Dorieos

Family: Spartan · Role: founder of a colony · First appears: Book 5 · §36–44

Dorieos was born to Anaxandrides’s first wife after she had long been childless; the birth was watched by the Ephors amid disputes over whether she was truly with child. He was a sibling of Leonidas, Cleombrotos, and Cleomenes.

After Cleomenes took the throne, Dorieos, indignant at the thought of being his subject, asked the Spartans for followers and left to found a colony. The Pythian prophetess told him he would conquer the land he was setting out for, and Antichares advised him to settle at Heracleia in Sicily, citing oracles of Laïos and the claim that Heracles had won Eryx for the Heracleidai. Dorieos sailed with Thessalos, Paraibates, Keleas, and Euryleon as joint-founders, and Philip also accompanied him.

His settlement in Libya at Kinyps was driven out in its third year by the Macai, Libyans, and Carthaginians, and he returned to Peloponnesus. Dorieos later died in Sicily; his son was Euryanax.

Relationship record

Life events

• Anaxandrides's first wife gave birth to Dorieos.(Book 5 · §36–44)
  • With: Anaxandrides
  • “and she bore Dorieos”
• After Cleomenes took the throne, Dorieos left with followers to found a colony.(Book 5 · §36–44 · 📍 Peloponnesus)
  • With: Cleomenes
  • “Dorieos being indignant and not thinking it fit that he should be a subject of Cleomenes, asked the Spartans to give him a company of followers and led them out to found a colony”
• Dorieos's Libyan settlement was destroyed by the Macai, Libyans, and Carthaginians, and he returned to Peloponnesus.(Book 5 · §36–44 · 📍 Kinyps)
  • “but afterwards in the third year he was driven out from thence by the Macai and the Libyans and the Carthaginians, and returned to Peloponnesus.”
• The Pythian prophetess told Dorieos he would conquer the land to which he was setting forth.(Book 5 · §36–44 · 📍 Delphi)
  • “and the Pythian prophetess replied to him that he would conquer it.”
• Dorieos died in Sicily.(Book 7 · §197–206 · 📍 Sicily)
  • With: Leonidas
  • “Dorieos was then no longer alive, but he also had brought his life to an end in Sicily”