LEOTYCHIDES  , Spartan

king, of the Eurypontid family, was descended from Theopompus through his younger son Anaxandridas (Herod. viii . 131), and in 491 B.C. succeeded Demaratus (q.v.), whose title to the throne he had with Cleomenes' aid successfully challenged . He took part in Cleomenes' second expedition to Aegina, on which ten hostages were seized and handed over to the Athenians for safe custody: for this he narrowly escaped being surrendered to the Aeginetans after Cleomenes' death . In the spring of 479 we find him in command of the Greek fleet of no ships, first at Aegina and afterwards at Delos . In August he attacked the Persian position at Mycale on the coast of Asia Minor opposite Samos, inflicted a crushing defeat on the land-army, and annihilated the fleet which was drawn up on -the shore . Soon afterwards he sailed home with the Peloponnesians, leaving the Athenians to prosecute the siege of Sestos . In 476 he led an army to Thessaly to punish the Aleuadae of Larisa for the aid they had rendered to the Persians and to strengthen Spartan influence in northern Greece . After a series of successful engagements he accepted a bribe from the enemy to withdraw . For this he was brought to trial at Sparta, and to save his life fled to the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea . Sentence of exile was passed, his house was razed and his grand- son Archidamus II. ascended the throne (Herod. vi . 65-87, ix . 90-114; Thucydides i .

89;

Pausanias iii . 4 . 3 . 7 . 9-10; Plutarch, De malignitate Herodoti, 21, p . 859 D; Diodorus xi, 34-37) . According to Diodorus (xi . 48) Leotychides reigned twenty-two, his successor Archidamus forty-two years . The total duration of the two reigns, sixty-four years, we know to be correct, for Leotychides came to the throne in 491 and Archidamus (q.v.) died in 427 . On this basis, then, Leotychides's exile would fall in 469 and the Thessalian expedition in that or the preceding year (so E . Meyer, Geschichte des Altertunis, iii . § 287) .

But Diodorus is not consistent with himself ; he attributes (xi . 48) Leotychides's death to the year 476–475 and he records (xii . 35) Archidamus's death in 434–433, though he introduces him in the following years at the

head of the Peloponnesian army (xii . 42, 47, 52) . Further, he says expressly that Leotychides EreaeGTnaev &peas Er~7 e1Kooa Kai 56o, i.e. he lived twenty-two years after his accession . The twenty-two years, then, may include the time which elapsed between his exile and his death . In that case Leotychides died in 469, and 476–475 may be the year in which his reign, though not his life, ended . This date seems, from what we know of the political situation in general, to be more probable than the later one for the Thessalian campaign . G . Busolt, Griech . Geschichte, iii . 83, note; J .

B .

Bury, History of Greece, p . 326; G . Grote, History of Greece, new edition 1888, iv . 349, note; also abridged edition 1907, p . 273, note 3 . Beloch's view (Griech . Geschichte, i . 455, note 2) that the expedition took place in 476, the trial and flight in 469, is not generally accepted . (M . N .