born 0441; 444 BC
died 360, Cyrene, Cyrenaica
King of Sparta (399360) and commander of its army during most of the era of Spartan supremacy (404371).
A member of the Eurypontid family, he took the throne with Lysander 's help while Sparta was fighting Persia. He defeated the allied Thebes, Athens, Argos, and Corinth in the Corinthian War (395387), despite losing some ground in central Greece and a battle with the Persian fleet in 394. He dissolved the Boeotian League, but battles against the Boeotian Confederacy (371) and Thebes (370, 361) ended Sparta's ascendancy. He died en route to Sparta from a mercenary engagement in Egypt.