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34-464: Nabis may refer to: Nabis of Sparta , reigned 207–192 BCE Nabis (art) , a Parisian post-Impressionist artistic group Nabis (bug) , a genus of insects NABIS , National Ballistics Intelligence Service, a British government agency See also [ edit ] Nabi (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

68-589: A king, who founded a dynasty of his name. That mythologizing extended even to place names. They were presumed to have been named after kings and divinities. Kings often became divinities, in their religion. The Lelegid were the descendants of Lelex (a back-formation ), ancestor of the Leleges , an ancient tribe inhabiting the Eurotas valley before the Greeks, who, according to the mythological descent, amalgamated with

102-554: A mass manumission of 6,000 helots in 222, but it was a desperate action when facing a massive army from Macedonia just before the battle of Sellasia. The evidence is slim, but it seems that Nabis freed many helots as soon as he got into power. However, he might have only freed the helots living on the land of his exiled enemies, as it seems that there were still some helots in Laconia after his reign, and did not enfranchise traditional chattel slaves. He then married some of his freedmen to

136-589: A serious threat to the Achaeans, who were considerably less successful against him when led by less competent generals. In 200 BC, alarmed at the ease with which he was ravaging their territory, the Achaeans asked the Macedonian King Philip V for help, which he did not provide. In the following years, Nabis was able to skilfully exploit the conflict between Philip and the Romans , gaining control of

170-474: Is cited by many ancient authors: Livy , Plutarch , Pausanias , Diodorus of Sicily , Justin , Eutropius and Zonaras . However, they ultimately all derive from Polybius of Megalopolis , a Greek historian of the 2nd century who mostly lived as a hostage in Rome , where he composed The Histories in 40 books, now partially lost. Polybius is treated as a historian whose takes are balanced, however his account

204-563: Is peculiar and the only occurrence among Spartan names. It is possibly the Greek version of the Hebraic word nabi , which means prophet. Jean-Georges Texier suggests that Nabis is an additional name that he received at the contact of Jews in Egypt , where he might have fled alongside Cleomenes III after his defeat at Sellasia in 222. In 225, Cleomenes III seized the city of Argos , thanks to

238-748: Is viewed by scholars as biased because he deeply hated Sparta and Nabis. Firstly, his home city of Megalopolis was besieged by Sparta several times and even destroyed by the Spartan king Cleomenes III in 223. Secondly, Polybius' father Lycortas was one of the leaders of the Achaean League , the hereditary enemy of Sparta during these years. Polybius was also a conservative politician, and Nabis' social program of land redistribution and mass manumissions revolted him. Finally, during his Roman captivity, Polybius befriended several prominent Roman statesmen and came to support Rome against its enemies, among whom

272-568: The First Macedonian War , signing a peace treaty with Rome in 205 at the Peace of Phoenice . In the following years Nabis expanded Spartan power, reconquering much of Laconia and Messene . In 204 BC, he opened raids on Megalopolis , which did not break out into war until 202. He also re-established a fleet (apparently with the help of Cretan allies, whom Polybius describes as "pirates"), and used it to re-establish control of

306-526: The archagetai , coming from two separate lines . According to tradition, the two lines, the Agiads ( Ἀγιάδαι , Agiadai ) and Eurypontids ( Εὐρυποντίδαι , Eurypontidai ), were respectively descended from the twins Eurysthenes and Procles , the descendants of Heracles , who supposedly conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War . The dynasties themselves, however, were named after

340-635: The Eurypontid Lycurgus and the Agiad Agesipolis III , who was a minor. In 217, Lycurgus forced the boy Agesipolis to go into exile and reigned alone. Lycurgus died at some point before 209, and was succeeded by his son Pelops , but as he was also a minor, a regent named Machanidas might have acted in his name. Machanidas was however defeated by the Achaean League at the battle of Mantinea in 207, during which he

374-1073: The Greeks The Lacedaemonids contain Greeks from the age of legend, now treated as being the Bronze Age in Greece. In the language of mythologic descent, the kingship passed from the Leleges to the Greeks. The Atreidai (Latin Atreidae) belong to the Late Bronze Age, or the Mycenaean Period . In mythology, they were the Perseides . As the name of Atreus is attested in Hittite documents, this dynasty may well be protohistoric. The Spartan kings as Heracleidae claimed descent from Heracles , who through his mother

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408-555: The Laconian coastline. He also fortified the city of Sparta for the first time (previously, the Spartans had viewed their city's defence as depending on the bravery of their hoplites ). In 201 BC, he invaded the territory of Messene, which had been an ally of Sparta in the previous decades, apparently an attempt to re-establish the control which Sparta had had over the region until the mid 4th century BC. Messene fell to Nabis, but

442-545: The Roman acceptance of his friendship at a time when he had already been in possession of the city as justification, Flamininus invaded Laconia. After an inconclusive campaign the Spartans were defeated, and Nabis was forced to surrender both Argos and the port of Gytheum , which gave him access to the sea. Though the territory under his control now consisted only of the city of Sparta and its immediate environs, Nabis still hoped to regain his former power. In 192 BC, seeing that

476-583: The Romans and their Achaean allies were distracted by the imminent war with King Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire and the Aetolian League , Nabis attempted to recapture Gytheum and the Laconian coastline. Initially, he was successful, capturing the port and defeating the Achaean League in a minor naval battle. Soon after, however, his army was routed by Philopoemen and shut up within

510-498: The Spartans were forced to retreat when the army of Philopoemen intervened. Nabis' forces were decisively defeated at Tegea and he was forced to check his expansionist ambitions for the time. Nabis' territorial ambitions brought him into conflict with the Achaean League, which controlled the northern half of the Peloponnese . Although repeatedly defeated by the gifted Achaean strategos Philopoemen , he nevertheless remained

544-586: The appearance of the traditional Spartan constitution , Nabis got rid of all its elements (the Gerousia , ecclesia , ephors , and dyarchy ) and ruled as an absolute monarch, akin to the other Hellenistic kings . He maintained a pomp that had hitherto been alien to Spartans, by living in a palace, keeping a stable of parade horses, and perhaps dressing with a purple mantle. Nabis also had a permanent bodyguard of mercenaries around him. Areus had minted coins with his name, but not his portrait; Cleomenes had done

578-399: The connivance of its tyrant Aristomachos II . It is probably at this time that Nabis married Aristomachos' niece Apia , in a move to seal the alliance between the two cities. Nabis and Apia had at least two sons and one daughter, of whom only their son Armenas is known by name. After the defeat of Cleomenes III at Sellasia in 222 , it took three years for Sparta to appoint two new kings:

612-568: The contrary. Nabis was the first Spartan king to mint coins with both his portrait and his name. The reverse of his tetradrachms features a seated Heracles —from whom the Spartan kings claimed descent —perhaps copied from a coin of the Seleucid king Antiochus I struck in Sardis , or from a statue made by Eutychides of Sikyon during the reign of Areus. During the Classical era , Sparta

646-510: The founder or of an early significant figure of a dynasty. A ruling family might thus have a number of dynastic names; for example, Agis I named the Agiads, but he was a Heraclid and so were his descendants. If the descent was not known or was scantily known, the Greeks made a few standard assumptions based on their cultural ideology. Agiad people were treated as a tribe, presumed to have descended from an ancestor bearing its name. He must have been

680-578: The important city of Argos as the price of his alliance with the Macedonians, and then defecting to the soon to be victorious Romans so that he might hold on to his conquest. In 195 BC, however, the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flamininus was persuaded by the Achaeans that the power of Nabis in the Peloponnese needed to be checked. Flamininus ordered Nabis to give Argos back to the Achaeans, or face war with Rome. When Nabis refused, citing

714-506: The last ruler under whom the Spartans had been a major power in Greece . Eurypontid For most of its history, the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta in the Peloponnese was ruled by kings. Sparta was unusual among the Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age . It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously , who were called

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748-510: The only Spartan boys expressly exempt from the Agoge ; however, they were allowed to take part if they so wished, and this endowed them with increased prestige when they ascended the throne. Ancient Greeks named males after their fathers, producing a patronymic with the suffix -id- ; for example, the sons of Atreus were the Atreids. For royal houses, the patronymic was formed from the name of

782-568: The origins of Nabis, which led to a wealth of theories, describing him as either a former helot , a mercenary, a perioecus , an impoverished Spartiate , or an aristocrat. An inscription found in Delos at the end of the 19th century AD citing "Nabis, son of Demaratos" led the epigraphist Théophile Homolle to conclude that Nabis was a descendant of the Eurypontid Spartan king Demaratos (r. c.515–491), who had been forced into exile by

816-674: The other king, the Agiad Cleomenes I c. 491. The former king settled in Asia, where his descent can episodically be tracked down to the third century, when the family returned to Sparta. Nabis was born c.250–45. As a member of the Eurypontid dynasty, the young Nabis must have cooperated with the Agiad king Cleomenes III to survive his reign (235–222), since Cleomenes repeatedly murdered or exiled his opponents. The name of Nabis

850-450: The title Nabis . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nabis&oldid=1226726923 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Nabis of Sparta Nabis

884-472: The twins' grandsons, the kings Agis I and Eurypon, respectively. The Agiad line was regarded as being senior to the Eurypontid line. Although there are lists of the earlier purported Kings of Sparta, there is little evidence for the existence of any kings before the middle of the sixth century BC or so. Spartan kings received a recurring posthumous hero cult like that of the similarly Doric kings of Cyrene . The kings' firstborn sons, as heirs-apparent, were

918-546: The walls of Sparta . After ravaging the surrounding countryside Philopoemen returned home. Within a few months Nabis appealed to the Aetolian League to send troops so that he might protect his territory against the Romans and the Achaean League. The Aetolians responded by sending an army of 1,000 infantry and 300 cavalry to Sparta. Once there, however, the Aetolians betrayed the tyrant – assassinating him while he

952-479: The wives and daughters of the proscribed, as Spartan women often held vast amount of land. The perioeci , the second-tier citizens of Sparta, were equally rewarded with citizenship. In foreign policy, Nabis pursued much the same policy as his predecessors: opposing the Achaean League and Macedonia by allying himself with the Aetolians , Elis , and Messene . This led him into an alliance with Rome during

986-600: Was Nabis. Since every ancient author reproduced Polybius, Nabis is universally described in ancient sources as a tyrant of the worst kind, bloodthirsty and sacrilegious. The myth of Nabis' iron maiden came from Polybius as well, while it is dismissed by modern scholars; Paul Cartledge describes it as a "overheated fantasy". Apart from the literary evidence, a few epigraphical sources give some information on Nabis and his reign, as well as his coinage and several inscriptions found in Sparta. Ancient sources are silent on

1020-436: Was composed of five villages that never fully merged. The roof tiles were stamped with Nabis' name to prevent their theft. An inscription dated from c.200 also mentions a water-commissioner, whose role was likely to make reserves in case of a siege. Nabis' most controversial part of his reforms was the enfranchisement of slaves, a measure that has been debated by ancient and modern scholars alike. Cleomenes III had already made

1054-688: Was descended from Perseus. Disallowed the Peloponnesus, Heracles embarked on a life of wandering. The Heracleidae became ascendant in the Eurotas valley with the Dorians who, at least in legend, entered it during an invasion called the Return of the Heracleidae; driving out the Atreids and at least some of the Mycenaean population. The dynasty was named after its second king, Agis. The dynasty

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1088-411: Was drilling his army outside the city. The Aetolians then attempted to take control of the city but were prevented from doing so by an uprising of the citizens. The Achaeans, seeking to take advantage of the ensuing chaos, dispatched Philopoemen to Sparta with a large army. Once there he compelled the Spartans to join the Achaean League. Nabis had thus been the last leader of an independent Sparta, and

1122-404: Was famous for not having any wall, but that changed after it became a secondary power. Its first defensive structures date from c.315, but they were mostly palisades. Nabis instead built Sparta's first full fortifications, with stone and brick walls, which enclosed a very large area of about 200 hectares. These walls completed the urbanisation of Sparta, which had remained somewhat unfinished as it

1156-495: Was slain by the Achaean leader Philopoemen . Nabis took power after the death of Machanidas. Diodorus of Sicily claims that he murdered Pelops, but it is more likely that he was already dead by that time; perhaps he confused Nabis with Machanidas. It seems that Nabis' accession was unopposed. He assumed the title of king ( basileus ) as mentioned on his coins and on some roof tiles found in Sparta. While Cleomenes had retained

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