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Archidamus II was a Eurypontid king of Sparta
who reigned from approximately 476 to 427. His father was Zeuxidamus (called
Cyniscos by many Spartans). Zeuxidamus married and had a son, Archidamus.
However, Zeuxidamus died before his father, Leotychidas. After the death of his
son and heir, Leotychidas married Eurydame, the sister of Menius and daughter
of Diactorides. While they had no male offspring, they did have a daughter,
Lampito, whom Leotychidas gave in marriage to his grandson Archidamus. They had
a son Agis II. Archidamus' later second marriage was to Eupoleia. To them were
born a son, Agesilaus II, and a daughter, Cynisca.
Rule:
Archidamus ascended the Spartan throne after his grandfather, Leotychidas, was
banished around 476 after being accused of bribery. Archidamus was one of the
kings of Sparta in the years preceding the Peloponnesian War. His coolness and presence of
mind are said to have saved the Spartan state from destruction on the occasion
of the great earthquake of 464, but this story must be regarded as at least
doubtful. In 446 he reached agreement with
Pericles on the Thirty
Years' Peace between Athens and Sparta, bringing an end to the
First
Peloponnesian War, which had been raging since c. 460. (with the possible
exception of a 5-years peace established in 451). During the negotiations that
preceded the Peloponnesian War, he did his best to prevent, or at least to
postpone, the inevitable struggle, but was overruled by the war party. He
invaded Attica at the head of the Peloponnesian forces in the summers of 431,
430 and 428, and in 429 conducted operations against Plataea. He died probably
in 427, certainly before the summer of 426, and was succeeded on the Spartan
throne by his son, Agis II .
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