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Aratus cared more for Achaia than for Greece, and soon was again at war
with Sparta, and Cleomenes marched out against him. He retreated, and
Cleomenes in great joy put his troops in mind how in old times the
Spartans never asked how many were the foe, but only where they were.
Then he followed the Achaians and gained a great victory; indeed there
was a doubt at first whether Aratus were not slain; but he had marched
off with the remnant of the army, and next was heard of as having taken
Mantinea.
This displeased the Ephors, and they called Cleomenes back. He hoped to
be stronger by the aid of his fellow-king, and, as the little child of
Agis had just died in his house, sent to invite home Archidamas, the
brother of Agis, who was living in exile; but the Ephors had the youth
murdered as soon as he reached Laconia, and then laid on Cleomenes both
this murder and that of his little stepson Agis. But all the better sort
held by him, and his mother Cratesiclea, and his wife Agiatis, so cleared
him, that all trusted him, and he was again sent out with an army, and
defeated Aratus.
He was sure he could bring back good days to Sparta, if only he were free
of the Ephors. One of these, who was on his side, went to sleep in a
temple, and there had a dream that four of the chairs of the Ephors were
taken away, and that he heard a voice saying, "This is best for Sparta."
After this, he and Cleomenes contrived that the king should lead out an
army containing most of the party against him. He took them by long
marches to a great distance from home, and then left them at night with a
few trusty friends, with whom he fell upon the Ephors at supper, and
killed four of them, the only blood he shed in this matter. In the
morning he called the people together, and showed them how the Ephors had
taken too much power, and how ill they had used it, especially in the
murder of Agis; and the people agreed henceforth to let him rule without
them. Then all debts were given up, all estates resigned to be divided
again, Cleomenes himself being the first to set the example, and the
partition was made. But as one line of the Heracleid kings was extinct,
Cleomenes made his brother Euclidas reign with him, and was able to bring
back all the old ways of Lycurgus, the hard fare and plain living, so
that those who had seen the Eastern state of the upstart Macedonian
soldiers wondered at the sight of the son of Hercules, descendant of a
line of thirty-one kings, showing his royalty only in the noble
simplicity of his bearing.
Mantinea turned out the Achaians and invited Cleomenes back, and now it
was plain that the real question was whether the Spartan kingdom or the
Achaian League should lead the Peloponnesus--in truth, between Aratus and
Cleomenes. Another victory was gained over the Achaians, a treaty was
made, and they were going to name Cleomenes head of the League, when he
fell ill. He had over-tried his strength by long marches, and chilled
himself by drinking cold water; he broke a blood-vessel, and had to be
carried home in a litter, causing meantime the Achaian prisoners to be
set free, to show that he meant to keep the treaty.
But Aratus, in his jealousy, forgot that the great work of his youth had
been to get free of Macedon, and in order to put down Sparta and
Cleomenes, actually asked the help of Antigonus, king of Macedon, and
brought his hated troops back into the Peloponnesus, promising to welcome
them, if only Cleomenes might be put down.
The brave young king had recovered and taken Argos, and soon after
Corinth drove out the Achaian garrison and gave themselves to him; but
the great Macedonian force under Antigonus himself was advancing, and
Corinth in terror went over to him, the other allies deserted, and
Cleomenes was marching back to Sparta, when a messenger met him at Tegea
with tidings of the death of his beloved wife. He listened steadily,
gave orders for the defence of Tegea, and then, travelling all night,
went home and gave way to an agony of grief, with his mother and two
little children.
He had but 5000 Spartans, and his only hope was in getting aid from
Ptolemy the Benefactor, king of Egypt. This was promised, but only on
condition that he would send as hostages to Egypt his mother and babes.
He was exceedingly grieved, and could not bear to tell his mother; but
she saw his distress, and found out the cause from his friends. She
laughed in hopes of cheering him. "Was this what you feared to tell me?
Put me on board ship at once, and send this old carcase where it may be
of the most use to Sparta." He escorted her, at the head of the whole
army, to the promontory of Taenarus, where the temple of Neptune looks
out into the sea. In the temple they parted, Cleomenes weeping in such
bitter sorrow that his mother's spirit rose. "Go to, king of Sparta,"
she said. "Without doors, let none see us weep, nor do anything contrary
to the honour and dignity of Sparta. That at least is in our own power,
though, for the rest, success or failure depends on the gods." So she
sailed away, and Cleomenes went back to do his part. The Achaians had
not only given Antigonus the title of Head of the League, but had set up
his statues, and were giving him the divine honours that had been granted
to Alexander and to Demetrius the City-taker.
The only part of the Peloponnesus that still held out was Laconia.
Cleomenes guarded all the passes, though the struggle was almost without
hope, for little help came from Egypt, only a letter from brave old
Cratesiclea, begging that whatever was best for the country might be done
without regard to an old woman or a child. Cleomenes then let the slaves
buy their freedom, and made 2000 soldiers from among them, and marching
out with these he surprised and took the Achaian city of Megalopolis.
One small party of citizens, under a brave young man named Philopoemen,
fought, while the rest had time to escape to Messene. Cleomenes offered
to give them back the place if they would join with Sparta, but they
refused, and he had the whole town plundered and burnt as a warning to
the other Peloponnesians, and the next year he ravaged Argolis, and beat
down the standing corn with great wooden swords.
But Antigonus had collected a vast force to subdue the Peloponnesus, and
Cleomenes prepared for his last battle at Sellasia, a place between two
hills. On one named Evas he placed his brother Euclidas, on the other
named Olympus he posted himself, with his cavalry in the middle. He had
but 20,000 men, and Antigonus three times as many, with all the Achaians
among them. Euclidas did not, as his brother had intended, charge down
the hill, but was driven backwards over the precipices that lay behind
him. The cavalry were beaten by Philopoemen, who fought all day, though
a javelin had pierced both his legs; and Cleomenes found it quite
impossible to break the Macedonian phalanx, and out of his 6000 Spartans
found himself at the end of the day with only 200.
With these he rode back to Sparta, where he stopped in the market-place
to tell his people that all was lost, and they had better make what terms
they could. They should decide whether his life or death were best for
him, and while they deliberated, he turned towards his own empty house,
but he could not bear to enter it. A slave girl taken from Megalopolis
ran out to bring him food and drink, but he would taste nothing, only
being tired out he leant his arm sideways against a pillar and laid his
head on it, and so he waited in silence till word was brought him that
the citizens wished him to escape.
He quietly left Sparta and sailed for Alexandria, where the king, Ptolemy
the Benefactor, at first was short and cold with him, because he would
not cringe to him, but soon learned to admire him, treated him as a
brother, promised him help to regain Sparta, and gave him a pension,
which he spent in relieving other exiled Greeks. But the Benefactor
died, and his son, Ptolemy Philopator, was a selfish wretch, who hated
and dreaded the grave, stern man who was a continual rebuke to him, and
who, the Alexandrians said, walked about like a lion in a sheepfold. He
refused the fleet his father had promised, would not let Cleomenes go
back alone to try his fortune on Antigonus' death, and at last, on some
report of his meaning to attack Cyrene, had him shut up with his friends
in a large room. They broke forth, and tried to fight their way to a
ship, but they were hemmed in, no one came to their aid, and rather than
be taken prisoners, they all fell on their own swords; and on the
tidings, Ptolemy commanded all the women and children to be put to death.
Cratesiclea saw her two grandsons slain before her eyes, and then crying,
"Oh, children, where are ye gone?" herself held out her neck for the
rope.
[Picture: Temple of Neptune]