95S ' 
G R E 
rtonian £^'arr!fon, But In the midlT: of his fucccfs, he 
%vas recalled to the defence of liis kingdom againlt 
Alexander, the young king of Epirus, who had entered 
Macedon, and committed great depredations : but am¬ 
bition ftill led him to purfue new conquefts. After em¬ 
ploying much time in the attempt, lie at length made 
himfelf mafter of the city of Corinth, which was again 
furprifed and taken from him. He died at the age of 
eighty years, thirty-four of which he had been king of 
Macedon. Demetrius fucceeded his father Antigonus 
in the year before Chrift 243. The principal tranfac- 
tions of his reign were intended to maintain an interell 
in the Grecian dates, not by pofTefling the dominion 
himfelf, but by fupportin^ the feveral tyrants who had 
ufurped it. He reigned only fix years, and was fuc¬ 
ceeded by his kinfman Antigonus. 
About tliis time the republic of Achaia, which had 
lain for a long time dormant, began to make a very con- 
fpicuous figure, and feemed to aim at nothing Icfs than 
the fovereignty of all Greece. This ftate was of high 
antiquity, and confifted of twelve towns, which had 
formed a noted confederacy, called the Ackaan League .— 
See the article Ach^eans, vol. i. p. 66. The repub^ 
lie of vEtolia was, at that time, fecond in power to 
Achaia, and formed on the fame plan. In confequence 
of the influx of wealth and diffipation, Lacedtemon 
had by this time exchanged poverty and hardy difei- 
pline for opulence and voluptuous manners. Agis, the 
Spartan king, endeavoured to reftore the ancient fim- 
plicity, to enforce the fumptuary laws, to cancel all 
debts, and to make a new divilion of lands. The peo¬ 
ple in general reliflied the propofals ; but the few in 
whofe hands ihc wealth of Sparta centered, oppofed 
them ; and Agis was at length punifiied with death, on 
pretence of attempting a revolution in the government. 
Such was the fituation of affairs when Cleomenes mount¬ 
ed the Spartan throne ; a prince who poiTefled an ardent 
paflion for glory, united with great temperance and fim- 
plicity of manners. In the beginning of his reign he 
was under the necefllty of exerting himfelf to fupport 
the tottering power of the Bate. Domeftic diftrefs had 
caufed an almolt univerfal defpondency throughout 
Laconia, when Cleomenes, afluated no lefs by his natu¬ 
ral difpofition, than by the reprefentations of the ^to- 
lians, proceeded, in the year before Chrifi; 242, to an 
open rupture with the Achaean ffates. 
The Spartan king attacked and took Tegea, Manti- 
naea, and Orchomenes, cities in Arcadia. He then 
inarched his army againfl; a caftle in the diftrifl of Me¬ 
galopolis, which commanded the entrance of Laconia. 
Immediately after thefe arts of hoftility, the ffates of 
Achaia declared war againfl Sparta. Cleomenes took 
the field with his troops, which were not numerous, 
but infpired with the greatefl ardour for military enter- 
prizes. The Achteans marched againft him with twenty 
thoufand infantry and a thoufand horfe, under the com¬ 
mand of Ariflomachus. Cleomenes, with not more 
than five thoufand troops, offered battle to the enemy. 
Aratus, being intimidated by. the bravery of this pro¬ 
ceeding, would not permit the general to hazard an en¬ 
gagement. In confequence therefore of the retreat of 
the Achaeans, Aratus fuffered the reproaches of his 
own troops and the raillery of the enemy ; and the 
Eleans, who had never been the fleady friends of 
Achaia, openly declared againfl that republic. Cleo¬ 
menes afterwards defeated the Achteans in a fecond en¬ 
counter ; but Aratus, taking advantage even of his de¬ 
feat, turned his arms immediately againfl Mantinsea, 
and, before the eneipy were aware of his defigns, made 
himfelf mafler of that city, which he garrifoned with a 
body of troops. 
. Cleomenes would now gladly have come to terms 
with Aratus ; but that politician was immoveable in his 
defigns of deftroying the Spartan authority. As he 
4 
E 0 E. 
found, how’ever, that the Achaeans could not cffefl this 
of themfelves, he entertained the projert of calling.in 
the afiifiance of Antigonus, king of Macedon, to ac- 
complifh his intentions; a meafure held in almofl uni¬ 
verfal odium by the Greeks. Aratus, however, con¬ 
trived to furmount this difficulty ; and Antigonus with 
great pleafure, in the year before Chrifi 227, embraced 
the opportunity of interfering in the affairs of Greece. 
A treaty was agreed on by Aratus and Antigonus, from 
the conditions of which it was evident that the liberties 
of Achaia were no more, and that Antigonus was to be 
the real fovereign of that country. This tranfailion 
roiifed the indignation of the whole Peloponnefians, who 
looked to Cleomenes as the only proteclor of their li¬ 
berties. In the mean time Antigonus began his march 
at the head of twenty thoufand foot and fourteen hun¬ 
dred horfe, and arriving at the iflhmus, encamped over 
againfl Cleomenes, who had fortified with a ditch and 
rampart the whole fpace between Corinth and the Onian 
hills. Antigonus, not thinking it advifable to force a 
paflage, prepared to decamp and tranfport his troops 
by fea to Sicyon. At this critical moment, the Argives 
having revolted from the Spartans, and joined the ene¬ 
my, Cleomenes was apprehenfive that the Achaeans 
would attack him in the rear, while the Macedonians 
affaulted his front, and therefore retired with precipita¬ 
tion, firfl to Argos, and then to Mantinaea.^ 
The Achaeans now recovered their fuperiority in Pe- 
loponnefus ; and Corinth, Tegaea, Manrinaea, Horaea, 
and Telphafla, with many other places, immediately 
fubmitted to the combined arms ot Macedon and 
Achaia. Antigonus having fent his troops into Mace¬ 
donia during the winter, Cleomenes attacked and took, 
the city of Megalopolis, which was plundered by the 
foldiers, and every thing of value in it demolifhed. He 
alfo laid wafle the Argian territories. Antigonus was 
at that time in Argos with a few mercenary foldiers ; 
but though the enemy infulted him and abufed the con¬ 
federates, he could not be prevailed on to engage Cleo¬ 
menes.. In the beginning of the fummer, however, he 
advanced into Laconia with an army of twenty-eight 
thoufand foot, and twelve hundred horfe. Cleomenes 
had previoufly fortified all the pafTes and avenues into 
that country with ramparts, and fent detachments of 
troops to defend them. He alfo marched himfelf with 
a body of twenty thoufand foot, and encamped at a pals 
called Sellafia, formed by two hills, the Eva and Olym¬ 
pus. Cleomenes having thrown up an entrenchment at 
the foot of thefe mountains, ported the auxiliaries oa 
the eminence of Eva, under the command of his bro¬ 
ther Euclidas, while he himfelf, with the reft of the 
army, took porteflion of Olympus. Between thofe two 
hills ran the river Oenus, along the banks of which the 
road to Sparta extended. 
When Antigonus arrived and viewed the fituation of 
the ground, with the mode of defence adopted by the 
enemy, he was fenfible that no part could be attacked 
with any probability of fuccefs. He therefore encamped 
at a fmall diflance, on the banks of the Gorgulus, which 
covered part of liis army. Cleomenes, reduced to the 
greatefl diftrefs for want of provifions, was under the 
neceffity of throwing open his entrenchments, and of 
engaging the enemy without further delay. The vic¬ 
tory remained for a long time doubtful : but at length 
Cleomenes, receiving intelligence that the forces under 
his brother were defeated upon the hill, and that his 
cavalry began to give way on the plain, founded a re¬ 
treat. The overthrow iheji became general ; great 
numbers of the Lacedaemonians were cut in pieces, and 
thofe who found means to efcape fled from the field of 
battle in the greatefl confufion. Cleomenes, with a few 
horfe, retreated to Sparta, and from thence fled to 
Egypt, where, not being able to brook the indignities 
olJered him by the rainiflers of Ptolemy Philopater, he 
poifoned 
