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Agis IV(c. 265 BC – 241), the elder son
of Eudamidas II, was the 25th king of the Eurypontid dynasty of Sparta.
Posterity has reckoned him an idealistic but impractical monarch.
Succession:
Agis succeeded his father as king in 245, at around the age of 20, and reigned
four years. The interest of his reign, however, derived from the domestic
crisis of Sparta at the time of his succession.[2] According to sources, the
influx of wealth and luxury, with their concomitant vices, led to the Spartan
way of life degenerating from the ancient simplicity and severity of manners,
and an extreme inequality in the distribution of wealth. Fewer than 700
families of the genuine Spartan stock (i.e. full citizens or homoioi) remained,
and in consequence of the innovation introduced by Epitadeus, who procured a
repeal of the law which secured to every Spartan head of a family an equal
portion of land, the landed property had passed into the hands of very few
individuals, so that fewer than 100 Spartan families held estates, while the
poor were greatly burdened with debt.[1]
Reforms:
Agis, who from his earliest youth had shown his attachment to the ancient
discipline, undertook to reform these abuses, and re-establish the institutions
of Lycurgus. To this end he proposed the abolition of all debts and a new
partition of the lands. Another part of his plan was to give landed estates to
the Perioikoi capable of bearing the arms, and to the Metic women, "who
had a beautiful appearance and were in prime of their life". His schemes
were warmly seconded by the poorer classes and the young men, and as
strenuously opposed by the wealthy. He succeeded, however, in gaining over
three very influential persons: his uncle Agesilaus (a man of large property,
but who, being deeply involved in debt, hoped to profit by the innovations of
Agis), Lysander (a descendant of the victor of Aegospotami) and Mandrocleides.
Having arranged for Lysander to be elected one of the six ephors, he laid his
plans before the senate. He proposed that the Spartan territory should be
divided into two portions, one to consist of 4500 equal lots, to be divided
amongst the Spartans, whose ranks were to be filled up by the admission of the
most respectable of the Perioikoi and resident aliens; the other to contain
15,000 equal lots, to be divided amongst the remaining Perioikoi.[1] The senate
could not at first come to a decision on the matter. Lysander, therefore,
convened the assembly of the people, to whom Agis submitted his measure, and
offered to make the first sacrifice, by giving up his own lands and money,
telling them that his mother, Agesistrate, and grandmother, who were both
possessed of great wealth, with all his relations and friends, would follow his
example. His generosity drew the applause of the multitude. The opposite party,
however, headed by Leonidas II, Agis' Agiad co-monarch, who had formed his
habits at the luxurious court of Seleucus II Callinicus, got the senate to
reject the measure, though only by one vote. Agis decided to rid himself of
Leonidas. Lysander accordingly accused him of having violated the laws by
marrying a stranger and living in a foreign land. Leonidas was deposed, and was
succeeded by his son-in-law, Cleombrotus, who cooperated with Agis.
Loss of support:
Soon afterwards, however, Lysander's term of office expired, and the ephors of
the following year were opposed to Agis, and looked to restore Leonidas. They
brought an accusation against Lysander and Mandrocleides, of attempting to
violate the laws. Alarmed at the turn events were taking, these two convinced
the king to take the unprecedented step of deposing the ephors by force and to
appoint others in their stead.[2] Leonidas, who had returned to the city, fled
again, to Tegea, protected from Agis by Agesilaus, who persuaded Agis and
Lysander that the most effective way to secure the consent of the wealthy to
the distribution of their lands, would be to begin by cancelling the debts.
Accordingly, the debts were cancelled, and all bonds, registers, and securities
were piled up in the market place and burned.[1] Agesilaus, having achieved his
goal, contrived various pretexts for delaying the division of the lands.
Meanwhile, the Achaean League applied to Sparta for assistance against the
Aetolian League. Agis was accordingly sent at the head of an army. The cautious
movements of the Achaean leader, Aratus of Sicyon, gave Agis no opportunity to
distinguish himself in battle, but he gained great credit by the excellent
discipline he preserved among his troops. During his absence Agesilaus so
angered the poorer classes by the continued postponement of the division of the
lands, that they made no opposition when the enemies of Agis openly brought
back Leonidas II and set him on the throne. Agis and Cleombrotus fled for
sanctuary, the former to the temple of Athena Chalcioecus in Sparta, the latter
to the temple of Poseidon (or Apollo) at Taenarum.
Execution and legacy:
Cleombrotus was allowed to go into exile; he escaped death only because of the
influence of his wife, Leonidas' daughter Chilonis. While Agis was campaigning
against the Aetolian Alliance, the oligarchs succeeded in restoring Leonidas to
power and canceling the reforms that Agis had implemented. In 241 Agis was
betrayed by some friends and thrown into prison. Leonidas immediately came with
a band of mercenaries and secured the prison, while the ephors entered it and
went through the mockery of a trial. When asked if he did not repent of what he
had attempted, Agis replied that he should never repent of so great a design,
even in the face of death. He was accused of seeking tyranny, and quickly
executed by strangulation, the ephors fearing a rescue, as a great crowd of
people had assembled around the prison gates. Agis, observing that one of his
executioners was moved to tears, said, "Weep not for me: suffering, as I
do, unjustly, I am in a happier case than my murderers." His mother
Agesistrate and his grandmother Archidameia were strangled on his body. Agis
was the first king of Sparta to have been put to death by the ephors.
Pausanias, who, however, is undoubtedly wrong, says that he fell in battle.[3]
His widow Agiatis was forcibly married by Leonidas to his son Cleomenes III,
but nevertheless the two developed for each other a mutual affection and
esteem.[4][5] Considered by many writers too weak and good-natured to cope with
the problems which confronted him, Agis was characterized by a sincerity of
purpose and a blend of youthful modesty with royal dignity, which render him
perhaps the most attractive figure in the whole of Spartan history. His life
and death caught the romantic imagination of several ancient writers. He is the
subject of a lost biography by Phylarchus, which was apparently very heavily
relied upon by Plutarch when he wrote his own biography of the king. Agis was
succeeded by his son Eudamidas III.
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