Pausanias (iii.
3, 4) does little more than condense Herodotus's narrative. In spite of
some failures, largely due to Demaratus's jealousy, Cleomenes
strengthened Sparta in the position, won during his father's reign, of
champion and leader of the Hellenic race; it was to him, for example,
that the Ionian cities of Asia Minor first applied for aid in their
revolt against Persia (Herod. v. 49-51).

For the chronology see J. Wells, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_ (1905),
p. 193 ff., who assigns the Argive expedition to the outset of the
reign, whereas nearly all historians have dated it in or about 495
B.C.

CLEOMENES II. was the son of Cleombrotus I., brother and successor of
Agesipolis II. Nothing is recorded of his reign save the fact that it
lasted for nearly sixty-one years (370-309 B.C.).

CLEOMENES III., the son and successor of Leonidas II., reigned about
235-219 B.C. He made a determined attempt to reform the social condition
of Sparta along the lines laid down by Agis IV., whose widow Agiatis he
married; at the same time he aimed at restoring Sparta's hegemony in the
Peloponnese. After twice defeating the forces of the Achaean League in
Arcadia, near Mount Lycaeum and at Leuctra, he strengthened his position
by assassinating four of the ephors, abolishing the ephorate, which had
usurped the supreme power, and banishing some eighty of the leading
oligarchs. The authority of the council was also curtailed, and a new
board of magistrates, the _patronomi_, became the chief officers of
state. He appointed his own brother Eucleidas as his colleague in
succession to the Eurypontid Archidamus, who had been murdered. His
social reforms included a redistribution of land, the remission of
debts, the restoration of the old system of training ([Greek: agoge])
and the admission of picked perioeci into the citizen body. As a general
Cleomenes did much to revive Sparta's old prestige. He defeated the
Achaeans at Dyme, made himself master of Argos, and was eventually
joined by Corinth, Phlius, Epidaurus and other cities. But Aratus, whose
jealousy could not brook to see a Spartan at the head of the Achaean
league called in Antigonus Doson of Macedonia, and Cleomenes, after
conducting successful expeditions to Megalopolis and Argos, was finally
defeated at Sellasia, to the north of Sparta, in 222 or 221 B.C. He took
refuge at Alexandria with Ptolemy Euergetes, but was arrested by his
successor, Ptolemy Philopator, o