Agis II.
Agis II (Greek Ἆγις, † 400 BC) was a king of ancient Sparta.
Life
Agis II was a son of Archidamus II's and a step-brother Agesilaus ' II He reigned 427/426-400 BC His first act as king were incursions of the Peloponnesians in Attica 427 and 425, which the Athenians not to counter the prevailing military. After a failed attempt to Leuctra in 419, he led the war against the allied with Athens Argos. During this campaign he avoided despite several favorable occasions a battle with the enemy and was instead induce an unfavorable truce.
Although the cease-fire ended only the state confirmed that existed before the campaign, and Agis II of Sparta for friends in Argos against the anti- Spartan Federation strengthened her position, he encountered strong resistance within the Spartan army. As Agis II then later withdrew and thereby lost Orchomenus, the Spartans condemned their king, who already had not much power outside of the battlefield, to a delicate fine. Although she was lifted soon, but from now on should a decision of the Damos, an advisory board of ten Spartans king stand by and support him in all his campaigns. This guaranteed in the eyes of the elders that the king did not yield any " further shame " over Sparta.
Shortly afterwards Agis II 418 was victorious in the battle of Mantinea, Argos and its allies. He took 415 to the volatile Alcibiades and occupied on his advice, 413, the city Dekeleia in Attica. However, he found himself forced by the power-hungry and eloquent Athens in the background. To his influence fearing sat Agis II, the rumor, Alcibiades had seduced his wife Timaia, which enabled him to seek the hard accused Alcibiades after life and to follow him. Then this went to the Persians. While all ancient authors such as Plutarch and Thucydides have adopted this statement willingly, but there are serious doubts whether Alcibiades had really been so unwise as to dishonor the wife of his host, and being guilty of gross ingratitude. Agis violated little later his son Leotychides because he attributed the paternity of the Alcibiades.
About the real influence of the king, the fact delivers an eloquent told that he had no authority to negotiate a truce with Athens, but had to submit to the decisions of the citizens of Sparta, who rejected any offers of Athens. It is debatable whether he was then actually involved in the further siege of Athens. According to Xenophon, he was 405/404 during the final battle for Athens absent.
After defeating Athens 404 he led a campaign against Elis, whose territory he had plundered and he forced into a humiliating peace. On the way back from Delphi he died. Instead of a lost son succeeded him as next of kin by his step- brother Agesilaus II.