1. Agis IV's father is indeed the most obscure of all the Spartan kings, perhaps due to a mental or physical disability.
14 Facts About Agis IV
1. 2.
Agis IV' mother was Agesistrata, daughter of Archidamia who played an important role during the siege of Sparta by Pyrrhus in 272.
3.
Agis IV succeeded his father as king in 245 BC, at around the age of 20, and reigned four years.
4.
Agis IV's schemes were warmly seconded by the poorer classes and the young men, and as strenuously opposed by the wealthy.
5.
Agis IV succeeded in gaining over three very influential persons: his uncle Agesilaus, Lysander and Mandrocleides.
6.
Agis IV proposed that the Spartan territory should be divided into two portions, one to consist of 4500 equal lots, to be divided amongst the Spartans, whose ranks were to be filled up by the admission of the most respectable of the Perioikoi and resident aliens; the other to contain 15,000 equal lots, to be divided amongst the remaining Perioikoi.
7.
Lysander, therefore, convened the assembly of the people, to whom Agis IV submitted his measure, and offered to make the first sacrifice, by giving up his own lands and money, telling them that his mother, Agesistrate, and grandmother, who were both possessed of great wealth, with all his relations and friends, would follow his example.
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John Home 8.
In 241 Agis IV was betrayed by some friends and thrown into prison.
9.
Agis IV was accused of seeking tyranny, and quickly executed by strangulation, the ephors fearing a rescue, as a great crowd of people had assembled around the prison gates.
10.
Agis IV was the first king of Sparta to have been put to death by the ephors.
11.
Agis IV is the subject of a lost biography by Phylarchus, which was apparently very heavily relied upon by Plutarch when he wrote his own biography of the king.
12.
Agis IV is the main character in the book Krol Agis IV by the Polish writer Halina Rudnicka.
13.
Agis IV is mentioned in the two other books by Halina Rudnicka: Syn Heraklesa and Heros w okowach.
14.
Agis IV appears in the play Agis IV, a blank verse tragedy by the Scottish dramatist John Home.