LEOTYCHIDES

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 463 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LEO-LOB

LEOTYCHIDES , Spartan king, of the Eurypontid family, was descended from Theopompus through his younger son Anaxandridas (Herod. viii. 131), and in 491 B.C. succeeded Demaratus (q.v.), whose title to the throne he had with Cleomenes' aid successfully challenged. He took part in Cleomenes' second expedition to Aegina, on which ten hostages were seized and handed over to the Athenians for safe custody: for this he narrowly escaped being surrendered to the Aeginetans after Cleomenes' death. In the

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

of 479 we find him in command of the Greek

fleet

FLEET

of no ships, first at Aegina and afterwards at Delos. In August he attacked the Persian position at Mycale on the coast of Asia

Minor

opposite Samos, inflicted a crushing defeat on the land-army, and annihilated the

fleet

FLEET

which was

drawn

DRAWN

up on -the shore. Soon afterwards he sailed home with the Peloponnesians, leaving the Athenians to prosecute the siege of Sestos. In 476 he led an army to Thessaly to punish the Aleuadae of Larisa for the aid they had rendered to the Persians and to strengthen Spartan influence in northern Greece. After a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of successful engagements he accepted a bribe from the enemy to withdraw. For this he was brought to trial at Sparta, and to save his life fled to the temple of

Athena

ATHENA (the Attic form of the Homeric Athene, also called Athenaia, Pallas Athene, Pallas)

Alea at Tegea. Sentence of

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

was passed, his

house

was razed and his grand-
son Archidamus II. ascended the throne (Herod. vi. 65-87,
ix. 90-114; Thucydides i. 89; Pausanias iii. 4. 3. 7. 9-10;
Plutarch, De malignitate Herodoti, 21, p. 859 D; Diodorus xi, 34-37).
According to Diodorus (xi. 48) Leotychides reigned twenty-two, his successor Archidamus

forty

FORTY

-two years. The total duration of the two reigns, sixty-four years, we know to be correct, for Leotychides came to the throne in 491 and Archidamus (q.v.) died in 427. On this basis, then, Leotychides's

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

would fall in 469 and the Thessalian expedition in that or the preceding year (so E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertunis, iii. 287). But Diodorus is not consistent with himself ; he attributes (xi. 48) Leotychides's death to the year 476475 and he records (xii. 35) Archidamus's death in 434433, though he introduces him in the following years at the head of the Peloponnesian army (xii. 42, 47, 52). Further, he says expressly
that Leotychides EreaeGTnaev &peas Er~7 e1Kooa Kai 56o, i.e. he lived
twenty-two years after his accession. The twenty-two years, then, may include the time which elapsed between his exile and his death. In that case Leotychides died in 469, and 476475 may be the year in which his reign, though not his life, ended. This date seems, from what we know of the political situation in general, to be more probable than the later one for the Thessalian campaign.
G. Busolt, Griech. Geschichte, iii. 83, note; J. B. Bury, History of Greece, p. 326; G. Grote, History of Greece, new edition 1888, iv. 349, note; also abridged edition 1907, p. 273, note 3. Beloch's view (Griech. Geschichte, i. 455, note 2) that the expedition took place in 476, the trial and flight in 469, is not generally accepted. (M. N. T.)

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