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Dorieus (died c.510 was a Spartan prince of
the Agiad dynasty who is mentioned several times in Herodotus. The second son
of Anaxandridas II, he was the younger half-brother of Cleomenes I and the
elder full brother of both Leonidas I and Cleombrotus. He tried to found a
colony in Libya but failed. He tried again to establish a colony in western
Sicily, but was killed by the Carthaginians. ContentsFamily According to
Herodotus, Anaxandridas II of Sparta had married his niece and was devoted to
her. For a long time, the marriage was childless and Sparta's Council of the
Ephors, fearing that the line of Eurysthenes would expire, asked Anaxandridas
to divorce his wife and remarry. Anaxandridas refused and the Ephors then
proposed that he take a second wife, even though bigamy was hitherto unknown in
Sparta. Anaxandridas agreed and, shortly after his second marriage, both of his
wives became pregnant. Cleomenes, who was the only child of the second wife,
was the first-born. Dorieus was born to the first wife a few months later and
she then had Leonidas and
Cleombrotus, who may
have been twins, in the following year. When Anaxandridas died, the Council
named Cleomenes as his successor because he was the eldest son. Dorieus
challenged the decision but was over-ruled even though, Herodotus says, he was
the finest young man of his generation whereas Cleomenes was not right in his
head and was on the verge of madness.
Colonies:
Dorieus asked the Council to select a body of men who would help him to found a
settlement elsewhere. Herodotus says he went off in a fit of temper to Libya
and made the grave mistake of not consulting the Delphic Oracle beforehand. A
colony was established at Cinyps in the Tripolitania region of modern-day
Libya. Three years later, the Greeks were driven out by a Libyan tribe called
the Macae who were allied to the Carthaginians. Dorieus returned to Sparta but
soon heard about land in western Sicily which, he was advised, rightly belonged
to the Heracleidae, from whom his family claimed descent. This time, Dorieus
did consult the Oracle and was told the land was his for the taking so, having
re-assembled his followers, he set sail for Sicily. It happened that war was
about to break out between the Magna Graecia cities of Croton and Sybaris in
the south of Italy. Croton asked Dorieus for help. He agreed and was involved
in the attack by Croton on Sybaris. He then progressed with project to
establish a Greek colony at Eryx in Sicily. However, not longer after
establishing the colony named Herakleia, Dorieus and most of his followers were
defeated and killed by the Egestaeans with the support of the Carthaginians.
Bury and Meiggs assert that Dorieus was killed c. 510. The remnant of the
colonists then went on the southern coast of Sicily and captured Herakleia
Minoa. Herodotus points out that if Dorieus had remained in Sparta and had
endured living under the kingship of Cleomenes, he would have eventually
succeeded him as king of Sparta, as Cleomenes had no sons. Instead it was
Dorieus' younger brother Leonidas who succeeded Cleomenes as king and assumed
the mantle of an heroic figure by his deeds in the Persian Wars.
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