Areus I

Areus I
Tetradrachm of Areus, minted c. 265 BC. The first Spartan coin.[1]
King of Sparta
Reign	309 – 265 BC
Predecessor	Cleomenes II
Successor	Acrotatus II

Areus I, also spelled Areos (Ancient Greek: Ἀρεύς Α΄) (c. 312–265 BC), was Agiad King of Sparta from 309 to 265 BC, who died in battle near Corinth during the Chremonidean War. He was the grandson of Cleomenes II and was succeeded by his son Acrotatus II.

The first part of Areus' reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and regent Cleonymus, a skilled general who campaigned in Greece and abroad at the head of mercenary armies. His first record in the scanty ancient sources took place in 281 BC, when he led an alliance of Greek city-states to challenge Macedonian control over Greece, but was rapidly defeated by the Aitolian League (allied with Macedonia). In 272 BC, Cleonymus defected to Pyrrhus of Epirus, and encouraged him to launch an invasion of the Peloponnese. Areus nevertheless repelled the attack and pursued Pyrrhus until his death in Argos. Thanks to the prestige of this victory, Areus founded another alliance in 267 BC with Athens and Egypt against the Macedonian king Antigonos Gonatas. The following Chremonidean War was however a disaster for the Greeks; Areus died in battle near Corinth in 265 BC.

Although the military activity of Areus shows that Sparta had temporarily regained some of its former glory, the main interest of his reign is the introduction of Hellenistic features in the traditionally austere Sparta. For the first time in centuries, prominent artists are found in Sparta, and were likely attracted by Areus' sponsoring. Areus is also most famously known as the king who first minted coins in Sparta, whereas money was hitherto banned. His posture as a Hellenistic king brought him considerable international attention, including from the Jews, with whom Areus claimed a common ancestry.

Family background and regency[]

Areus was the son of Acrotatus, and the grandson of Cleomenes II (r. 370–309), king of Sparta of the Agiad dynasty, one of the two royal families at Sparta (the other being the Eurypontides). As Cleomenes' reign was very long, his son Aratus died before him, and Areus succeeded him instead in about 309.^[2] Karl Julius Beloch has suggested that Areus was born shortly after his father had come back from a mission in Sicily in 312.^[3][4]

Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century AD, as well as Plutarch, tell that since Areus was still a young child in 309, Cleomenes' second son Cleonymus contested the claim of his nephew, but the Gerousia—the supreme assembly at Sparta—still upheld the traditional linear succession of the Spartan kingship, and ruled in favour of Areus.^[5][6][7] However, this story may be a retrojection from Pausanias in light of the later opposition between Areus and Cleonymus.^[8] Moreover, succession disputes were normally settled before the Apella—the citizen assembly at Sparta—not the Gerousia, as in 400 when Agesilaus II was chosen king against the initial claim of his nephew Leotychidas.^[9] Cleonymus was then made the regent of Areus, thus indicating that he did not challenge the oligarchic order.

Cleonymus retained a prominent place during the first half of Areus' reign, commanding mercenary armies with official support, such as in 303, when Sparta sent him to help Tarentum against Lucanians and the Roman Republic.^[10] Pausanias further tells that Cleonymus was given the command of the army as a compensation for his denied claim on the throne,^[11] but this is probably another invention as there is nothing unusual for the regent to receive such command. For example, in 479, Pausanias won the Battle of Plataea as regent to his younger cousin Pleistarchus.^[12]

Nothing is known of Areus until 281, principally because of the loss of several ancient sources, but also because Sparta was now only a regional power of lesser interest for ancient historians, who did not record its activity.^[13]

Reign[]

Fifth Sacred War (281–280 BC)[]

The Fifth Sacred War (281–280 BC), with the hypothetical allies of Sparta, and Areus' plan to take Corinth.

In 281–280, the Wars of the Diadochi—the former generals of Alexander the Great—came to an end with the deaths of Lysimachus, king of Macedonia, and Seleucus, founder of the Seleucid Empire. In Greece, many cities immediately attempted to recover their independence from the new Macedonian king Antigonos Gonatas, and Sparta is found leading allies for the first time since the defeat of Agis III at Megalopolis in 331.^[14] Sparta did not frontally attack Macedonia though, targeting instead its weaker ally, the Aitolian League, which had taken control of the Panhellenic sanctuary of Delphi a few years before. Since the Second Sacred War in the 440s, Sparta had assumed the role of Delphi's protector and Areus denounced the profanation of sacred soil by the Aitolians.^[15] The attack on the Aitolian League may have been determined by the impossibility of passing through the Isthmus of Corinth, which was heavily garrisoned by Macedonia; Areus' plan was possibly to win a victory against the Aitolians, then attack Corinth from both the north and south.^[16] This war is sometimes called the by modern scholars, named after the other Sacred Wars for the control of Delphi.^[17][18]

Areus was chosen by several other states to lead the alliance against the Aitolians, perhaps because the campaigns of Cleonymus made a good impression, and Sparta was seen as producing capable commanders again.^[19] Modern historians however disagree on the extent of this alliance as most of this war is known from Justin, a Roman historian of the 2nd century AD, whose account is very short.^[20][21] The only certain allies of Sparta were the four Achaian cities of Patrai, Tritaia, Dyme and Pharai (which soon after founded the Achaian League), and most of the Arcadians (without Megalopolis), because Areus would not have been able to cross the Peloponnese to Aitolia without their support.^[22] Other possible allies were Megara, Boeotia, Argos, Epidauros, Elis, Athens and Western Crete, but the state of evidence is very thin.^{[23][24][25][26][27]}

Areus then crossed the Corinthian Gulf and landed in the Kirrhan plain, in the southwest of Delphi. Despite posturing as the liberator of Delphi's sacred land, Areus let his soldiers disperse to plunder the area; as a result, the Aitolians inflicted a resounding defeat on Areus' scattered army, although the figures cited by Justin are improbable: he says that 500 Aitolians killed 9000 Spartans and allies.^[28][29] In fact, Areus might have commanded 3,000 men at most.^[22] The Spartans likely buried their dead on the spot, either in a polyandrion near Delphi,^[29] or in a place called Lakonikon in the Kirrhan plain.^[30][31] The new alliance collapsed following Areus' defeat, likely because his military leadership was by now discredited.^[32] Another possibility is that as Antigonos Gonatas was far away campaigning in Asia, the Peloponnesians did not feel threatened enough to stay in the alliance.^[33]

The defection of Cleonymus (275 BC)[]

After the defeat of Areus, military operations were headed by Cleonymus again.^[34] He is recorded in 279 campaigning against Messenia, which prevented them from sending aid to the Aitolians, who were facing an invasion of Gallic tribes.^[35] Sparta recovered the border area of Denthaliates, which had been lost after the Battle of Leuctra in 371.^[36] Between 279 and 276, Cleonymus took the Macedonian garrison of Troezen in the Argolis and is also mentioned in Crete, acting as peacemaker between the cities of Polyrrennia and Phalasarna.^[37][38] This policy of intervening into Cretan affairs was continued by Areus, as Polyrrennia later built a statue in his honour.^[39] The island produced a lot of mercenaries, on which Sparta relied for its operations. Crete was furthermore one of the few places where Sparta could extend its influence without angering any of the big three Hellenistic kingdoms (Macedonian, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid).^[40]

Cleonymus was therefore given all the military commands between 279 and 275, probably because he was seen as more capable than Areus following the king's defeat against the Aitolians, a situation that must have concerned Areus.^[41] In addition, Plutarch tells that Cleonymus married a much younger woman named Chilonis,^[6][42] who was the daughter of a Leotychidas, a name commonly found in the Eurypontid dynasty, the other royal family of Sparta. As daughters could inherit property in Sparta, Chilonis was a particularly attractive bride, because of her royal descent and wealth. It shows that Cleonymus tried to get closer to the other king, Archidamus IV, and therefore enhance his status within Sparta. However, Areus sent his son Acrotatus to seduce Chilonis in order to thwart the political ambitions of his uncle Cleonymus.^[43][44] In 275, angered Clenoymus left Sparta and went into exile in Epirus, as he had been familiar with its king Pyhrrus since his command in Italy in 303.^[45][29]

War against Pyrrhus (272 BC)[]

In 275 Pyrrhus had just come back from Magna Graecia after an unsuccessful expedition against the Roman Republic and Carthage. Plutarch and Pausanias tell that Cleonymus fled to Pyrrhus in order to request his help to become king of Sparta, but this is unlikely, as Pyrrhus' campaign against Sparta only dates from 272.^[46] Pyrrhus' first confrontation was instead against Antigonos Gonatas, as he coveted the Macedonian throne, during which he gave Cleonymus the important command of the Epirote phalanx. Clenoymus notably captured Aigai, the historical capital of Macedonia in 274.^[47]

In 272, Pyrrhus assembled a large army of 25,000 foot soldiers, 2,000 cavalry, and 24 elephants, and moved to the Peloponnese. His plan was to take the whole region in order to further weaken Gonatas, meanwhile giving Sparta to his ally Cleonymus.^[48] The Aitolian League, which had abandoned Antigonos, let him pass through its territory.^[49] He likewise received the support of the Achaian League on the other side of the Corinthian Gulf and then settled in Megalopolis, another new ally, where he received embassies from multiple states. He disguised his real intentions to the Spartans, by assuring them that his only ambition was to remove Gonatas' influence from the Peloponnese, and to bring his young sons to Sparta so they could be trained in the Agoge.^[50] The Spartans were therefore completely caught off-guard when Pyrrhus attacked them, as Areus was campaigning in Crete, supporting Gortyn in a war against Knossos.^[51][49][52]

Pyrrhus set siege to Sparta. The men and women of Sparta dug a trench around the city to defend themselves against Pyrrhus' forces. After a day of fighting, the Spartans managed to hold back Pyrrhus from the large moat around the city. By the end of the second day of fighting, Areus had returned from Crete to Sparta with 2,000 soldiers, along with aid from Corinth which had just arrived.

Chremonidean War (267–265 BC)[]

The victory against Pyrrhus increased Areus' prestige on the international stage, which turned Sparta into a regional power again. Areus became one of the leaders of a new coalition with Athens directed against Macedonia.^[53] As both Athens and Sparta had been allied with Egypt before concluding an alliance between them, it seems that the initiative came from Ptolemy II, who was an enemy of Gonatas and had tried to get a foothold in mainland Greece.^[54][55][56] Dated from 268 to 267, the text of the Athenian decree sealing the alliance with Sparta is still extent, and is the major source of these otherwise poorly documented events.^[57][58] The Athenian leader behind this alliance was Chremonides—after whom the subsequent war is named—who compared the alliance with Sparta and against Macedonia to the Greek coalition against the Persian emperor Xerxes in 480.^[59] Athens had no other ally, but Sparta is described as bringing its own allies into the coalition.^[60] Elis, Achaia, and five Arcadian cities (Tegea, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Phigalia, and Kaphyae) are cited; Corinth, Argos, and Megalopolis remained on the side of Gonatas, Messenia was neutral.^[61] This set of Spartan allies has been described as a revival of the Peloponnesian League,^[62] which used to be the instrument of Sparta's supremacy over southern Greece until its disbandment in 338, although this time Sparta did not dominate its allies. Areus' alliance looked very similar to the alliance set by king Agis III in 331 before the Battle of Megalopolis, showing the enduring support enjoyed by Sparta in the Peloponnese.^[63][64] Areus also counted several allies in Crete: Polyrrenia, Phalasarna, Gortyn, Itanos, Olous, Aptera, Rhithymna, and Lyttos, while Knossos might have joined later.^{[65][66][67][68]} Ptolemy brought his massive fleet to the alliance, as well as military subsidies, which enabled the allies to enlist mercenaries. Areus' army indeed counted numerous mercenaries from his Cretan allies, and from the reopening of the large mercenary market of Tainaron, located on the middle prong of the Peloponnese.^[63]

The Chremonidean War started in 267–266, but its development is obscure as it is one of the least known wars of Greek history, with only short mentions by Justin and Pausanias.^[53][69] Despite the large number of participants, the anti-Macedonian alliance suffered from the isolation of its individual members, while Gonatas' territories formed one block.^[70] Furthermore, Gonatas still had control of the Athenian harbour of Piraeus, which equated to a permanent siege of Athens.^[71][72][73] Ptolemy helped Athens by sending his admiral Patroklos, but his forces were not sufficient to dislodge Gonatas from Piraeus, although he built several forts on the shore of Attica.^[74][75][76] The outcome of the war therefore depended on Areus, who apparently passed the Isthmus of Corinth unhindered during the first year of the war, but then could not join with Patroklos because Antigonos had built a wall in Attica to block him.^[77][78][79] He returned home once his supplies ran out.^[80] Gonatas then garrisoned the wall on the Isthmus to prevent Areus from passing through, which he tried to do one or two times (in the years 266–265 and/or 265–264).^[81] In about 265, a battle took place near Corinth between the bulk of Gonatas' army and that of Areus, in which the latter was killed, and apparently a lot of his troops as well, because Sparta is not found attacking the isthmus again.^[82] Gonatas had not been able to concentrate his troops against Areus the previous year because of a short-lived revolt of his Gallic mercenaries in Megara.^[83][84] Despite the death of Areus, Athens held out until its surrender in 263–262, thus concluding Gonatas' victory.^[85]

An Hellenistic king[]

Obol of Areus, minted c. 265 BC. The obverse features the head of Herakles, while there are a club and the stars of the Dioscuri on the reverse. All symbols allude to the ancestry of the Spartan kings.^[86]

Areus' rule as king shows that he tried to emulate the Hellenistic monarchs who by now ruled the Greek world at the expense of the ancestral Spartan constitution written by Lycurgus. While Sparta was a diarchy, with two kings of equal powers, Areus completely eclipsed the kings of the Eurypontid dynasty. Nothing is known of Areus' co-king Archidamus IV after his defeat against Demetrios Poliorketes in 294, and Archidamus' son Eudamidas II is the most obscure of all the Spartan kings; the dates of their reign are highly conjectural.^[87] The Eurypontids were also denied any military command; even when Pyrrhus attacked Sparta while Areus was away, the defense of the city was entrusted to Areus' young son Aratus.^[88] In the engraved Athenian decree forging the alliance with Sparta before the Chremonidean War, Areus is mentioned by name five times, while his co-king is absent, therefore showing that for the Athenians, Areus was the sole ruler of Sparta.^[89][90]

The most striking feature of this new era is the introduction of coinage in Sparta. The use of coins had been allegedly banned since the time of Lycurgus because money was seen as a distraction to military service. Areus' first coins were tetradrachms of the Athenian standard, featuring the head of young Herakles and Zeus seated on a throne, which at the time formed the common imagery on the coins of Alexander the Great and his successors.^[91]

Imitating the Ptolemies and Seleucids, Areus furthermore initiated a royal patronage of the arts. c.270 a Spartan comic actor named Nicon won a prize at the Soteria festival in Delphi, which would have been unthinkable in the Classical era, when theatre was held great contempt by the Spartans.^[92] Paul Cartledge thinks the first theatre of Sparta was precisely built during his reign.^[93]

Jewish ancestry[]

In Book 12 of his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus Flavius brings a letter written by King Areus of the Lacedaemonians, to the Jewish High Priest (Cohen Gadol), Onias (Chonyo), in the Judean capital of Jerusalem:

Areus, King of the Lacedemonians, to Onias, sendeth greeting.

We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Jews and the Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is but just therefore that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concerns as you please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours. Demoteles, who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us. This letter is four-square; and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon in his claws.^[94]

This letter is also referenced in 1 Maccabees 12:20.

It is not clear where King Areus got the impression that the Lacedaemonians were descendants of the patriarch Abraham, although it is known that Abraham had children by Keturah who dispersed "to the East". It does not appear that the high priest responded to this attempted alliance with Sparta.

References[]

Bibliography[]

Ancient sources[]

• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica.
• Justin, Historia Philippicae et Totius Mundi Origines et Terrae Situs.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece.
• Plutarch, Moralia, Parallel Lives.

Modern sources[]

• Karl Julius Beloch, Grechische Geschichte (2nd edition), Berlin and Leipzig, De Gruyter, 1927.
• Paul Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0715630327
• —— & Antony Spawforth, Hellenistic and Roman Sparta, A tale of two cities, London and New York, Routledge, 2002 (originally published in 1989). ISBN 0-415-26277-1
• Jacqueline Christien, "Areus et le concept de symmachie au IIIe siècle. Les réalités hellénistiques", Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, 2016/Supplement 16, pp. 161–175.
• Paulette Ghiron-Bistagne, Recherches sur les acteurs dans la Grèce antique, Paris, les Belles Lettres, 1976.
• John D. Grainger, The League of the Aitolians, Leiden, Brill, 1999. ISBN 9004109110
• Denver Graninger, Cult and Koinon in Hellenistic Thessaly, Leiden, Brill, 2011. ISBN 9789004207103
• Christian Habicht, Athens from Alexander to Antony, Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 9780674051119
• Oliver D. Hoover, Handbook of Coins of the Peloponnesos: Achaia, Phleiasia, Sikyonia, Elis, Triphylia, Messenia, Lakonia, Argolis, and Arkadia, Sixth to First Centuries BC [The Handbook of Greek Coinage Series, Volume 5], Lancaster/London, Classical Numismatic Group, 2011. ISBN 0980238773
• James L. O’Neil, "A re-examination of the Chremonidean War", in Paul McKechnie & Philippe Guillaume (editors), Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his World, Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2008, pp. 65–89. ISBN 978 90 04 17089 6
• Ioanna Kralli, The Hellenistic Peloponnese: Interstate Relations, A Narrative and Analytic History, from the Fourth Century to 146 BC, Swansea, The Classical Press of Wales, 2017. ISBN 978-1-910589-60-1
• Bernard Legras & Jacqueline Christien, Dialogues d'histoire ancienne Supplément N° 11, Sparte hellénistique, IVe-IIIe siècles avant notre ère, Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2014. ISBN 978-2-84867-493-3
• E. I. McQueen, "The Eurypontid House in Hellenistic Sparta", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 39, H. 2 (1990), pp. 163–181.
• Gabriele Marasco, Sparta agli inizi dell'età ellenistica, il regno di Areo I (309/8-265/4 a.C.), Firenze, 1980.
• Olga Palagia, "Art and Royalty in Sparta of the 3rd Century B.C.", Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 2006), pp. 205–217.
• Denis Rousset, Le territoire de Delphes et la terre d'Apollon, Athens, Ecole française d'Athènes, 2002. ISBN 9782869581630
• Françoise Ruzé & Jacqueline Christien, Sparte, Histoire, mythe, géographie, Malakoff, Armand Colin, 2017. ISBN 220061814X
• Henri Van Effenterre, La Crète et le monde grec de Platon à Polybe, Paris, 1948.
• R. F. Willetts, Aristocratic society in Ancient Crete, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1955.

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