This list of kings of Sparta details the important rulers of the Greek city-state of Sparta in
the Peloponnesus.
Sparta was unusual among Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the
Archaic age.
It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously, called Archagetai, coming
from two separate lines.
According to tradition, the two lines, the Agiads and Eurypontids, were respectively
descended from the twins Eurysthenes and Procles, the descendants of Heracles who supposedly
conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War.
The dynasties themselves, however, were named after the twins' grandsons, the kings Agis
I and Eurypon, respectively.
The Agiad line was regarded as being senior to the Eurypontid line.
Although there are lists of the earlier purported Kings of Sparta, there is little evidence
for the existence of any kings before the middle of the 6th century BC or so.
Spartan kings received a recurring posthumous hero cult like that of the Dorian kings of
Cyrene.
The kings' firstborns sons, as heirs apparent, were the only Spartan boys expressly exempt
from the Agoge, however they were allowed to take part if they so wished, and this endowed
them with increased prestige when they ascended the throne.
== Legendary kings == The ancient Greeks named males after their
fathers, producing a patronymic by infixing -id-; for example, the sons of Atreus were
the Atreids.
In the case of royal houses the patronymic formed from the founder or an early significant
figure became the age of the dynasty.
A ruling family might in this way have a number of dynastic names; for example, Agis I named
the Agiads, but he was a Heraclid, and so were his descendants.
In cases where the descent was not known or was scantily known the Greeks made a few standard
assumptions based on their cultural ideology.
A people was treated as a tribe, presumed to have descended from an ancestor bearing
its name.
He must have been a king, who founded a dynasty of his name.
This mythologizing extended even to place names.
They were presumed to have been named after kings and divinities.
Kings often became divinities, in their religion.
=== Lelegids === The Lelegid were the descendants of Lelex
(a back formation), ancestor of the Leleges, a Pelasgian tribe inhabiting the Eurotas valley
before the Greeks, who, according to the mythological descent, amalgamated with the Greeks.
=== Lacedaemonids === The Lacedaemonids contain Greeks from the
age of legend, now treated as being the Bronze Age in Greece.
In the language of mythologic descent, the kingship passed from the Leleges to the Greeks.
Years with no dates (only "c.") are unknown
=== Atreids === The Atreidai (Latin Atreidae) belong to the
Late Bronze Age, or Mycenaean Period.
In mythology these were the Perseides.
As the name of Atreus is attested in Hittite documents, this dynasty may well be proto-historic.
Years with no dates (only "c.") are unknown
== Heraclids == The Spartan kings as Heracleidae claimed descent
from Heracles, who through his mother was descended from Perseus.
Disallowed the Peloponnesus, he embarked on a life of wandering.
They became ascendant in the Eurotas valley with the Dorians who, at least in legend,
entered it during an invasion called the return of the Heracleidae; driving out the Atreids
and at least some of the Mycenaean population.
Years with no dates (only "c.") are unknown
=== Agiad dynasty === The dynasty was named after its second king,
Agis.
=== Eurypontid dynasty === The dynasty is named after its third king
Eurypon.
Not shown is Lycurgus, the lawgiver, a younger son of the Eurypontids, who served a brief
regency either for the infant Charilaus (780–750 BC) or for Labotas (870–840 BC) the Agiad.
== Sole kings == The Achaean League annexed Sparta in 192 BC.
== Notes and references == Notes
References
== Further reading == The Cyclopædia, Volume 20.
By Abraham Rees.
Page 157+ (List of kings of Sparta on pg. 164).
Sir William Smith, A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology, and
Geography: Partly Based Upon the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
Harper & Brothers, 1851.
Sir William Smith.
Abaeus-Dysponteus.
J. Murray, 1890.
Sir William Smith.
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: Earinus-Nyx. J. Murray, 1876.
William Smith (Ed.)
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: Oarses-Zygia. J. Murray, 1880.
== External links == Livius
Eurypontids and Agiads by Jona Lendering