oracle at Delphi to announce that this was the divine will, and replaced him with
Leotychidas. == Exile and death ==