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Sparta
Sparta , city of ancient Greece, capital of Laconia, on the Eurotas (Evrótas) River in the Peloponnesus.
Spartan Society
Sparta's government was headed by two hereditary kings furnished by two families; they were titular leaders in battle and in religion. Some of these kings were ab...
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Callias
Callias d. c.370 BC, Athenian leader, one of the generals of the Peloponnesian War. In his old age Callias was one of the ambassadors sent to Sparta with Callistratus to negotiate a peace treaty in 371 BC The treaty was ineffective, and friction between Epaminondas of Thebes and Agesilaus II of...
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Menelaus
Menelaus , in Greek mythology, king of Sparta, son of Atreus . He was the husband of Helen , father of Hermione , and younger brother of Agamemnon . When Paris, prince of Troy, abducted Helen, Menelaus asked the other Greek kings to join him in an expedition against Troy, beginning the Trojan W...
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Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II , c.444-360 BC, king of Sparta. After the death of Agis I (398? BC), he was brought to power by Lysander, whom he promptly ignored. After the Peloponnesian War the Greek cities in Asia Minor had not been ceded to Persia despite Sparta's promises, and in 396 BC Agesilaus went there to op...
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Lysander
Lysander , d. 395 BC, Spartan naval commander and statesman. Toward the end of the Peloponnesian War he was made admiral and built up the Spartan fleet so that it defeated (407 BC) the Athenians off Notium. Later he was responsible for the capture (405 BC) of the Athenian fleet at the mouth of the...
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Olynthus
Olynthus , ancient city of Greece, on the peninsula of Chalcidice (now Khalkidhikí), NE of Potidaea. A league of Chalcidic cities grew up in the late 5th cent. BC, and Olynthus, as the head of this Chalcidian League, vigorously opposed the threats of Athens and Sparta. Athens captured the cit...
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Cleon
Cleon , d. 422 BC, Athenian political leader. The son of a tanner, he had little education; nevertheless, he was a gifted speaker. He began his political career with a series of relentless attacks on Pericles . He was antagonistic to Sparta and successfully opposed (425 BC) Sparta's peace proposals...
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Epaminondas
Epaminondas , d. 362 BC, Greek general of Thebes. He was a pupil of Lysias the Pythagorean, but his early life is otherwise obscure. As the Theban delegate to the peace conference of 371 BC he refused to surrender his claim to represent all Boeotia. Agesilaus II of Sparta therefore excluded Thebes f...
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ephors
ephors [Gr.,=overseers], in ancient Greece, magistrates in several Dorian states. In Sparta they comprised an executive, legislative, and judicial board of five Spartan citizens. This annually elected board functioned from at least the 8th cent. BC until it was abolished (c.227 BC) by Cleomenes III...
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Alcibiades
Alcibiades , c.450-404 BC, Athenian statesman and general. Of the family of Alcmaeonidae, he was a ward of Pericles and was for many years a devoted attendant of Socrates. He turned to politics after the Peace of Nicias (421 BC), and during the Peloponnesian War he was the leader in agitating agai...
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