View source for Agis I

{{Short description|King of Sparta from c. 930 to c. 900 BC}}
{{Infobox monarch
| name         = Agis I
| title        = 
| image        = 
| caption      = 
| succession   = [[List of kings of Sparta|King of Sparta]]
| reign        = {{Circa|1057/6}}–1026/5 BC (mythical) or {{Circa|930|900 BC}} (historical)
| coronation   = 
| predecessor  = [[Eurysthenes]]
| successor    = [[Echestratus]]
| father       = [[Eurysthenes]]
| mother       = 
| issue        = [[Echestratus]]
}}
'''Agis I''' ([[Ancient Greek|Greek]]: {{lang|grc|Ἄγις}}) was a [[Monarch|king]] of [[Sparta]] and [[eponym]] of the [[Agiad dynasty]]. He was possibly the first historical king of Sparta, reigning at the end of the tenth century BC, during the emergence of the [[Dorians]] in [[Laconia]]. He is said by most ancient authors to have conquered the region and enslaved the [[helots]].

== Life ==
Agis was the eponymous founder of the [[Agiad dynasty]], one of the two royal families in Sparta (the other being the Eurypontids). The Greek historian [[Herodotus]] makes him the son of Lathria and [[Eurysthenes]], who was the elder of the twin sons of [[Aristodemus]]—the first [[Heracleidae|Heraclid]] king of Sparta as great-great-grandson of [[Heracles|Herakles]].<ref>Herodotus, vii. 204</ref><ref>Prakken, "Herodotus and the Spartan King Lists", p. 471.</ref><ref>Hard, ''Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', p. 291.</ref> However, Eurysthenes was certainly invented in order to extend the length of Spartan rule to the fall of the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenean civilisation]]—some time after 1200—while there was in fact a gap of more than two centuries before the arrival of the [[Dorian invasion|Dorians]] in [[Laconia]]. For the same reason, early Spartan kings were given a reign of 40 years on average, which in the case of Agis was from 1090 to 1050. In the list of kings compiled by [[Eusebius]] from [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus of Sicily]], whose ultimate source was [[Apollodorus of Athens|Apollodorus]], Agis is listed as king for only one year, between 1027/6–1026/5.<ref>Huxley, "Problems", p. 187.</ref><ref>Christesen, ''Olympic Victor Lists'', p. 505.</ref> However, given the amount of deeds ascribed to him, the text should be emended to 31 years (therefore starting from 1057/6).<ref>Forsdyke, ''Greece before Homer'', p. 34</ref> Modern scholars have aimed to correct these rewritings and instead make Agis the real founder of the Agiad dynasty. The dates of his reign are also hypothetically corrected to {{Circa|930–900}}, as they match the archaeological evidence of the Dorian settlement in Laconia.<ref>Huxley, ''Early Sparta'', p. 20, dates Agis' reign from "the beginning of the ninth century B. C." He also considers him to be historical.</ref><ref>Forrest, ''History of Sparta'', pp. 21, 27.</ref><ref>Cartledge, ''Sparta and Lakonia'', p. 90; ''Agesilaos'', pp. 297, 298.</ref>

Although Sparta is known for its [[diarchy]], Agis ruled as sole king. Later the Eurypontids extended their ancestry to make them as old as the Agiads, but the diarchy was likely the result of the [[synoecism]] of Sparta, which took place in the 8th century, with [[Charilaus]] the first Eurypontid king (r. c.775–c.760).<ref>Cartledge, ''Sparta and Lakonia'', pp. 89, 90</ref> The Greek geographer [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] tells that Agis' co-king was [[Soos (king of Sparta)|Soos]], but he was another invention, possibly dating from the 4th century, as Herodotus (writing in the 5th century) does not mention him.<ref>Huxley, ''Early Sparta'', p. 102 (note 71).</ref><ref>Cartledge, ''Sparta and Lakonia'', p. 296; ''Agesilaos'', pp. 22, 23.</ref>

The majority opinion among Greeks of the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and [[Classical Greece|Classical]] eras was that the first pair of kings, Eurysthenes and [[Procles]] (the first Eurypontid) conquered Laconia, but granted large autonomy to six territories outside Sparta, which were ruled by local kings. Agis nevertheless cancelled this policy and submitted Laconia to direct rule from Sparta. He notably conquered [[Amyclae]], a city south of Sparta, and forced several non-Dorian groups to leave. As the inhabitants of [[Helos]] resisted, he enslaved them and therefore created the first [[helots]], the famous slaves of Classical Sparta.<ref>Kõiv, ''Ancient Tradition'', p. 69.</ref> This view is found in the writings of [[Pindar]], Herodotus, [[Ephorus]]—the main source of the events, [[Plato]] and [[Isocrates]].<ref>Kõiv, ''Ancient Tradition'', pp. 69, 70.</ref> However, a diverging story is given by Pausanias, who ascribes the conquest of Laconia to the kings [[Archelaus of Sparta|Archelaus]] and [[Charilaus]], who reigned much later.<ref>Huxley, ''Early Sparta'', p. 18, dates the capture of Amyclae from the 8th century.</ref><ref>Kõiv, ''Ancient Tradition'', pp. 70, 71.</ref> [[Paul Cartledge]] favours the earlier date, because during the Classical era Laconian helots had forgotten their national identity, unlike their peers in [[Messenia]]—therefore indicating that Laconian helots had been enslaved for a much longer time.<ref>Cartledge, ''Sparta and Lakonia'', p. 84, nevertheless writes that he does not want to consider this early date as a proof of the historicity of the events ascribed to Agis.</ref> Mait Kõiv thinks instead that Pausanias' description of an 8th century conquest of Laconia by Sparta makes more sense historically and is better backed by archaeological evidence.<ref>Kõiv, ''Ancient Tradition'', pp. 72, 133–140.</ref>

Herodotus writes that Agis was the father of [[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]], the mythical legislator of Sparta, as he is described as the uncle of [[Labotas|Leobotas]] (Agis' grandson), whereas most other ancient sources place him in the Eurypontid family.<ref>Herodotus, i. 65.</ref><ref>Asheri ''et al''., ''Commentary'', p. 127.</ref> Herodotus probably reproduced an attempt from the Agiads to appropriate Lycurgus' fame from the other dynasty.<ref>den Boer, "Political Propaganda", p. 165.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

=== Ancient sources ===

* [[Eusebius]], ''[[Chronicon (Eusebius)|Chronicon]]''.
* [[Herodotus]], ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]''.
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece''.

=== Modern sources ===
* [[David Asheri]], Alan Lloyd, Aldo Corcella, ''A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1–4'', Oxford University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-19-814956-9}}
* W. den Boer, "Political Propaganda in Greek Chronology", ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', Bd. 5, H. 2 (Jun., 1956), pp. 162–177.
* [[Paul Cartledge]], ''Sparta and Lakonia, A Regional History 1300–362 BC'', London, Routledge, 2002 (originally published in 1979). {{ISBN|0-415-26276-3}}
* ——, ''Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta'', Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. {{ISBN|978-0-7156-3032-7}}
* Paul Christesen, ''Olympic Victor Lists and Ancient Greek History'', Cambridge University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-521-86634-7}}
* W. G. Forrest, ''A History of Sparta'', New York, Norton, 1969. {{SBN|393004813}}
* [[John Forsdyke]], ''Greece before Homer, Ancient Chronology and Mythology'', New York, Norton, 1957.
* Robin Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', London/New York, Routledge, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-415-18636-0}}
* G. L. Huxley, ''Early Sparta'', London, Faber & Faber, 1962. {{ISBN|0-389-02040-0}}
* ——, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25506087 Problems in the "Chronography" of Eusebius]", ''Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature'', 1982, Vol. 82C, pp. 183–196.
* Mait Kõiv, ''Ancient Tradition and Early Greek History, The Origins of States in Early-Archaic Sparta'', Argos and Corinth, Tallinn, Avita, 2003. {{ISBN|9985-2-0807-2}}
* D. W. Prakken, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/283138 Herodotus and the Spartan King Lists]", ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'', Vol. 71 (1940), pp. 460–472.

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{{succession box|title=[[List of kings of Sparta|King of Sparta]]|before=[[Eurysthenes]] |after=[[Echestratus]]|years= c. 930–c.900 BC}}
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{{Kings of Sparta}}

[[Category:Agiad kings of Sparta]]
[[Category:900s BC deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:10th-century BC monarchs]]
[[Category:10th-century BC Greek people]]