"Diobetis, are you really a Spartan?!" Lesander sneered: "Don't forget Demaratus!"

The elders were in an uproar, Demaratus - that was the long-lasting shame of the Spartans.

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Although Spartans advocate killing and despise pleasure, they do not dislike beautiful women. While the best criterion for judging future wives is easy to have children, whether Spartan women are beautiful is also a ready-made standard for judging whether their morality is noble as mothers of future children. Participating in training with men since childhood also gives Spartan women their own unique beauty, with long blonde hair, toned bodies, and elegant calves. Giving an ugly daughter will make their parents feel frustrated, but there is still a chance to change, that is, to come to an ancient sanctuary next to Helen's grave and pray to Helen's bronze statue, which is said to make children grow up and become beautiful.

A hundred years ago, a pair of Spartan parents prayed to Helen for their ugly daughter. The ugly priestess in charge of the sanctuary grabbed the child's long hair. After seeing the child's appearance, they made a prediction: she would become the cutest woman in Rasdimon.

As time passed, the girl became a famous beauty. Her charm made the Spartan king fascinated, so he snatched it from her husband with royal rights. After only more than seven months, the new queen gave birth to a son. Is the father of the child the king or the civilian? The Spartans did not go into it in depth. The child grew up and eventually succeeded to the throne to become the king. He was Demaratus.

When Demaratus succeeded to the throne, another Spartan king, Cleomenes, had been in power for five years, and it was much more difficult for him to succeed to the throne because his father could not get his wife pregnant. The law enforcement elders asked him to divorce and remarry him. He hesitated and chose bigamy. Shortly after the second wife gave birth to three sons for him, his first wife gave birth to Cleomenes. But the king had long loved the second wife, and naturally liked the children she gave birth to.

Cleomenes was not favored by his father. His half-brother, Dorius, was specially trained by the king and appointed as the legal heir. People also believed that Dorius was the best among his peers. However, after the king died suddenly, the conservative Spartans believed that Cleomenes, born to the king's first wife, had the right to inherit the throne first, so Cleomenes, who succeeded to the throne, exiled several of his brothers on the grounds of sending Dorius to colonize the Western Mediterranean.

Cleomenes was quick-thinking, capable of making decisions, ambitious, and strong in power. How could Demaratus, who had just succeeded to the throne, be his opponent? He was soon undermined by Cleomenes. Cleomenes took over Sparta's power for more than 20 years, defeated Agos, controlled Arcadia, intervened in Delphi, and interfered in the political situation of Athens... Sparta's power expanded to Northern Greece. At this moment, the Persian king Xerxes was preparing to invade Greece again and learn from Darius's lesson. He sent a large number of spies to Greece to differentiate and alienate various city-states. Aegina, an island city-state not far from the east of the Peloponnese Peninsula, gave earth and water to Persia. Cleomenes angrily denounced this betrayal and decided to punish Aegina.

The Aeginas hurriedly asked for help from another Spartan king, De Maratos. De Maratos was very happy to cause trouble for his political enemies, so they secretly joined forces with the elders in the Elders' Council who were unwilling to go to war with Persia and actively provided support. This angered Cleomenes, and he finally decided to solve this unbearable collaborator once and for all. So at the meeting of the Elders' Council he initiated, he questioned De Maratos's life experience. Not only did he win over De Maratos's people, most of the elders, but also bribed Delphi priests, making the oracle he sought was not good for De Maratos. As a result, De Maratos, who had been in power for 24 years, was deposed as the throne, defected to Xerxes, and became a traitor who led the way.

But the winning Cleomenes was not able to be proud for long. The bribery of Delphi was leaked. The Spartans were extremely angry. He was found guilty, first fled Sparta, and then returned, but was removed from power. From then on, he drank, beat people, shouted and scolded, and everyone said he was crazy. His two half-brothers, Leonida and Criombrotes, declared him mentally ill and locked him in the temple. The next day, people found that he was dead, his flesh was cut off one by one, and a knife was at his hand.

This caused a great sensation! Everyone is rumored that this is a punishment for Cleomenes and has been widely recognized by the public: suicide.

Soon, Leonida took office as king. But in private, rumors spread from time to time: Cleomenes died at the hands of two brothers.

The reason why Leonida led the 300 Kings Guards to Hot Spring Pass to defend the Persian army was because of the situation, and at the same time he had the intention to prove his innocentness to the Spartans.

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It was a turbulent history for the Spartans, and it could even be said to be a shame for Sparta. The venue fell into silence for a moment.

Speaker Cleostida simply announced: "Start the election of a new king!"

Both Agsilaus and Leotizides, both candidates have their flaws and fans, so the debate between the two sides is mainly about the competition for neutral elders... and the final vote - Agsilaus won.

Leoticidus looked at the elders who congratulated Agsilous with tears of humiliation, and then quietly left...

Speaker Cleostida asked the guards to welcome the five inspectors who had been waiting outside the hall to announce the results of the election to them.

So the prosecutors came to Agesilous, who stood solemnly and listened to them read out loudly: "The great Zeus is above. According to the results of the election of the Elders' Council, we declare the blood of the divine Hercules - Agesilous is the King of Sparta!"

Agesilaus could no longer keep his calm expression. He trembled and swore: "I swear in the name of Zeus, and I, Agesilaus, will govern and rule Sparta according to the existing laws of the city-state!"

The inspectors also responded: "As long as you keep your oath, we will ensure that your royal power will be permanent!"

In February 398 BC, Agsilous became King of Sparta.

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At the southeastern end of Sicily, Dionysius led 80,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry from Syracuse, and more than 400 warships on the sea, and marched west along the southern coast of Sicily.

When he was easily liberating the city-state of Kamanlina, who was forced to pay tribute to Carthage, Dionysius received the news that "Dionia defeated Crotone". He was silent for a while, and then said to the attendant beside him: "I immediately wrote to Phelistos, saying that I agreed to Locre's request and send reinforcements to them as soon as possible!"

Then he asked the messenger to urge the army that had been preparing to rest for a day to continue to march westward.

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"Crotone asked Dionia for peace!" After receiving the news from Crotone, Consul Tarantum, Eumacas, said in surprise: "I really didn't expect that Dionia was a small city-state that needed our protection to survive a year ago, but now it has rapidly developed into a powerful alliance of Great Greece!"

Former consul, now the Senate Senate, Dicitimas sighed: "Luckily, we are all ally with Dionyya!"

"Tarantum's safety cannot rely on other people's promises!" Yumakas shook his head and said firmly: "We should speed up the conquest of the Mesapi people and strengthen Tarantum's power as soon as possible, so that we can have the confidence to speak when facing Dionia!"

"The attack on Manduria has caused a lot of casualties to our citizens! But if you still want to attack Brindisi, there will be more Tarantum citizens sacrificed! How could the Senate agree to your radical approach!" Dicitimas accused with some angrily.

Eumacas looked at Dicitimas with a hint of contempt in his eyes: "Disitimus, my friend, have you not figured it out yet! This is not only the wishes of most of the Senate's elders, but also the wishes of the people! Stimulated by the rapid rise of Dioonia, the people are tired of the inaction of the Senate for decades! They hate to endure the attacks of the Mesapi people every year! They ask us to make changes! Although citizens have died or injured, we have mastered Manduria, and Mesapi will be much more difficult to invade our territory! Now, Lord Diomiras is about to return to Tarantum, and Achita continues to lead troops to attack Brindisi. I believe that after learning that Crotone was forced to seek peace with Dioonia, he will increase his offensive against Brindisi without our urging!"

Dicitimas fell silent. After a moment, he hesitated and said: "I am a little worried that such a large-scale attack will stimulate the Pucheti people in the north. They are from the same race as the Mesapi people..."

"Will they not hate us if we don't attack?!" Eumacas retorted: "As long as we seize Brindisi, we can not only cut off the connection between the Mesapi people and the north, but also connect trade with the Adriatic Sea. This will benefit a lot... If you really meet the Pucheti people you said that seeing the emptiness of our city and take the opportunity to attack, then we can-"

Eumacas looked at Diesitimus, who understood what he meant and sighed: "Call for help from our alliance Dionyha!"

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Although Lucias tried his best to defend Miron, the Citizens' Congress still sentenced to "deport Miron from the country and not be allowed to return for ten years."

After hesitating for a long time, I decided to write down this history of Sparta, not to deceive the number of words, but because compared with Athens, the Spartans did not have their own detailed history, but all came from narratives from other city-state historians or stone tablets, so his city-state history was intermittent. After reading several books of information, I finally figured out the context of this Spartan history, not wanting to waste my efforts, but also wanted readers to know that the Spartan two kings' polity was also full of complex struggles, and the Spartan king Leonida, who we know, who died bravely in the hot spring gate, might not be so majestic.
Chapter completed!