Agias (Gr. Ἀγίας), the son of Agelochus and grandson of Tisamenus of Elea, was the Spartan seer of Lysander, who predicted that general's victory at the battle of Aegospotami in 404 BC. [1] Some ancient writers considered Agias' prediction—that Lysander would capture the entire fleet except for ten triremes (which fled to Corcyra)--to have been the cause of the victory more than a mere prediction. [2] Pausanias mentions seeing a bronze statue of Agias at the altar of Augustus in the marketplace in Sparta. [3] There was also a statue in Delphi of both Agias and Lysander, reputedly erected by Lysander, which has been partially recovered. [4]
With spoils from the recent victory at Aigospotamoi, Lysander commanded statues be built for his military commanders. This was the first time in the history of Sparta that statues of living military commanders were created. There were approximately 39 statues created, the 9 in the front row included Lysander himself, immediately next to him were the statues of Agias, and Hermon, the commander of his Flagship. The statue of Agias is somewhat unique in that it was the only one created by Pison of Kalaureia. [5]
Agesilaus II was king of Sparta from c. 400 to c. 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponnesian War. Although brave in combat, Agesilaus lacked the diplomatic skills to preserve Sparta's position, especially against the rising power of Thebes, which reduced Sparta to a secondary power after its victory at Leuctra in 371 BC.
Ares is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship. An association with Ares endows places, objects, and other deities with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.
Lysander was a Spartan military and political leader. He destroyed the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, forcing Athens to capitulate and bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end. He then played a key role in Sparta's domination of Greece for the next decade until his death at the Battle of Haliartus.
Eurysthenes was king of Sparta and one of the Heracleidae in Greek mythology. He was a son of Aristodemus and Argia, daughter of Autesion. He had a twin brother, Procles. Together they received the land of Lacedaemon after Cresphontes, Temenus and Aristodemus defeated Tisamenus, the last Achaean king of the Peloponnesus. Eurysthenes married Lathria, daughter of Thersander, King of Kleonae, sister of his sister-in-law Anaxandra, and was the father of his successor, Agis I, founder of the Agiad dynasty of the Kings of Sparta.
Agis II was the 18th Eurypontid king of Sparta, the eldest son of Archidamus II by his first wife, and half-brother of Agesilaus II. He ruled with his Agiad co-monarch Pausanias.
Agesipolis I was the twenty-first of the kings of the Agiad dynasty in ancient Sparta.
Agis IV, the elder son of Eudamidas II, was the 25th king of the Eurypontid dynasty of Sparta. Posterity has reckoned him an idealistic but impractical monarch.
Acrotatus was an Agiad King of Sparta from 265 to 262 BC. He was the son of Areus I, and grandson of Acrotatus.
Amyclae or Amyklai was a city of ancient Laconia, situated on the right or western bank of the Eurotas, 20 stadia south of Sparta, in a district remarkable for the abundance of its trees and its fertility. Amyclae was one of the most celebrated cities of Peloponnesus in the Greek Heroic Age. It is said to have been founded by the Lacedaemonian king Amyclas, the father of Hyacinthus, and to have been the abode of Tyndarus, and of Castor and Pollux, who are hence called Amyclaei Fratres. Amyclae is mentioned by Homer, and it continued to maintain its independence as an Achaean town long after the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians.
"Agoraea" and "Agoraeus" were epithets given to several divinities of Greek mythology who were considered to be the protectors of the assemblies of the people in the agora (ἀγορά), particularly in Athens, Sparta, and Thebes. The gods so named were Zeus, Athena, Artemis, and Hermes. As Hermes was the god of commerce, this epithet seems to have reference to the agora as the marketplace; a bronze statue of Hermes Agoraeus is mentioned as standing near the agora in Athens by both Aristophanes and Demosthenes.
Thorax of Lacedaemonia is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus as acting under Spartan commander Callicratidas during his operations in Lesbos in 405 BC, and as having been commissioned by him, after the capture of Mithymna, to conduct the heavy-armed troops to Mytilene. In the following year we again find Thorax in command of the land-force which cooperated with the fleet under Lysander in the storming of Lampsacus; and he was left at Samos as harmost by Lysander, when the latter was on his way to Athens after the Battle of Aegospotami in 404 BC. According to Plutarch, when the satrap Pharnabazus sent to Sparta to complain of ravages committed in his territory by Lysander, the Lacedaemonian government put Thorax to death, as he was a friend and colleague of the accused admiral, and they had found money in his possession. The date and circumstances of this, however, are very doubtful.
In Greek mythology, Epidotes was a divinity who was worshipped at Lacedaemon, and averted the anger of Zeus Hicesius for the crime committed by the Spartan general Pausanias.
The history of Sparta describes the history of the ancient Doric Greek city-state known as Sparta from its beginning in the legendary period to its incorporation into the Achaean League under the late Roman Republic, as Allied State, in 146 BC, a period of roughly 1000 years. Since the Dorians were not the first to settle the valley of the Eurotas River in the Peloponnesus of Greece, the preceding Mycenaean and Stone Age periods are described as well. Sparta went on to become a district of modern Greece. Brief mention is made of events in the post-classical periods.
Alypus was a sculptor of ancient Greece, a native of Sicyon. He studied under Naucydes of Argos. His age may be fixed from his having executed bronze statues of some Spartans who shared in the victory of Lysander at Aegospotami around 405 BC. Pausanias also mentions some statues of victors of the Ancient Olympic Games made by him.
Androcleides was a politician of ancient Thebes. In the 390s BCE, Thebes was a city divided between factions desiring an alliance with Sparta, and factions desiring an alliance with Athens, and Androcleides led the Athenian faction, along with Ismenias.
Antiochus of Athens was a commander of ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War who was left by the Athenian commander Alcibiades at Notium in command of the Athenian fleet in 407 BCE, with strict injunctions not to engage the Spartan commander Lysander.
Aphrodite Areia or "Aphrodite the Warlike" was a cult epithet of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, in which she was depicted in full armor like the war god Ares. This representation was found in Sparta and Taras. There were other, similarly martial interpretations of the goddess, such as at her Sanctuary at Kythira, where she was worshiped under the epithet Aphrodite Urania, who was also represented as being armed. The epithet "Areia", meaning "warlike", was applied to other gods in addition to Aphrodite, such as Athena, Zeus, and possibly Hermes.
Pausanias was the Agiad King of Sparta; the son of Pleistoanax. He ruled Sparta from 445 BC to 427 BC and again from 409 BC to 395 BC. He was the leader of the faction in Sparta that opposed the imperialist policy conducted by Lysander.
Aristodemus was a man of ancient Messenia, who was one of the chief Messenian heroes in the First Messenian War.
Aristomedon was the name of a number of people of ancient Greece:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Agias (1)". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology .