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Agis III was the eldest son of Archidamus
III, and the 21st Eurypontid king of Sparta.
Life:
Agis III succeeded his father on 2 August 338, on the very day of the battle of
Chaeronea. His reign was short, but eventful, coming as it did during a low
period for Sparta, after it had lost significant borderlands to Philip II of
Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. Agis III received the financial and
military support of Autophradates, Achaemenid satrap of Lydia, against
Alexander the Great. In 333, Agis went with a single trireme to the Persian
commanders in the Aegean, Pharnabazus and Autophradates, to request money and
armaments for carrying on hostile operations against Alexander the Great in
Greece.
The satraps agreed to support Agis; however, they could only spare him 30
talents and 10 ships. The news of the battle of Issus in 333, however, put a
check upon their plans. He sent his brother Agesilaus with instructions to sail
with them to Crete, that he might secure that island for the Spartan interest.
In this he seems in a great measure to have succeeded.
War against Macedon:
Two years after this Spartan success (331), the Greek states which were in
league against Alexander seized the opportunity that had risen from the
military disaster of the Macedonian general Zopyrion's campaign against the
Scythians, combined with the Thracian revolt, to declare war against Macedonia.
Agis was invested with the command and with his Spartan troops, and a body of
8000 Greek mercenaries who had been present at the battle of Issus, gained a
decisive victory in the Peloponnese over a Macedonian army under Coragus.
Having been joined by the other forces of the league (Elis, Achaea and
Arcadia), Agis laid siege to Megalopolis. The city held out until Antipater
came to its relief. In the subsequent Battle of Megalopolis, Agis' army fought
a larger Macedonian force but was finally defeated, Agis himself died trying to
gain his surviving men time to withdraw to safety.
On the manner of his death, Diodorus comments:
Agis III died in 331 in the Battle of Megalopolis. He had fought gloriously and
fell with many frontal wounds. As he was being carried by his soldiers back to
Sparta, he found himself surrounded by the enemy. Despairing of his own life,
he ordered the rest to make their escape with all speed and to save themselves
for the service of their country, but he himself armed and rising to his knees
defended himself, killed some of the enemy and was himself slain by a javelin
cast. He had reigned nine years.
Agis was succeeded by his brother Eudamidas I.
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