EPISODE 33 CLEOMENEAN SPARTA
Cleomenes the first sat upon the Agiad throne of Sparta from around 520 to 490 BCE. Although his downfall just preceded the advent of the Greco-Persian wars, his reign was nonetheless pivotal to ultimate Greek victory in those conflicts.
Despite the various levels of government in Sparta designed to curtail individual regel authority, Cleomenes practically dictated Spartan policy for the entirety of his rule. Through sheer dynamism, ruthlessness and often varying degrees of impiety his story is more or less the story of Sparta at the end of 6th and beginning of the 5th centuries.
He had his enemies within the city, namely his co-king Demaratus who headed up the anti-Cleomenean party. He also had his enemies without. Regardless of these, and also his many unsuccessful endeavours, Cleomenes ruled with an iron fist and brooked little to no dissent.
His life is a compelling tale that had everything from claims of illegitimacy, episodes of betrayal, sacrilegious intentions, and all the while the spectre of the Achaemenid Persian empire and possible Hellenic subservience loomed in the background.
His end was sticky, and fittingly rife with controversy. However, he left Sparta and more broadly Greece, in a position to not only take on the most deadly threat Hellenic civilisation had yet seen, but also to win glory in the face of it.
I hope you all enjoy and take good care.
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