Archidamus II

Archidamus II was king of Sparta for over forty years and argued against the war that carries his name. He came to the throne around 469 BC and faced almost immediately the great earthquake of about 464, which levelled Sparta and killed a large part of its population. Thucydides and Plutarch credit him with saving the state: he had the trumpet sounded for a muster while the ruins were still settling, so that the citizens formed up in arms outside the town instead of digging for their possessions, and the helots who came down from the countryside to kill them found an army waiting. The helot revolt that followed lasted years and shaped Spartan policy permanently. He was a guest-friend of Pericles, which was politically awkward for both of them. When Corinth and the allies demanded war with Athens in 432 BC, Archidamus spoke against it in the assembly, and Thucydides gives him the argument at length: that Athens had money, ships and an empire, that Sparta had none of these, that a war over walls could not be won by invading Attica, and that the Spartans should spend two or three years preparing instead of voting on their reputation. He was overruled by the ephor Sthenelaidas and a shouted division. He then commanded the invasions of Attica in 431, 430 and 428, ravaging the countryside while the Athenians watched from the walls, exactly as he had predicted would achieve nothing. He died around 427 BC. The war ran for twenty-seven years and ended, as he had implied, only when Persian money bought Sparta a fleet.

• Lived: 510 BCE – 427 BCE
• Nationality: Spartan
• Roles: ruler, general