Archidamus

Family: Lacedaemonians · Role: king and leader of the expedition · First appears: Book 2 · Chapter 6 · Part 2

Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus and king of Lacedaemon, first sent Melesippus to Athens to see if it would submit. When Athens refused, he marched into its territory; after failing to take Oenoe, he broke camp and invaded Attica. The delay at Oenoe brought him “the gravest censure,” and he was also blamed for not leading out the army and held responsible for the public suffering. The Peloponnesians ravaged Attica before withdrawing when their provisions ran out.

In the first days of summer, Archidamus again led the Lacedaemonians and their allies into Attica, laying waste to the country. The next summer, he led them instead against Plataea, offering neutrality and proposing to hold the city and land in trust. He granted the Plataeans a truce while their envoys consulted Athens, but they chose to remain loyal to the Athenians; Archidamus then began the siege by enclosing the city with a palisade and raising a mound. In a later summer, he led another invasion of Attica. Pericles, his friend, feared Archidamus might spare his estate, while Archidamus’s son was Agis.