LEOTYCHIDES

born c. 545 BC died c. 469 also spelled Leotychidas Spartan king of the Eurypontid family and a successful military commander during the Greco-Persian wars. In 491 he acceded to the throne held by his cousin, Demaratus, after the coruler (Sparta having a dual kingship), Cleomenes I, had bribed the Delphic oracle to declare Demaratus illegitimate. Shortly thereafter, Leotychides tried unsuccessfully to arrange a truce in the war between Athens and the island of Aegina. The island had earned the enmity of Athens by submitting to the Persians, who were expanding their sphere of influence to the west. By 479, when most of the Persian invaders had been driven from mainland Greece, Leotychides was commander of the Greek fleet. In that year he crushed the Persian army and navy at Mycale on the coast of Lydia, a victory that prepared the way for the liberation of the Greeks of western Asia Minor from Persian rule. Leotychides led an army to Thessaly, around 476, to punish the aristocratic family of the Aleuads for having aided the Persians, but he withdrew after allegedly accepting a bribe. Convicted on this charge at Sparta, he fled to Tegea, in Arcadia. A sentence of exile was passed upon him; his house was razed, and his grandson, Archidamus II, ascended the throne. Leotychides should not be confused with an earlier Spartan king of the same name who fought against the Messenians in the Second Messenian War (c. 650 BC).