Pleistoanax, spelled Plistoanax, was Agiad king of Sparta from 458 to 409 BC.
18 Facts About Pleistoanax
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Pleistoanax was the leader of the peace party in Sparta at a time of violent confrontations against Athens for the hegemony over Greece.
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The son of Pausanias, Pleistoanax was still a minor in 458 BC, so his uncle Nicomedes acted as regent.
4.
Pleistoanax's first recorded action was the invasion of Athens in 446 BC as part of the First Peloponnesian War, but he chose instead to negotiate with Pericles a settlement that became the Thirty Years' Peace.
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However, Pleistoanax was sued in Sparta for his failure to take Athens and went into exile in Arcadia to avoid punishment.
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Pleistoanax lived on the sacred ground of Zeus in Mt.
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Pleistoanax renewed his efforts to make peace with Athens, which was finally concluded in 421.
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Pleistoanax belonged to the Agiad dynasty, one of the two royal families in Sparta.
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Pleistoanax was born in the second half of the 470s; two younger brothers rapidly followed: Cleomenes and Aristocles.
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Pleistoanax succeeded his cousin Pleistarchus, who died childless in 459.
11.
Pericles swiftly returned to the mainland when he heard that Pleistoanax had passed through the Isthmus and Megara to Athens, and was ravaging the area around Eleusis in Attica.
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Under this epithet, Zeus was worshipped as a god of light, so it seems that Pleistoanax aimed at finding a divine support of his deeds by living on the sacred ground of the god behind the eclipse of 446.
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Pleistoanax's son Pausanias was born at about the same time as his father's departure into exile, perhaps even after.
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Pleistoanax's return was more likely the result of Archidamus' death that year.
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Nevertheless, the corruption rumour stuck and Pleistoanax was still suspected of having bribed the Pythia in 421.
16.
When Pleistoanax returned to Sparta, the city had been at war against Athens since 431 in the Peloponnesian War, which he had tried to prevent in 446.
17.
Pleistoanax was responsible for the abrupt change of Sparta's attitude regarding Athens.
18.
Pleistoanax was chosen to lead an operation in Parrhasia, where Mantinea had built a fort in a strategic point.