Cleonymus of Sparta (344 BC-) was the second son of King Cleomenes II of Sparta. He led several campaigns in Italy as a mercenary commander during the late 4th century BC, and, in 272 BC, he launched a failed bid to claim the throne of Sparta with assistance from Pyrrhus of Epirus, but Pyrrhus' Siege of Sparta ended in disaster.
Biography[]
Cleonymus was the second son of the Spartan king Cleomenes II, but he did not succeed his father on his death in 308 BC, as he was violent and tyrannic; instead, his nephew Areus I was chosen to succeed Cleomenes. Cleonymus decided to become a mercenary in 303 BC, launching an expedition to Italy to assist Taras against the Lucanians. Cleonymus raised such a large army that the Lucanians immediately concluded peace, and he proceeded to take the city of Metaponto and capture the island of Corcyra. He later went to war with Taras, but he was defeated in a night attack, and many of his ships were destroyed in a storm. In 302 BC, he returned to Italy and conquered Thuriae, but Roman armies forced him to go back to his ships. He raided the Veneti villages around Patavium, but the local tribes inflicted heavy losses on his army, and he lost four-fifths of his ships. In 293 BC, he returned to Sparta and was sent to Boeotia to support its inhabitants against Demetrius I Poliorcetes, but he withdrew when Demetrius arrived. In 272 BC, Cleonymus finally decided to press his claim to the Spartan throne, doing so with assistance from Pyrrhus of Epirus. Pyrrhus' siege of Sparta failed, and Cleonymus was defeated.
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