Herodotus, The Histories (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Hdt.].
<<Hdt. 5.36.3 Hdt. 5.40.2 (Greek) >>Hdt. 5.44.1

5.38.2 In this way, then, an end was made of tyrants in the cities. After doing away with the tyrants, Aristagoras of Miletus ordered all the peoples to set up governors in each city. Then he went on an embassy in a trireme to Lacedaemon, for it was necessary for him to find some strong ally. note

ch. 39 5.39.1 At Sparta, Anaxandrides the son of Leon, who had been king, was now no longer alive but was dead, and Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides held the royal power. This he had won not by manly merit but by right of birth. Anaxandrides had as his wife his own sister's daughter, and although he was content with her, no children were born to him. 5.39.2 Since this was the case, the Ephors called him to them and said, “Even if you have no interest in caring for yourself, we cannot allow the house of Eurysthenes to perish. Therefore send away the wife that you have, seeing that she bears you no children, and wed another. If you do this, you will please the Spartans.” Anaxandrides, however, said in response that he would do neither of these things and that they were not giving him good advice in bidding him to get rid of his present wife, who was blameless, and to marry another.

ch. 40 5.40.1 Then the Ephors and Elders took counsel, and placed this proposal before Anaxandrides: “Since, as we see, you cling to the wife that you have, carry out our command, and do not hold out against it, bearing in mind that the Spartans will certainly find some other way of dealing with you. 5.40.2 As for the wife that you have, we do not ask that you send her away. Keep providing her with all that you give her now and marry another woman in addition who can give you children.” So they spoke, and Anaxandrides consented. Presently he had two wives and kept two households, a thing which is not at all customary at Sparta.

ch. 41 5.41.1 After no long time the second wife gave birth to Cleomenes. She, then, gave the Spartans an heir to the royal power, and as luck would have it, the first wife, who had been barren before, conceived at that very time. 5.41.2 When the friends of the new wife learned that the other woman was pregnant, they began to make trouble for her. They said that she was making an empty boast, so that she might substitute a child. The Ephors were angry, and when her time drew near, they sat around to watch her in childbirth because of their skepticism. 5.41.3 She gave birth first to Dorieus, then straightway to Leonidas, and right after him to Cleombrotus. Some, however, say that Cleombrotus and Leonidas were twins. As for the later wife, the mother of Cleomenes and the daughter of Prinetadas son of Demarmenus, she bore no more children.

ch. 42 5.42.1 Now Cleomenes, as the story goes, was not in his right mind and really quite mad, while Dorieus was first among all of his peers and fully believed that he would be made king for his manly worth. 5.42.2 Since he was of this opinion, Dorieus was very angry when at Anaxandrides' death the Lacedaemonians followed their custom and made Cleomenes king by right of age. Since he would not tolerate being made subject to Cleomenes, he asked the Spartans for a group of people whom he took away as colonists. He neither inquired of the oracle at Delphi in what land he should establish his settlement, nor did anything else that was customary but set sail in great anger for Libya, with men of Thera to guide him. 5.42.3 When he arrived there, he settled by the Cinyps river in the fairest part of Libya, but in the third year he was driven out by the Macae, the Libyans and the Carchedonians and returned to the Peloponnesus.



Herodotus, The Histories (English) (XML Header) [word count] [lemma count] [Hdt.].
<<Hdt. 5.36.3 Hdt. 5.40.2 (Greek) >>Hdt. 5.44.1

Powered by PhiloLogic