Demaratus

Dama Ratos ( dor. Δαμάρατος, Dāmárātos; . Δημάρατος ion, Demaratos ) was a Spartan king of about 515 to about 491 BC from the family of Eurypontidae BC

After a failed attack on Athens 506 BC, he was an enemy of his co-regent Cleomenes. Cleomenes succeeded in 491 BC, to settle down Dama Ratos for alleged illegitimate descent. Dama Ratos went to the Persian Empire into exile and took the train of Xerxes against Greece in part. According to Herodotus ( our main source for Dama Ratos ' life ) inherited tradition, he was the King of Persia wise, but did not follow advice, but also to the Greeks have warned of the attack.

First description of secret writing

The Persians were planning after their defeat at Marathon against the Athenians and then amplified expand after the completion of internal political difficulties from about 485 BC their armed power in the next five years in order to attack Greece. Demaratos, who lived in the Persian city of Susa, noticed the upgrade of the Persians and wanted to warn his home country. He had the message to the Persian guards carry over without being discovered. He took a writing board, scraped off the wax, wrote on the wood which the Persians had in mind, and then doused them with wax. So the writing board also came to the Greek royal family. Man, however, initially did not know what to do with them. It is said that Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes and wife of Leonidas, dahinterkam and said they should scrape off the wax.

Because of the warning, the Greeks are said to have begun to arm themselves. The Persians have so lost the element of surprise of their attack. The interpretation and the history of a whole sounds very much like a decoration by Herodotus or his informants - the Persian armor were of foreign envoys and merchants naturally have long observed and the story of the secret message of Demaratos is completely unlikely in this form and impact.

• Man
• King (Sparta )
• Born in the 6th century BC
• Died in the 5th century BC