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Cleomenes III
(ruled 235 - 219 BC) Sparta

Cleomenes III

King

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It appears to have been the common practice for every youth of good character and good family to have his man-lover; and on the other hand every well-educated man was bound by custom to be the lover of some youth.

Instances of this connection are furnished also by several members of the royal family of Sparta. Cleomenes III, the son of the king Leonidas II, was, when a young man, the younger lover of Xenares, and later in life he became the older lover of the brave Panteus.

Seeking to institute social reforms, in 227 he canceled debts, redistributed land, and restored the training of youth. He abolished the ephors and introduced the patronomoi (board of six elders). His early attempts to weaken the Achaean League (from 229) were successful, but in 222 his army fell at Sellasia to a Macedonian force summoned by the league. He fled to Egypt, where he was imprisoned but escaped (219); having failed to stir up revolt in Alexandria, he committed suicide.

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