Agis II
Agis II commanded the army that won the Peloponnesian War on land and spent thirty years sharing a throne with kings who wanted the opposite of what he wanted. He came to the Eurypontid throne in 427, in the fifth year of the war, and was the Spartan commander for most of what followed. He won at Mantinea in 418, the largest land battle of the war, restoring a Spartan reputation that had been damaged by a surrender at Sphacteria three years earlier - the first time a Spartan force had ever laid down its arms. The victory brought the Peloponnese back under Spartan control and ended the coalition that had been assembled against it. His most consequential decision was to fortify Decelea, a village within sight of Athens, and hold it permanently from 413. It was advice given by an exiled Athenian, and it worked: the Athenians lost the use of their own countryside, twenty thousand slaves ran away to the Spartan lines, the silver mines stopped, and the city had to be supplied by sea from the Black Sea for the rest of the war. Combined with the destruction of the Sicilian expedition and Persian money for a Spartan fleet, it decided the outcome; Athens surrendered in 404. What Sparta then did with its victory was a different matter, and Agis was on the losing side of that argument. He wanted Athens destroyed and its people scattered; the Spartan assembly refused, on the ground that a city that had fought the Persians should not be erased. The empire Sparta acquired instead lasted a generation, made enemies of every ally it had fought the war with, and was broken at Leuctra thirty-three years later. Agis died in 398 and the succession to his throne was disputed.
- Lived: 450 BCE – 398 BCE
- Nationality: Spartan
- Roles: head_of_state, monarch
