Agesilaus II, or Agesilaos II () ( 444 BC – 360 BC ) was a king of Sparta, of the Eurypontid dynasty, ruling from approximately 400 BC to 360 BC, during most of which time he was, in Plutarch's words, " as good as thought commander and king of all Greece ," and was for the whole of it greatly identified with his country's deeds and fortunes.

Agesilaus was the son of Archidamus II and his second wife, Eupoleia, brother to Cynisca ( the first woman in ancient history to achieve an Olympic victory ), and younger half-brother of Agis II.

Therefore, Agesilaus was trained in the traditional curriculum of Sparta, the agoge.

But Leotychidas was ultimately set aside as illegitimate, contemporary rumors representing him as the son of Alcibiades, and Agesilaus became king around 401 BC, at the age of about forty.

In addition to questions of his nephew's paternity, Agesilaus ' succession was largely due to the intervention of his Spartan general, Lysander, who hoped to find in him a willing tool for the furtherance of his political designs.

Lysander and the young Agesilaus came to maintain an intimate relation ( see Pederasty in Ancient Greece ), as was common of the period.

On his arrival at Ephesus a three months ' truce was concluded with Tissaphernes, the satrap of Lydia and Caria, but negotiations conducted during that time proved fruitless, and on its termination Agesilaus raided Phrygia, where he easily won immense booty from the satrap Pharnabazus ; Tissaphernes could offer no assistance, as he had concentrated his troops in Caria.

An armistice was concluded between Tithraustes and Agesilaus, who left the southern satrapy and again invaded Phrygia, which he ravaged until the following spring.

Agesilaus, the former passive lover of Lysander, would have nothing of this, and reminded Lysander ( who was only a Spartan general ) who was king.

The Battle of Mantinea, in which Agesilaus took no part, was followed by a general peace: Sparta, however, stood aloof, hoping even yet to recover her supremacy.

The ancient historian Xenophon was a huge admirer and served under Agesilaus during the campaigns into Asia Minor.

Xenophon was later exiled from Athens, most likely because he fought under the Spartan king Agesilaus II against Athens at Coronea.

Though he spent much of his life in Athens, Xenophon's involvement in Spartan politics ( he was a close associate of King Agesilaus II ) has led to him being closely associated with the city.

He was able to persuade the Spartans to select Agesilaus II as the new Eurypontid Spartan king following the death of Agis II.

Following his death, an abortive scheme by Lysander to increase his power by making the Spartan kingships collective and that the Spartan king should not automatically be given the leadership of the army, was " discovered " by Agesilaus II.

The Spartan king Agesilaus II argues against punishing Phoebidas, on the grounds that his actions had benefited Sparta, and this was the only standard against which he ought to be judged.

Tissaphernes, who once again had recourse to subtle diplomacy, was beaten by Agesilaus II on the Pactolus near Sardis in 395 BC ; and at last the king yielded to the representations of Pharnabazus, strongly supported by the chiliarch ( vizier ) Tithraustes and by the queen-mother Parysatis, who hated Tissaphernes as the principal cause of the death of her favourite son Cyrus.

Another army under Agesilaus II was then dispatched to attack the Thebans.

Agesilaus II was one of the two kings of Sparta during Sparta ’ s hegemony.

Plutarch later wrote that Agesilaus was a king of the traditional Spartan ideals, often seen wearing his traditional cloak which was threadbare.

Agesilaus expels the Illyrians from Epirus

Then, in 396 BC, Agesilaus crossed into Asia with a force of 2, 000 neodamodes ( freed helots ) and 6, 000 allies ( including 30 spartiates ) to liberate Greek cities from Persian dominion.

In these campaigns Agesilaus also benefited from the aid of the Ten Thousand, who marched through miles of Persian territory to make it to the Black Sea.

So Agesilaus II frustrated the plans of his former mentor and left Lysander in command of the troops in the Hellespont, far from Sparta and mainland Greece.

* The King of Sparta, Agesilaus II, dies at Cyrene, Cyrenaica, on his way home to Greece from Egypt.

Irate, Agesilaus struck the Thebans from the document.

That he studied general history, as we see from the quotations in Plutarch's lives of Lycurgus, Solon, Aristides, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, Lysander, Agesilaus, and Demosthenes, which were probably borrowed from the work on Lives.

Following Agesilaus ’ death in 360 BC, Archidamus III became king and practiced a policy of non-conflict between Athens and the Second Naval Confederacy ( 357-355 BC ) Between 355 and 346 BC, they allied with Athens against Thebes and the Amphictyonic Council effectively pulling Theban attention away from the Peloponnese.

Sparta intervened under Agesilaus, however, and with aid from Thessaly, Macedonia, and the Molossians themselves, the Spartans expelled the Illyrians.

In the summer of 378 BC, Agesilaus led a Spartan expedition against Thebes from the Boeotian city of Thespiae ( then still allied to Sparta ).

Epaminondas ' refusal to accept the terms excluded Thebes from the peace treaty and provided Agesilaus with the excuse to declare war.

By levying ships from the Aegean states under his control, Agesilaus had raised a force of 120 triremes, which he placed under the command of his brother-in-law Peisander, who had never held a command of this nature before.

With Agesilaus at the head of the state, advocating for an aggressive policy, the Spartans campaigned from the Peloponnese to the distant Chalcidic peninsula.

The next morning, Agesilaus ordered the polemarch Gylis to put the army in battle formation and gave out awards for valour, received a delegation from the Thebans and allowed them to collect their dead.

In 394 BC, King Agesilaus II of Sparta and his army were recalled from Ionia to the Greek mainland to help fight the Corinthian War.

Archidamus III ( Ancient Greek: Αρχίδαμος ), the son of Agesilaus II, was king of Sparta from 360 BC to 338 BC.

Agesipolis came to the crown just about the time that the confederacy ( partly brought about by the intrigues of the Persian satrap Tithraustes ), which was formed by Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos, against Sparta, rendering it necessary to recall his colleague, Agesilaus II, from Asia ; and the first military operation of his reign was the expedition to Corinth, where the forces of the confederates were assembled.

Having procured the sanction of the Olympic and Delphic gods for disregarding any attempt which the Argives might make to stop his march, on the pretext of a religious truce, he carried his ravages still farther than Agesilaus had done in 393 BC ; but as he suffered the aspect of the victims to deter him from occupying a permanent post, the expedition yielded no fruit but the plunder.

Leonidas, who had returned to the city, fled again, to Tegea, protected from Agis by Agesilaus, who persuaded Agis and Lysander that the most effective way to secure the consent of the wealthy to the distribution of their lands, would be to begin by cancelling the debts.

The rebel satraps also received support from the pharaoh of Egypt, Teos as well as from some of the Greek city states, with the Spartan king Agesilaus II coming to his assistance with a mercenary force.

Born in Sparta around 545 BC, Leotychidas was a descendant of the Royal House of the Eurypontids ( through Menamus, Agesilaus, Hippocratides, Leotychides, Anaxilaus, Archidamos, Anaxandridas I and Theopompus ) and came to power in 491 BC with the help of the Agiad King Cleomenes I by challenging the legitimacy of the birth of Demaratus for the Eurypontid throne of Sparta.