Cleomĕnes in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Cleomenes III., son of Leonidas II., ascended the Spartan throne B.C. 236. Dissatisfied at the prevailing manners of Sparta, he resolved to bring about a reform, and to restore the institutions of Lycurgus, after the example of Agis , who had lost his life in a similar attempt. Thinking that war would furnish the best opportunity for the execution of his design, he led his forces against the Achaeans, who were commanded by Aratus, and greatly distinguished himself. Returning after this to Sparta, with a portion of his army, he put to death the Ephori, made a new division of the lands, and introduced again the old Spartan system of education. He also took his brother Euclidas as his colleague on the throne, and thus for the first and only time the Spartans had two kings of the same family. After a long, and in many respects successful, series of operations against the Achaeans and Macedonians, the latter of whom had been called in by Aratus as allies, Cleomenes was defeated by Antigonus in the battle of Sel Venus de' Medici of Cleomenes. (Uffizi Gallery, Florence.) lasia (B.C. 222), and immediately after fled to Ptolemy Euergetes in Egypt. This monarch treated him with some degree of generosity, but his successor, Ptolemy Philopator, a weak and suspicious prince, soon began to look upon him with an evil eye, and at last kept him in confinement. The Spartan monarch, in a fit of despair, and taking advantage of the temporary absence of Ptolemy from his capital, broke forth from the place where he had been kept in custody, along with thirteen of his friends, and endeavoured to arouse the inhabitants in the cause of freedom. But, finding their efforts fruitless, they fell by their own hands (B.C. 220).

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