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Agapanthus africanus | References | References |
Agapanthus africanus | External links | External links
Plantweb: Agapanthus africanus
africanus
Category:Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces
Category:Plants described in 1824
Category:Plants described in 1753
Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus |
Agapanthus africanus | Table of Content | Short description, Description, Ecology, Cultivation and use, Conservation, See also, References, External links |
Agamemnon | Short description | In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; Agamémnōn) was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Iphigenia, Iphianassa, Electra, Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis.Homer, Iliad 9.145. Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. Agamemnon was killed upon his return from Troy by Clytemnestra, or in an older version of the story, by Clytemnestra's lover Aegisthus. |
Agamemnon | Etymology | Etymology
Different etymologies have been proposed for the name Agamemnon (). According to one view, the name means 'very steadfast', 'unbowed' or 'resolute'. This is based on the interpretation of the name as a compound word comprising the elements 'very much' and 'to stay, wait; stand fast'. According to another view, the name developed from the unattested form * (*), a compound word composed of the elements 'very much' and 'to think on, provide for', with the overall meaning of 'very mindful'. Yet another proposal derives the second part of the compound word from 'to be inclined, to wish eagerly, to strive' for the overall meaning of 'very eagerly wishing'. Linguist Václav Blažek proposes a relationship with Vedic Sanskrit Agni on etymological and functional bases. |
Agamemnon | Description | Description
In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Agamemnon was described as "...[white-bodied], large, and powerful. He was eloquent, wise, and noble, a man richly endowed" (Agamemnonem albo corpore, magnum, membris valentibus, facundum, prudentem, nobilem).Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 13 Latin |
Agamemnon | Ancestry and early life | Ancestry and early life
thumb|Fourth century BC depiction of Chryses attempting to ransom his daughter Chryseis from Agamemnon.
Agamemnon was a descendant of Pelops, son of Tantalus.For a discussion of the house of Tantalus see Gantz, pp. 531556. For Agamemnon's genealogy see, Grimal, p. 526 Table 2, and p. 534 Table 13. According to the common story (as told in the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer), Agamemnon and his younger brother Menelaus were the sons of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and Aerope, daughter of the Cretan king Catreus.Grimal, s.v. Menelaus; Hard, pp. 355, 507, 508; Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 517; Gantz, p. 552; Parada, s.v. Agamemnon; Euripides, Helen 390–392, Orestes 16; Hyginus, Fabulae 97; Apollodorus, E.3.12; Scholia on Iliad 1.7 (citing "Homer" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137a Most) and Scholia on Tzetzes' Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (citing "Homer" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137c Most). They are also the sons of Atreus, in the Iliad and Odyssey, see for example Iliad 11.131, Odyssey 4.462, although Aerope is not mentioned (see Gantz, p. 522). See also Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 45, (Atreus as father, no mention of mother); Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 138 Most [= fr. 195 MW], and Sophocles, Ajax 12951297 (Aerope as mother, no mention of father). However, according to another tradition, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus' son Pleisthenes, with their mother being Aerope, Cleolla, or Eriphyle. In this tradition, Pleisthenes dies young, with Agamemnon and Menelaus being raised by Atreus.Hard, pp. 355, 508; Collard and Cropp 2008a, p. 517; Collard and Cropp 2008b, p. 79; Gantz, pp. 552553; Parada, s.v. Agamemnon. For Aerope as mother see: Apollodorus, 3.2.2; Dictys Cretensis, 1.1; Scholia on Iliad 1.7 (citing "Hesiod" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137a Most) and Scholia on Tzetzes' Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (citing "Hesiod" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137c Most). For Cleolla, see Tzetzes, Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (citing "Hesiod, Aeschylus, and some others" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137b Most). For Eriphyle see Gantz, p. 553 (citing Scholia on Euripides Orestes 4). Agamemnon had a sister Anaxibia (or Astyoche) who married Strophius, the son of Crisus.Hard, p. 566; Gantz, p. 223; Parada, s.vv. Anaxibia 4, Astyoche 6. For Anaxibia as the sister's name see Pausanias, 2.29.4; Dictys Cretensis, 1.1; Tzetzes, Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137b Most); Scholia on Tzetzes' Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (= Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137c Most). For Astyoche, as the sister's name, see Hyginus, Fabulae 117.
Agamemnon's father, Atreus, murdered the sons of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to Thyestes after discovering Thyestes' adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, Pelopia, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus' children. Aegisthus murdered Atreus, restored Thyestes to the throne, and took possession of the throne of Mycenae and jointly ruled with his father. During this period, Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta.
In Sparta, Agamemnon and Menelaus respectively married Tyndareus' daughters Clytemnestra and Helen. In some stories (such as Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides) Clytemnestra was already married to Tantalus, and Agamemnon murders him and the couple's infant son before marrying Clytemnestra.
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece.
Agamemnon's family history had been tarnished by murder, incest, and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor, Tantalus, and then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans and gods. |
Agamemnon | Trojan War | Trojan War |
Agamemnon | Sailing for Troy | Sailing for Troy
thumb|The Sacrifice of Iphigenia by Charles de La Fosse
Agamemnon gathers the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. In order to recruit Odysseus, who is feigning madness so as to not have to go to war, Agamemnon sends Palamedes, who threatens to kill Odysseus' infant son Telemachus. Odysseus is forced to stop acting mad in order to save his son and joined the assembled Greek forces. Preparing to depart from Aulis, a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurs the wrath of the goddess Artemis, although the myths give various reasons for this. In Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for she predicts that so many young men will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasts that he is her equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevent the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announces that the wrath of the goddess can only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia.
Classical dramatizations differ on how willing either father or daughter are to this fate; some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles, but Agamemnon does eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeases Artemis and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, say that Agamemnon is prepared to kill his daughter but that Artemis accepts a deer in her place and whisks her away to Tauris in the Crimean Peninsula. However, this version is widely considered to be the work of an interpolator, and not Euripides himself.Richard Rutherford, in John Davie (tr.), Euripides: The Bacchae and Other Plays, London, Penguin Books, 2005, pp. 174, 326–327. Hesiod says she became the goddess Hecate.
During the war, but before the events of the Iliad, Odysseus contrives a plan to get revenge on Palamedes for threatening his son's life. By forging a letter from Priam, king of the Trojans, and caching some gold in Palamedes' tent, Odysseus has Palamedes accused of treason and Agamemnon orders him to be stoned to death. |
Agamemnon | The ''Iliad'' | The Iliad
thumb|Achilles' surrender of Briseis to Agamemnon, from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii, fresco, 1st century AD, now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum
The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. In Book One, following one of the Achaean army's raids, Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, one of Apollo's priests, is taken as a war prize by Agamemnon. Chryses pleads with Agamemnon to free his daughter but meets with little success. Chryses then prays to Apollo for the safe return of his daughter. Apollo responds by unleashing a plague over the Achaean army. The prophet Calchas tells that the plague may be dispelled by returning Chryseis to her father. After bitterly berating Calchas for his painful prophecies, which first forced him to sacrifice his daughter and now to return his concubine, Agamemnon reluctantly agrees. However, Agamemnon demands a new prize from the army as compensation and seizes Achilles' prize, the beautiful captive Briseis. This creates deadly resentment between Achilles and Agamemnon, causing Achilles to withdraw from battle and refuse to fight.
Agamemnon is then visited in a dream by Zeus who tells him to rally his forces and attack the Trojans (in Book Two). After several days of fighting, including duels between Menelaus and Paris, and between Ajax and Hector, the Achaeans are pushed back to the fortifications around their ships. In Book Nine, Agamemnon, having realized Achilles's importance in winning the war, sends ambassadors begging for Achilles to return, offering him riches and the hand of his daughter in marriage. Achilles refuses, only being spurred back into action when his companion Patroclus is killed in battle by Hector, eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. In Book Nineteen, Agamemnon, reconciled with Achilles, gives him the offered rewards for returning to the war. Achilles sets out to turn back the Trojans and to duel with Hector. After Hector's death, Agamemnon assists Achilles in performing Patroclus' funeral in Book Twenty-three. Agamemnon volunteers for the javelin throwing contest, one of the games being held in Patroclus' honor, but his skill with the javelin is so well known that Achilles awards him the prize without contest.
Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of "kingly authority". As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks.
Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers, according to one source.Hyginus, Fabulae 114 . In the Iliad itself, he is shown to slaughter hundreds more in Book Eleven during his aristeia, loosely translated to "day of glory", which is the most similar to Achilles' aristeia in Book Twenty-one. Even before his aristeia, Agamemnon is considered to be one of the three best warriors on the Greek side, as proven when Hector challenges any champion of the Greek side to fight him in Book Seven, and Agamemnon (along with Diomedes and Ajax the Greater) is one of the three Hector most wishes to fight out of the nine strongest Greek warriors who volunteer. |
Agamemnon | End of the war | End of the war
thumb|The suicide of Ajax depicted on Greek pottery by Exekias, now on display at the Château-musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer
According to Sophocles' Ajax, after Achilles had fallen in battle, Agamemnon and Menelaus award Achilles' armor to Odysseus. This angers Ajax, who feels he is now the strongest among the Achaean warriors and so deserves the armor. Ajax considers killing them, but is driven to madness by Athena and instead slaughters the herdsmen and cattle that had not yet been divided as spoils of war. He then commits suicide in shame for his actions. As Ajax dies, he curses the sons of Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus), along with the entire Achaean army. Agamemnon and Menelaus consider leaving Ajax's body to rot, denying him a proper burial, but are convinced otherwise by Odysseus and Ajax's half-brother Teucer. After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, the doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam, fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. |
Agamemnon | Return to Greece and death | Return to Greece and death
thumb|The assassination of Agamemnon, an illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church, 1897
thumb|Orestes slaying Clytemnestra
After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra land in Argolis, or, in another version, are blown off course and land in Aegisthus's country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, has taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover. When Agamemnon comes home he is slain by Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story)Homer, Odyssey 3:266 or by Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon is slain in a bath by his wife alone, after being ensnared by a blanket or a net thrown over him to prevent resistance.Aeschylus, Agamemnon 13811385 . This is the case in Aeschylus' Oresteia.Aeschylus, Oresteia, edited by C. (Christopher) Collard, Oxford University Press, 2017.
In Homer's version of the story in the Odyssey, Aegisthus ambushes and kills Agamemnon in a feasting hall under the pretense of holding a feast in honor of Agamemnon's return home from Troy. Clytemnestra also kills Cassandra. Her motivations are her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia (as in the Oresteia and Iphigenia at Aulis) and her jealousy of Cassandra and other war prizes taken by Agamemnon (as in the Odyssey and works by Ovid).
Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then rule Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Atreus's crimes against Thyestes (Thyestes then crying out "thus perish all the race of Pleisthenes!",Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1602. thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse). Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenges his father's murder, with the help or encouragement of his sister Electra, by murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra (his own mother), thereby inciting the wrath of the Erinyes (English: the Furies), winged goddesses who track down wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drive them to insanity. |
Agamemnon | The Curse of the House of Atreus | The Curse of the House of Atreus
thumb|Family Tree of the House of Atreus
Agamemnon's family history is rife with misfortune, born from several curses contributing to the miasma around the family. The curse begins with Agamemnon's great-grandfather Tantalus, who is in Zeus's favor until he tries to feed his son Pelops to the gods in order to test their omniscience, as well as stealing some ambrosia and nectar. Tantalus is then banished to the underworld, where he stands in a pool of water that evaporates every time he reaches down to drink, and above him is a fruit tree whose branches are blown just out of reach by the wind whenever he reaches for the fruit. This begins the cursed house of Atreus, and his descendants would face similar or worse fates.
Later, using his relationship with Poseidon, Pelops convinces the god to grant him a chariot so he may beat Oenomaus, king of Pisa, in a race, and win the hand of his daughter Hippodamia. Myrtilus, who in some accounts helps Pelops win his chariot race, attempts to lie with Pelops's new bride Hippodamia. In anger, Pelops throws Myrtilus off a cliff, but not before Myrtilus curses Pelops and his entire line. Pelops and Hippodamia have many children, including Atreus and Thyestes, who are said to have murdered their half-brother Chrysippus. Pelops banishes Atreus and Thyestes to Mycanae, where Atreus becomes king. Thyestes later conspires with Atreus's wife, Aerope, to supplant Atreus, but they are unsuccessful. Atreus then kills Thyestes' son and cooks him into a meal which Thyestes eats, and afterwards Atreus taunts him with the hands and feet of his now dead son. Thyestes, on the advice of an oracle, then has a son with his own daughter Pelopia. Pelopia tries to expose the infant Aegisthus, but he is found by a shepherd and raised in the house of Atreus. When Aegisthus reaches adulthood Thyestes reveals the truth of his birth, and Aegisthus then kills Atreus.
Atreus and Aerope have three children, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia. The continued miasma surrounding the house of Atreus expresses itself in several events throughout their lives. Agamemnon is forced to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods and allow the Greek forces to sail for Troy. When Agamemnon refuses to return Chryseis to her father Chryses, he brings plague upon the Greek camp. He is also later killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, who conspires with her new lover Aegisthus in revenge for the death of Iphigenia. Menelaus's wife, Helen of Troy, runs away with Paris, ultimately leading to the Trojan War. According to book 4 of the Odyssey, after the war his fleet is scattered by the gods to Egypt and Crete. When Menelaus finally returns home, his marriage with Helen is now strained and they produce no sons. Both Agamemnon and Menelaus are cursed by Ajax for not granting him Achilles's armor as he commits suicide.
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra have three remaining children, Electra, Orestes, and Chrysothemis. After growing to adulthood and being pressured by Electra, Orestes vows to avenge his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. After successfully doing so, he wanders the Greek countryside for many years constantly plagued by the Erinyes (Furies) for his sins. Finally, with the help of Athena and Apollo he is absolved of his crimes, dispersing the miasma, and the curse on house Atreus comes to an end. |
Agamemnon | Other stories | Other stories
Athenaeus tells a tale of how Agamemnon mourns the loss of his friend or lover Argynnus, when he drowns in the Cephisus river. He buries him, honored with a tomb and a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis.Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae ("The Learned Banqueters") 13.603d-e. This episode is also found in Clement of Alexandria,Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus II.38.2 in Stephen of Byzantium (Kopai and Argunnos), and in Propertius, III with minor variations.Butler, Harold; Edgeworth & Barber, Eric Arthur, eds. (1933), The Elegies of Propertius, Oxford, Clarendon Press; p. 277
The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies, ancient and modern, the most famous being the Oresteia of Aeschylus. In the legends of the Peloponnesus, Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of Zeus Agamemnon. His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae.
In works of art, there is considerable resemblance between the representations of Zeus, king of the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men. He is generally depicted with a sceptre and diadem, conventional attributes of kings.
Agamemnon's mare is named Aetha. She is also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games of Patroclus.Pausanias, 5.8.3 ; Plutarch, Moralia - How the Young Man Should Study Poetry, 12
In Homer's Odyssey Agamemnon makes an appearance in the kingdom of Hades after his death. There, the former king meets Odysseus and explains just how he was murdered before he offers Odysseus a warning about the dangers of trusting a woman.Homer, Odyssey, 11.385–465 .
Agamemnon is a character in William Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War.
In Frank Herbert's Dune, the House of Atreides trace themselves back to the House of Atreus. At a key point in Children of Dune, Alia Atreides, in a struggle with her ancestral memories, hears Agamemnon shouting "I, your ancestor Agamemnon, demand audience!" |
Agamemnon | In media and art | In media and art |
Agamemnon | Visual arts | Visual arts |
Agamemnon | General works | General works
thumb|Clytemnestra and Agamemnon by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin
The Mask of Agamemnon, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, on display at National Archaeological Museum, Athens
The Tomb of Agamemnon, by Louis Desprez, 1787, on display at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1817, on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans
Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, by Frederic Leighton, 1868, on display at Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull
Agamemnon Killing Odios, anonymous, 1545, on display at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Agamemnon | With Iphigenia | With Iphigenia
thumb|The Sacrifice of Iphigenia by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Arnold Houbraken, 1690–1700, on display at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Charles de La Fosse, 1680, on display at the Palace of Versailles
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Gaetano Gandolfi, 1789, on display at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sacrificio di Ifigenia, by Pietro Testa, 1640
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1757, on display at the Villa Varmarana, Vicenza
Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Jan Steen, 1671, on display at the Leiden Collection, New York
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Sebastian Bourdon, 1653, on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans |
Agamemnon | With Achilles | With Achilles
thumb|The Anger of Achilles by Jacques-Louis David
The Quarrel Between Agamemnon and Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, 1695, on display at the Musée départemental de l'Oise, Beauvais
The Anger of Achilles, by Jacques-Louis David, 1819, on display at Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
The Wrath of Achilles, by Michel Martin Drolling, 1810, on display at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
Quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, by William Page, on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. |
Agamemnon | See also | See also
HMS Agamemnon
National Archaeological Museum of Athens |
Agamemnon | References | References |
Agamemnon | Bibliography | Bibliography
Aeschylus, Agamemnon in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes, Vol. 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, 1921, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, Volume VI: Books 12-13.594b, edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson, Loeb Classical Library, No. 345, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2011 , Online version at Harvard University Press.
Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp (2008a), Euripides Fragments: AegeusMeleanger, Loeb Classical Library, No. 504, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2008 , Online version at Harvard University Press.
Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp (2008b), Euripides Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus: Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library No. 506, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2008 , Online version at Harvard University Press.
Dictys Cretensis, The Trojan War - The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian, translated by R. M. Frazer (Jr.), Indiana University Press, 1966.
Euripides, Helen, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill Jr, Volume 2, New York, Random House, 1938, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill Jr, Volume 2, New York, Random House, 1938, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Euripides, Orestes, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill Jr, Volume 1, New York, Random House, 1938, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
Grimal, Pierre; The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996 .
Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004 , Google Books.
Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, 1924, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann, 1919, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 1960, Online version at ToposText.
Glenn W. Most, Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, No. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2007, 2018 , Online version at Harvard University Press.
Parada, Carlos, Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag, 1993 .
Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, 1918, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Sophocles, The Ajax of Sophocles - Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb, Sir Richard Jebb, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1893, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Agamemnon | Primary sources | Primary sources
Homer, Iliad
Euripides, Electra
Sophocles, Electra
Seneca, Agamemnon
Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers
Homer, Odyssey I, 28–31; XI, 385–464
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Apollodorus, Epitome, II, 15 – III, 22; VI, 23 |
Agamemnon | External links | External links
Agamemnon – World History Encyclopedia
Category:Achaean Leaders
Category:Deeds of Artemis
Category:Filicide in mythology
Category:Greek mythological heroes
Category:Kings of Mycenae
Category:Metamorphoses characters
Category:Atreidai
Category:Characters in the Iliad
Category:Characters in the Odyssey |
Agamemnon | Table of Content | Short description, Etymology, Description, Ancestry and early life, Trojan War, Sailing for Troy, The ''Iliad'', End of the war, Return to Greece and death, The Curse of the House of Atreus, Other stories, In media and art, Visual arts, General works, With Iphigenia, With Achilles, See also, References, Bibliography, Primary sources, External links |
Aga Khan I | short description | Prince Hasan Ali Shah (; 1804 – 12 April 1881), known as Aga Khan I (), was the 46th hereditary imam of the Nizari Isma'ilis. He served as the governor of Kerman and a prominent leader in Iran and later in the Indian subcontinent. He was the first Nizari imam to hold the title Aga Khan. |
Aga Khan I | Early life and family | Early life and family
The Imam Hasan Ali Shah was born in 1804 in Kahak, Iran to Shah Khalil Allah III, the 45th Ismaili Imam, and Bibi Sarkara, the daughter of Muhammad Sadiq Mahallati (d. 1815), a poet and a Ni‘mat Allahi Sufi. Shah Khalil Allah moved to Yazd in 1815, probably out of concern for his Indian followers, who used to travel to Persia to see their Imam and for whom Yazd was a much closer and safer destination than Kahak. Meanwhile, his wife and children (Including Hasan Ali) continued to live in Kahak off the revenues obtained from the family holdings in the Mahallat () region. Two years later, in 1817, Shah Khalil Allah was killed in Yazd during a brawl between some of his followers and local shopkeepers. He was succeeded by his eldest son Hasan Ali Shah, also known as Muhammad Hasan, who became the 46th Imam.
While Khalil Allah resided in Yazd, his land holdings in Kahak were being managed by his son-in-law, Imani Khan Farahani, husband of his daughter Shah Bibi. After Khalil Allah's death, a conflict ensued between Imani Khan Farahani and the local Nizaris (followers of Imam Khalil Allah), as a result of which Khalil Allah's widow and children found themselves left unprovided for.The Ismailis & their history The young Imam and his mother moved to Qumm, but their financial situation worsened. The dowager decided to go to the Qajar court in Tehran to obtain justice for her husband's death and was eventually successful. Those who had been involved in the Shah Khalil Allah's murder were punished. Not only that, but the Persian king Fath Ali Shah gave his own daughter, princess Sarv-i-Jahan Khanum, in marriage to the young Imam Hasan Ali Shah and provided a princely dowry in land holdings in the Mahallat region. King Fath Ali Shah also appointed Hasan Ali Shah as governor of Qumm and bestowed upon him the honorific of "Aga Khan". Thus did the title of "Aga Khan" enter the family. Hasan Ali Shah become known as Aga Khan Mahallati, and the title of Aga Khan was inherited by his successors. Aga Khan I's mother later moved to India where she died in 1851. Until Fath Ali Shah's death in 1834, the Imam Hasan Ali Shah enjoyed a quiet life and was held in high esteem at the Qajar court. |
Aga Khan I | Governorship of Kerman | Governorship of Kerman
Soon after the accession of Muhammad Shah Qajar to the throne of his grandfather, Fath Ali Shah, the Imam Hasan Ali Shah was appointed governor of Kerman in 1835. At the time, Kerman was held by the rebellious sons of Shuja al-Saltana, a pretender to the Qajar throne. The area was also frequently raided by the Afghans. Hasan Ali Shah managed to restore order in Kerman, as well as in Bam and Narmashir, which were also held by rebellious groups. Hasan Ali Shah sent a report of his success to Tehran, but did not receive any material appreciation for his achievements. Despite the service he rendered to the Qajar government, Hasan Ali Shah was dismissed from the governorship of Kerman in 1837, less than two years after his arrival there, and was replaced by Firuz Mirza Nusrat al-Dawla, a younger brother of Muhammad Shah Qajar. Refusing to accept his dismissal, Hasan Ali Shah withdrew with his forces to the citadel at Bam. Along with his two brothers, he made preparations to resist the government forces that were sent against him. He was besieged at Bam for some fourteen months. When it was clear that continuing the resistance was of little use, Hasan Ali Shah sent one of his brothers to Shiraz in order to speak to the governor of Fars to intervene on his behalf and arrange for safe passage out of Kerman. With the governor having interceded, Hasan Ali Shah surrendered and emerged from the citadel of Bam only to be double-crossed. He was seized and his possessions were plundered by the government troops. Hasan Ali Shah and his dependents were sent to Kerman and remained as prisoners there for eight months. He was eventually allowed to go to Tehran near the end of 1838-39 where he was able to present his case before the Shah. The Shah pardoned him on the condition that he return peacefully to Mahallat. Hasan Ali Shah remained in Mahallat for about two years. He managed to gather an army in Mahallat which alarmed Muhammad Shah, who travelled to Delijan near Mahallat to determine the truth of the reports about Hasan Ali Shah. Hasan Ali Shah was on a hunting trip at the time, but he sent a messenger to request permission of the monarch to go to Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage. Permission was given, and Hasan Ali Shah's mother and a few relatives were sent to Najaf and other holy cities in Iraq in which the shrines of his ancestors, the Shiite Imams are found.
Prior to leaving Mahallat, Hasan Ali Shah equipped himself with letters appointing him to the governorship of Kerman. Accompanied by his brothers, nephews and other relatives, as well as many followers, he left for Yazd, where he intended to meet some of his local followers. Hasan Ali Shah sent the documents reinstating him to the position of governor of Kerman to Bahman Mirza Baha al-Dawla, the governor of Yazd. Bahman Mirza offered Hasan Ali Shah lodging in the city, but Hasan Ali Shah declined, indicating that he wished to visit his followers living around Yazd. Hajji Mirza Aqasi sent a messenger to Bahman Mirza to inform him of the spuriousness of Hasan Ali Shah's documents and a battle between Bahman Mīrzā and Hasan Ali Shah broke out in which Bahman Mirza was defeated. Other minor battles were won by Hasan Ali Shah before he arrived in Shahr-e Babak, which he intended to use as his base for capturing Kerman. At the time of his arrival in Shahr-e Babak, a formal local governor was engaged in a campaign to drive out the Afghans from the city's citadel, and Hasan Ali Shah joined him in forcing the Afghans to surrender.
Soon after March 1841, Hasan Ali Shah set out for Kerman. He managed to defeat a government force consisting of 4,000 men near Dashtab, and continued to win a number of victories before stopping at Bam for a time. Soon, a government force of 24,000 men forced Hasan Ali Shah to flee from Bam to Rigan on the border of Baluchistan, where he suffered a decisive defeat. Hasan Ali Shah decided to escape to Afghanistan, accompanied by his brothers and many soldiers and servants. |
Aga Khan I | Afghanistan | Afghanistan
Fleeing Iran, Hasan Ali Shah arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1841 – a town that had been occupied by an Anglo-Indian army in 1839 in the First Anglo-Afghan War. A close relationship developed between Hasan Ali Shah and the British, which coincided with the final years of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838–1842). After his arrival, Hasan Ali Shah wrote to Sir William Macnaghten, discussing his plans to seize and govern Herat on behalf of the British. Although the proposal seemed to have been approved, the plans of the British were thwarted by the uprising of Dost Muhammad's son Muhammad Akbar Khan, who defeated and annihilated the British-Indian garrison at Gandamak on its retreat from Kabul in January 1842. |
Aga Khan I | Sindh | Sindh
Hasan Ali Shah soon proceeded to Sindh, where he rendered further services to the British. The British were able to annex Sindh and for his services, Hasan Ali Shah received an annual pension of £2,000 from General Charles James Napier, the British conqueror of Sindh with whom he had a good relationship. |
Aga Khan I | Bombay | Bombay
In October 1844, Hasan Ali Shah left Sindh for the city of Bombay in the Bombay Presidency, British India passing through Cutch and Kathiawar where he spent some time visiting the communities of his followers in the area. After arriving in Bombay in February 1846, the Persian government demanded his extradition from India. The British refused and only agreed to transfer Hasan Ali Shah's residence to Calcutta, where it would be harder for him to launch new attacks against the Persian government. The British also negotiated the safe return of Hasan Ali Shah to Persia, which was in accordance with his own wish. The government agreed to Hasan Ali Shah's return provided that he would avoid passing through Baluchistan and Kirman and that he was to settle peacefully in Mahallat. Hasan Ali Shah was eventually forced to leave for Calcutta in April 1847, where he remained until he received news of the death of Muhammad Shah Qajar. Hasan Ali Shah left for Bombay and the British attempted to obtain permission for his return to Persia. Although some of his lands were restored to the control of his relatives, his safe return could not be arranged, and Hasan Ali Shah was forced to remain a permanent resident of India. While in India, Hasan Ali Shah continued his close relationship with the British, and was even visited by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) when he was on a state visit to India. The British came to address Hasan Ali Shah as His Highness. Hasan Ali Shah received protection from the British government in British India as the spiritual head of an important Muslim community. |
Aga Khan I | Khoja reassumption and dispute | Khoja reassumption and dispute
The vast majority of his Khoja Ismaili followers in India welcomed him warmly, but some dissident members, sensing their loss of prestige with the arrival of the Imam, wished to maintain control over communal properties. Because of this, Hasan Ali Shah decided to secure a pledge of loyalty from the members of the community to himself and to the Ismaili form of Islam. Although most of the members of the community signed a document issued by Hasan Ali Shah summarizing the practices of the Ismailis, a group of dissenting Khojas surprisingly asserted that the community had always been Sunni. This group was outcast by the unanimous vote of all the Khojas assembled in Bombay. In 1866, these dissenters filed a suit in the Bombay High Court against Hasan Ali Shah, claiming that the Khojas had been Sunni Muslims from the very beginning. The case, commonly referred to as the Aga Khan Case, was heard by Sir Joseph Arnould. The hearing lasted several weeks, and included testimony from Hasan Ali Shah himself. After reviewing the history of the community, Justice Arnould gave a definitive and detailed judgement against the plaintiffs and in favour of Hasan Ali Shah and other defendants. The judgement was significant in that it legally established the status of the Khojas as a community referred to as Shia Nizari Ismailis, and of Hasan Ali Shah as the spiritual head of that community. Hasan Ali Shah's authority thereafter was not seriously challenged again. |
Aga Khan I | Final years | Final years
Hasan Ali Shah spent his final years in Bombay with occasional visits to Pune. Maintaining the traditions of the Iranian nobility to which he belonged, he kept excellent stables and became a well-known figure at the Bombay racecourse. Hasan Ali Shah died after an imamate of sixty-four years in April 1881. He was buried in a specially built shrine at Hasanabad in the Mazagaon area of Bombay. He was survived by three sons and five daughters. Hasan Ali Shah was succeeded as Imam by his eldest son Aqa Ali Shah, who became Aga Khan II. |
Aga Khan I | Titles and honours | Titles and honours
The titles Prince and Princess are used by the Aga Khans and their children by virtue of their descent from Shah Fath Ali Shah of the Persian Qajar dynasty. The princely title was officially recognised by the British government to the entire family of the Aga Khan in 1938.Edwards, Anne (1996). Throne of Gold: The Lives of the Aga Khans, New York: William Morrow.
The title of 'His Highness' was initially granted by the British Monarch to the Ismaili Imams dating back in mid 1800s, to the first Aga Khan, in recognition as a religious leader of global importance and his role as spiritual head of the Ismaili community resides in Commonwealth countries. |
Aga Khan I | Notes | Notes |
Aga Khan I | Further reading | Further reading
Category:People of Qajar Iran
Category:1804 births
Category:1881 deaths
Category:Aga Khans
Category:Iranian Ismailis
Category:Indian Ismailis
Category:Indian imams
Category:People from Qom province
Category:Iranian emigrants to India
Category:19th-century Iranian people
Category:19th-century Ismailis |
Aga Khan I | Table of Content | short description, Early life and family, Governorship of Kerman, Afghanistan, Sindh, Bombay, Khoja reassumption and dispute, Final years, Titles and honours, Notes, Further reading |
Aga Khan III | short description | Sir Sultan Muhammed Shah (; 2 November 187711 July 1957), known as Aga Khan III (), was the 48th imam of the Nizari Ism'aili branch of Shia Islam. He was one of the founders and the first permanent president of the All-India Muslim League (AIML). His goal was the advancement of Muslim agendas and the protection of Muslim rights in British India. The League, until the late 1930s, was not a large organisation but represented landed and commercial Muslim interests as well as advocating for British education during the British Raj. Aga Khan called on the British Raj to consider Muslims to be a separate nation within India, the famous 'Two Nation Theory'. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas. He was nominated to represent India at the League of Nations in 1932 and served as President of the 18th Assembly of The League of Nations (1937–1938). |
Aga Khan III | Early life | Early life
He was born in Karachi, Sindh (now in Pakistan), in 1877 under the British Raj, to Aga Khan II (who had emigrated from Persia) and his third wife, Nawab A'lia Shamsul-Muluk, a granddaughter of Fath Ali Shah of Persia. After attending Eton College, he studied at the University of Cambridge."Aga Khan, Fashionable Londoner, Holds Enormous Power in Islam", The New York Times,8 July 1923, p. XX5. |
Aga Khan III | Career | Career
In 1885, at the age of seven, he succeeded his father as Imam of the Shi'a Isma'ili Muslims.
thumb|Aga Khan III in Chicago, United States of America, 1907.
The Aga Khan travelled to distant parts of the world to receive the homage of his followers, with the objective either of settling differences or of advancing their welfare through financial help and personal advice and guidance. The distinction of Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (KCIE) was conferred upon him by Queen Victoria in 1897, and he was promoted to Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list and invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on October 24, 1902. He was made a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) by George V (1912) and appointed a GCMG in 1923. He received recognition for his public services from the German Emperor, the Sultan of Turkey, the Shah of Persia, and other potentates.
In 1906, Aga Khan was a founding member and first president of the All India Muslim League, a political party that pushed for the creation of an independent Muslim nation in the north-west regions of India, then under British colonial rule, and later established the country of Pakistan in 1947.
During the three Round Table Conferences (India) in London from 1930 to 1932, he played an important role in bringing about Indian constitutional reforms. In 1934, he was made a member of the Privy Council.
There were similarities in Aga Khan's views on education with those of other Muslim social reformers, but the scholar Shenila Khoja-Moolji argues that he also expressed a distinct interest in advancing women's education for women themselves. |
Aga Khan III | Imamat | Imamat
Under the leadership of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, the first half of the 20th century was a period of significant development for the Ismā'īlī community. Numerous institutions for social and economic development were established in the Indian Subcontinent and in East Africa. Ismailis have marked the jubilees of their Imāms with public celebrations, which are symbolic affirmations of the ties that link the Ismāʿīlī Imām and its followers. Although the Jubilees have no religious significance, they serve to reaffirm the Imamat's worldwide commitment to the improvement of the quality of human life, especially in developing countries.
The Jubilees of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, are well remembered. During his 72 years of Imamat (1885–1957), the community celebrated his Golden (1937), Diamond (1946), and Platinum (1954) Jubilees. To show their appreciation and affection, the Ismā'īliyya weighed their Imam in gold, diamonds, and, symbolically, platinum, respectively, the proceeds of which were used to further develop major social welfare and development institutions in Asia and Africa.
In India and later in Pakistan, social development institutions were established, in the words of Aga Khan III, "for the relief of humanity". They included institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Trust and Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited, which in turn assisted the growth of various types of cooperative societies. Diamond Jubilee High School for Girls was established throughout the remote northern areas of what is now Pakistan. In addition, scholarship programmes, established at the time of the Golden Jubilee to give assistance to needy students, were progressively expanded. In East Africa, major social welfare and economic development institutions were established. Those involved in social welfare included the accelerated development of schools and community centres and a modern, fully equipped hospital in Nairobi. Among the economic development institutions established in East Africa were companies such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust (now Diamond Trust of Kenya) and the Jubilee Insurance Company, which are quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and have become major players in national development.
Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah also introduced organisational reforms that gave Ismāʿīlī communities the means to structure and regulate their own affairs. These were built on the Muslim tradition of a communitarian ethic on the one hand and a responsible individual conscience with the freedom to negotiate one's own moral commitment and destiny on the other. In 1905, he ordained the first Ismā'īlī Constitution for the social governance of the community in East Africa. The new administration for the community's affairs was organised into a hierarchy of councils at the local, national, and regional levels. The constitution also set out rules in such matters as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, guidelines for mutual cooperation and support among Ismā'īlīs, and their interface with other communities. Similar constitutions were promulgated in India, and all were periodically revised to address emerging needs and circumstances in diverse settings.
In 1905, the Aga Khan was involved in the Haji Bibi case, where he was questioned about the origin of his followers. In his response, in addition to enumerating his followers in Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Syria and other places, he also noted that “In Hindustan and Africa there are many Guptis who believe in me… I consider them Shi’i Imami Ismailis; by caste they are Hindus”.
Following the Second World War, far-reaching social, economic and political changes profoundly affected a number of areas where Ismāʿīlīs resided. In 1947, British rule in the Indian Subcontinent was replaced by the sovereign, independent nations of India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh, resulting in the migration of millions people and significant loss of life and property. In the Middle East, the Suez crisis of 1956 as well as the preceding crisis in Iran, demonstrated the sharp upsurge of nationalism, which was as indicative of the region's social and economic aspirations as of its political independence. Africa was also set on its course to decolonisation, swept by what Harold Macmillan, the then British prime minister, termed the "wind of change". By the early 1960s, most of East and Central Africa, where the majority of the Ismāʿīlī population on the continent resided, including Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire, had attained their political independence. |
Aga Khan III | Religious and social views | Religious and social views
The Aga Khan was deeply influenced by the views of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan. Along with Sir Sayyid, the Aga Khan was one of the backers and founders of the Aligarh University, for which he tirelessly raised funds and to which he donated large sums of his own money. The Aga Khan himself can be considered an Islamic modernist and an intellectual of the Aligarh movement.
From a religious standpoint, the Aga Khan followed a modernist approach to Islam. He believed there to be no contradiction between religion and modernity, and urged Muslims to embrace modernity. Although he opposed a wholesale replication of Western society by Muslims, the Aga Khan did believe increased contact with the West would be overall beneficial to Muslim society. He was intellectually open to Western philosophy and ideas, and believed engagement with them could lead to a revival and renaissance within Islamic thought.
Like many other Islamic modernists, the Aga Khan held a low opinion of the traditional religious establishment (the ʿUlamāʾ) as well as what he saw as their rigid formalism, legalism, and literalism. Instead, he advocated for renewed ijtihād (independent reasoning) and ijmāʿ (consensus), the latter of which he understood in a modernist way to mean consensus-building. According to him, Muslims should go back to the original sources, especially the Qurʾān, in order to discover the true essence and spirit of Islam.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 1183 Once the principles of the faith were discovered, they would be seen to be universal and modern.Aga Khan III 1998, pp. 1345–1346 Islam, in his view, had an underlying liberal and democratic spirit.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 211 He also called for full civil and religious liberties,Aga Khan III 1998, p. 876 peace and disarmament, and an end to all wars.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 1415
The Aga Khan opposed sectarianism, which he believed to sap the strength and unity of the Muslim community.Aga Khan III 1998, pp. 210, 803 In specific, he called for a rapprochement between Sunnism and Shīʿism.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 1184 This did not mean that he thought religious differences would go away, and he himself instructed his Ismāʿīlī followers to be dedicated to their own teachings.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 1407 However, he believed in unity through accepting diversity, and by respecting differences of opinion.Aga Khan III 1998, pp. 842 & 1063 On his view, there was strength to be found in the diversity of Muslim traditions.Rattansi 1981, p. 207
The Aga Khan called for social reform in Muslim society, and he was able to implement them within his own Ismāʿīlī community. As he believed Islam to essentially be a humanitarian religion, the Aga Khan called for the reduction and eradication of poverty.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 216 Like Sir Sayyid, the Aga Khan was concerned that Muslims had fallen behind the Hindu community in terms of education.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 235 According to him, education was the path to progress.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 208 He was a tireless advocate for compulsory and universal primary education,Aga Khan III 1998, p. 217 and also for the creation of higher institutions of learning.Aga Khan III 1998, pp. 212-213
In terms of women's rights, the Aga Khan was more progressive in his views than Sir Sayyid and many other Islamic modernists of his time. The Aga Khan framed his pursuit of women's rights not simply in the context of women being better mothers or wives, but rather, for women's own benefit.Khoja-Moolji 2018, p. 31 He endorsed the spiritual equality of men and women in Islam, and he also called for full political equality. This included the right to voteAga Khan III 1998, pp. 593 & 645 and the right to an education.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 586 In regards to the latter issue, he endorsed compulsory primary education for girls.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 1117 He also encouraged women to pursue higher university-level education, and saw nothing wrong with co-educational institutions.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 587 Whereas Sir Sayyid prioritized the education of boys over girls, the Aga Khan instructed his followers that if they had a son and daughter, and if they could only afford to send one of them to school, they should send the daughter over the boy.Aga Khan III 1998, p. 1211–1212
The Aga Khan campaigned against the institution of purda and zenāna, which he felt were oppressive and un-Islamic institutions. He completely banned the purda and the face veil for his Ismāʿīlī followers.Khoja-Moolji 2018, p. 32 The Aga Khan also restricted polygamy, encouraged marriage to widows, and banned child marriage. He also made marriage and divorce laws more equitable to women. Overall, he encouraged women to take part in all national activities and to agitate for their full religious, social, and political rights.
Today, in large part due to the Aga Khan's reforms, the Ismāʿīlī community is one of the most progressive, peaceful, and prosperous branches of Islam. |
Aga Khan III | Racehorse ownership and equestrianism | Racehorse ownership and equestrianism
thumb|Aga Khan III and his horse Blenheim ridden by Wragg, winner of the Epsom Derby (June 4, 1930)
He was an owner of Thoroughbred racing horses, including a record equaling five winners of The Derby (Blenheim, Bahram, Mahmoud, My Love, Tulyar) and a total of sixteen winners of British Classic Races. He was a British flat racing Champion Owner thirteen times. According to Ben Pimlott, biographer of Queen Elizabeth II, the Aga Khan presented Her Majesty with a filly called Astrakhan, who won at Hurst Park Racecourse in 1950.
In 1926, the Aga Khan gave a cup (the Aga Khan Trophy) to be awarded to the winners of an international team show jumping competition held at the annual horse show of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, Ireland, every first week in August.The Aga Khan Trophy, Dublin Horse Show, accessed 9 July 2007 It attracts competitors from all of the main show jumping nations and is carried live on Irish national television. |
Aga Khan III | Marriages and children | Marriages and children
He married, on November 2, 1896, in Pune, India, Shahzadi Begum, his first cousin and a granddaughter of Aga Khan I.
He married in 1908, Cleope Teresa Magliano (1888–1926). They had two sons: Prince Giuseppe Mahdi Khan (d. February 1911) and Prince Aly Khan (1911–1960). She died in 1926, following an operation on December 1, 1926."Aga Khan's Wife Dies As He Buys Big Gem", The New York Times, 2 December 1926, p. 2
He married, on 7 December 1929 (civil), in Aix-les-Bains, France, and 13 December 1929 (religious), in Bombay, India, Andrée Joséphine Carron (1898–1976). A co-owner of a dressmaking shop in Paris, she became known as Princess Andrée Aga Khan. By this marriage, he had one son, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933–2003)."Aga Khan Again a Father", The New York Times, 18 January 1933, p. 9. The couple was divorced in 1943."Princess Andrée", The New York Times, 30 December 1976, p. 19.
thumb|Aga Khan III and Begum Yvette, 1954.He married, on October 9, 1944, in Geneva, Switzerland, Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan (Yvonne Blanche Labrousse) (15 February 19061 July 2000). According to an interview she gave to an Egyptian journalist, her first name was Yvonne, though she is referred to as Yvette in most published references. The daughter of a tram conductor and a dressmaker, she was working as Aga Khan's social secretary at the time of their marriage. She converted to Islam and became known as Om Habibeh (Little Mother of the Beloved). In 1954, her husband bestowed upon her the title "Mata Salamat"."The Begum Aga Khan III", The Daily Telegraph, Issue 45115, 3 July 2000. |
Aga Khan III | Publications | Publications
He wrote a number of books and papers two of which are of immense importance, namely (1) India in Transition, about the prepartition politics of India and (2) The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time, his autobiography. The Aga Khan III proposed "the South Asiatic FederationThe Aga Khan; India in Transition, Bombay,1918, pp.45-46." in India in Transition that India might be re-organized into some states, and those states should have their own autonomies. He was the first person to design a detailed plan of such a federation of India.
thumb|Mausoleum of Aga Khan – Aswan, Egypt.
thumb|Mausoleum of Aga Khan, on the Nile. |
Aga Khan III | Death and succession | Death and succession
Aga Khan III was succeeded as Aga Khan by his grandson Karim Aga Khan, who succeeded him as Imam of the Ismaili Muslims. At the time of his death on 11 July 1957, he was surrounded by his family members in Versoix. His last words were repeating the verses of the Quran.https://www.ismaili.net/histoire/history08/history835.html
On July 12, a solicitor brought the will of the Aga Khan III from London to Geneva and read it before the family:
"Ever since the time of my ancestor Ali, the first Imam, that is to say over a period of thirteen hundred years, it has always been the tradition of our family that each Imam chooses his successor at his absolute and unfettered discretion from amongst any of his descendants, whether they be sons or remote male issue and in these circumstances and in view of the fundamentally altered conditions in the world in very recent years due to the great changes which have taken place including the discoveries of atomic science, I am convinced that it is in the best interest of the Shia Muslim Ismailia Community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age and who brings a new outlook on life to his office as Imam.For these reasons, I appoint my grandson Karim, the son of my own son, Aly Salomone Khan to succeed to the title of Aga Khan and to the Imam and Pir of all Shia Ismailian followers.I desire that my successor shall, during the first seven years of his Imamat, be guided on questions of general Imamat Policy, by my said wife, Yvette called Yve Blanche Labrousse Om Habibeh, the Begum Aga Khan, who has been familiar for many years with the problems facing my followers, and in whose wise judgment, I place the greatest confidence. I warn my successor to the Imamat, never to do anything during his Imamat that would reduce the responsibility of the Imam for the maintenance of the true Shia Imami Ismaili faith, as developed historically from the time of my ancestor Ali, the founder until my own."
He is buried in the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, on the Nile in Aswan, Egypt (at ). |
Aga Khan III | Legacy | Legacy
Pakistan Post issued a special 'Birth Centenary of Agha Khan III' postage stamp in his honor in 1977. Pakistan Post again issued a postage stamp in his honor in its 'Pioneers of Freedom' series in 1990. |
Aga Khan III | Honours | Honours
21 May 1898 Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, KCIE
1901 First Class of the Royal Prussian Order of the Crown – in recognition of the valuable services rendered by His Highness to the Imperial German Government in the settlement of various matters with the Mohammedan population of German East Africa
26 June 1902 Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, GCIE
12 December 1911 Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India, GCSI
30 May 1923 Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, GCVO – on the occasion of the King's birthday
1 January 1934 Appointed a member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council by King George V
1 January 1955 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, GCMG –
14 November 1960 Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator, GCIH. |
Aga Khan III | References | References |
Aga Khan III | Sources | Sources
Daftary, F., "The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines", Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Khoja-Moolji, Shenila. “Redefining Muslim women: Aga Khan III’s reforms for women’s education.” South Asia Graduate Research Journal 20, no. 1, 2011, 69-94.
Khoja-Moolji, Shenila. Forging the Ideal Educated Girl. The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018.
Naoroji M. Dumasia, A Brief History of the Aga Khan (1903).
Aga Khan III, "The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time", London: Cassel & Company, 1954; published the same year in the United States by Simon & Schuster.
Edwards, Anne (1996). "Throne of Gold: The Lives of the Aga Khans", New York: William Morrow, 1996
Naoroji M. Dumasia, "The Aga Khan and his ancestors", New Delhi: Readworthy Publications (P) Ltd., 2008
Valliani, Amin; "Aga Khan's Role in the Founding and Consolidation of the All India Muslim League", Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society (2007) 55# 1/2, pp 85–95. |
Aga Khan III | External links | External links
Video Clip from the History Channel website
Institute of Ismaili Studies: Selected speeches of Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III
The Official Ismaili Website
Official Website of Aga Khan Development Network
Aga Khan materials in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
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Category:20th-century Ismailis |
Aga Khan III | Table of Content | short description, Early life, Career, Imamat, Religious and social views, Racehorse ownership and equestrianism, Marriages and children, Publications, Death and succession, Legacy, Honours, References, Sources, External links |
Agasias | '''Agasias''' | Agasias was the name of several people in classical history, including two Greek sculptors.
Agasias of Arcadia, a warrior mentioned by Xenophon
Agasias, son of Dositheus, Ephesian sculptor of the Borghese Gladiator
Agasias, son of Menophilus (), Ephesian sculptor
Category:Greek masculine given names
Category:Masculine given names |
Agasias | Table of Content | '''Agasias''' |
Alexander Agassiz | Short description | Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (December 17, 1835March 27, 1910), son of Louis Agassiz and stepson of Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, was an American scientist and engineer. |
Alexander Agassiz | Biography | Biography
Agassiz was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and immigrated to the United States with his parents, Louis and Cecile (Braun) Agassiz, in 1846. He graduated from Harvard University in 1855, subsequently studying engineering and chemistry, and taking the degree of Bachelor of Science at the Lawrence Scientific School of the same institution in 1857; in 1859 became an assistant in the United States Coast Survey.
Thenceforward he became a specialist in marine ichthyology. Agassiz was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1862. Up until the summer of 1866, Agassiz worked as assistant curator in the museum of natural history that his father founded at Harvard.
thumb|left|Agassiz
E. J. Hulbert, a friend of Agassiz's brother-in-law, Quincy Adams Shaw, had discovered a rich copper lode known as the Calumet conglomerate on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan. Hulbert persuaded them, along with a group of friends, to purchase a controlling interest in the mines, which later became known as the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company based in Calumet, Michigan. That summer, he took a trip to see the mines for himself and he afterwards became treasurer of the enterprise.
Over the winter of 1866 and early 1867, mining operations began to falter, due to the difficulty of extracting copper from the conglomerate. Hulbert had sold his interests in the mines and had moved on to other ventures. But Agassiz refused to give up hope for the mines. He returned to the mines in March 1867, with his wife and young son. At that time, Calumet was a remote settlement, virtually inaccessible during the winter and very far removed from civilization even during the summer. With insufficient supplies at the mines, Agassiz struggled to maintain order, while back in Boston, Shaw was saddled with debt and the collapse of their interests. Shaw obtained financial assistance from John Simpkins, the selling agent for the enterprise to continue operations.
Agassiz continued to live at Calumet, making gradual progress in stabilizing the mining operations, such that he was able to leave the mines under the control of a general manager and return to Boston in 1868 before winter closed navigation. The mines continued to prosper and in May 1871, several mines were consolidated to form the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company with Shaw as its first president. In August 1871, Shaw "retired" to the board of directors and Agassiz became president, a position he held until his death. Until the turn of the century, this company was by far the largest copper producer in the United States, many years producing over half of the total.
Agassiz was a major factor in the mine's continued success and visited the mines twice a year. He innovated by installing a giant engine, known as the Superior, which was able to lift 24 tons of rock from a depth of . He also built a railroad and dredged a channel to navigable waters. However, after a time the mines did not require his full-time, year-round, attention and he returned to his interests in natural history at Harvard. Out of his copper fortune, he gave some US$500,000 to Harvard for the museum of comparative zoology and other purposes.
thumb|right|upright=.8|Castle Hill Inn, Agassiz's Newport cottage
Shortly after the death of his father in 1873, Agassiz acquired a small peninsula in Newport, Rhode Island, which features views of Narragansett Bay. Here he built a substantial house and a laboratory for use as his summer residence. The house was completed in 1875 and today is known as the Inn at Castle Hill.
He was a member of the scientific-expedition to South America in 1875, where he inspected the copper mines of Peru and Chile, and made extended surveys of Lake Titicaca, besides collecting invaluable Peruvian antiquities, which he gave to the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), of which he was first curator from 1874 to 1885 and then director until his death in 1910, his personal secretary Elizabeth Hodges Clark running the day-to-day management of the MCZ when his work took him abroad.About MCZ (History) – http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/about/history.html Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University Annual Report 2017-2018 - https://mcz.harvard.edu/files/mcz/files/mcz_ar_2017-2018_final_web.pdfFossil Histories: Behind the Scenes in Harvard's Paleontology Collections - https://library.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/styles/carousel_1200_x_900/public/IMG_5923sm.jpg?itok=ruNtCTcz He assisted Charles Wyville Thomson in the examination and classification of the collections of the 1872 Challenger Expedition, and wrote the Review of the Echini (2 vols., 1872–1874) in the reports. Between 1877 and 1880, he took part in the three dredging expeditions of the steamer Blake of the Coast Survey (renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1878), and presented a full account of them in two volumes (1888). Also in 1875, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.
In 1896, Agassiz visited Fiji and Queensland and inspected the Great Barrier Reef, publishing a paper on the subject in 1898.
Of Agassiz's other writings on marine zoology, most are contained in the bulletins and memoirs of the museum of comparative zoology. However, in 1865, he published with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, his stepmother, Seaside Studies in Natural History, a work at once exact and stimulating. They also published, in 1871, Marine Animals of Massachusetts Bay.
He received the German Order Pour le Mérite for Science and Arts in August 1902.
Agassiz served as a president of the National Academy of Sciences, which since 1913 has awarded the Alexander Agassiz Medal in his memory. He died in 1910 on board the RMS Adriatic en route to New York from Southampton.
He and his wife Anna Russell (1840–1873) were the parents of three sons – George Russell Agassiz (1861–1951), Maximilian Agassiz (1866–1943) and Rodolphe Louis Agassiz (1871–1933). |
Alexander Agassiz | Legacy | Legacy
Alexander Agassiz is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, Anolis agassizi, and a fish, Leptochilichthys agassizii.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Agassiz, A.E.", p. 2).
A statue of Alexander Agassiz erected in 1923 is located in Calumet, Michigan, next to his summer home where he stayed while fulfilling his duties as the President of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. The Company Headquarters, Agassiz' statue, and many other buildings and landmarks from the now defunct company are today administered and maintained by the Keweenaw National Historical Park, whose headquarters overlook the statue of Agassiz. A major building of the Hopkins Marine Station is named after him. |
Alexander Agassiz | Publications | Publications
Agassiz, Alexander (1863). "List of the echinoderms sent to different institutions in exchange for other specimens, with annotations". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 1 (2): 17–28.
Agassiz, Elizabeth C., and Alexander Agassiz (1865). Seaside Studies in Natural History. Boston: Ticknor and Fields.
Agassiz, Alexander (1872–1874). "Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard College. No. VII. Revision of the Echini. Parts 1–4". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 3: 1–762. Plates
Agassiz, Alexander (1877). "North American starfishes". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 5 (1): 1–136.
Agassiz, Alexander (1881). "Report on the Echinoidea dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–1876". Report of the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873–76. Zoology. 9: 1–321.
Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "Three cruises of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer 'Blake' in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the Atlantic coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. Vol I". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 14: 1–314.
Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "Three cruises of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer 'Blake' in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea, and along the Atlantic coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. Vol II". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 15: 1–220.
Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "The coral reefs of the tropical Pacific". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 28: 1–410. Plates I. Plates II. Plates III.
Agassiz, Alexander (1903). "The coral reefs of the Maldives". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 29: 1–168.
Agassiz, Alexander (1904). "The Panamic deep sea Echini". Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 31: 1–243. Plates. |
Alexander Agassiz | See also | See also
Agassiz family |
Alexander Agassiz | References | References |
Alexander Agassiz | External links | External links
Agassiz, George (1913). Letters and Recollections of Alexander Agassiz with a sketch of his life and work. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Murray, John (1911). "Alexander Agassiz: His Life and Scientific Work". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 54 (3). pp 139–158.
Publications by and about Alexander Agassiz in the catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library
National Mining Hall of Fame: Alexander Agassiz
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
Keweenaw National Historical Park Preserving many significant buildings and an archives of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company and Alexander Agassiz.
Category:1835 births
Category:1910 deaths
Category:19th-century American zoologists
Category:20th-century American zoologists
Category:American curators
Category:American ichthyologists
Category:Agassiz family
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society
Category:Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Category:Victoria Medal recipients
Category:Calumet and Hecla Mining Company personnel
Category:United States Coast Survey personnel
Category:Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni
Category:Swiss emigrants to the United States
Category:People from Neuchâtel
Category:People who died at sea
Category:Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Category:Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala
Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society |
Alexander Agassiz | Table of Content | Short description, Biography, Legacy, Publications, See also, References, External links |
Agathon | Short description | thumb|This painting by Anselm Feuerbach re-imagines a scene from Plato's Symposium, in which the tragedian Agathon welcomes the drunken Alcibiades into his home. 1869.
Agathon (; ; ) was an Athenian tragic poet whose works have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Plato's Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in 416. He is also a prominent character in Aristophanes' comedy the Thesmophoriazusae. |
Agathon | Life and career | Life and career
Agathon was the son of Tisamenus, and the lover of Pausanias, with whom he appears in both the Symposium and Plato's Protagoras.Pierre Lévêque, Agathon (Paris: Societe d'Edition Les Belles Lettres, 1955), pp. 163-4. Together with Pausanias, around 407 BC he moved to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, who was recruiting playwrights; it is here that he probably died around 401 BC. Agathon introduced certain innovations into the Greek theater: Aristotle tells us in the Poetics (1451b21) that the characters and plot of his Anthos were original and not, following Athenian dramatic orthodoxy, borrowed from mythological or historical subjects.Aristotle, Poetics 9. Agathon was also the first playwright to write choral parts which were apparently independent from the main plot of his plays.
Agathon is portrayed by Plato as a handsome young man, well dressed, of polished manners, courted by the fashion, wealth, and wisdom of Athens, and dispensing hospitality with ease and refinement. The epideictic speech in praise of love which Agathon recites in the Symposium is full of beautiful but artificial rhetorical expressions, and has led some scholars to believe he may have been a student of Gorgias. In the Symposium, Agathon is presented as the friend of the comic poet Aristophanes, but this alleged friendship did not prevent Aristophanes from harshly criticizing Agathon in at least two of his comic plays: the Thesmophoriazousae and the (now lost) Gerytades. In the later play Frogs, Aristophanes softens his criticisms, but even so, it may be only for the sake of punning on Agathon's name (ἁγαθός "good") that he makes Dionysus call him a "good poet".
Agathon was also a friend of Euripides, another recruit to the court of Archelaus of Macedon. |
Agathon | Physical appearance | Physical appearance
Agathon's extraordinary physical beauty is brought up repeatedly in the sources; the historian W. Rhys Roberts observes that "ὁ καλός Ἀγάθων (ho kalos Agathon) has become almost a stereotyped phrase." The most detailed surviving description of Agathon is in the Thesmophoriazousae, in which Agathon appears as a pale, clean-shaven young man dressed in women's clothes. Scholars are unsure how much of Aristophanes' portrayal is fact and how much mere comic invention.
After a close reading of the Thesmophoriazousae, the historian Jane McIntosh Snyder observed that Agathon's costume was almost identical to that of the famous lyric poet Anacreon, as he is portrayed in early 5th-century vase-paintings. Snyder theorizes that Agathon might have made a deliberate effort to mimic the sumptuous attire of his famous fellow poet, although by Agathon's time, such clothing, especially the κεκρύφαλος (kekryphalos, an elaborate covering for the hair) had long fallen out of fashion for men. According to this interpretation, Agathon is mocked in the Thesmophoriazousae not only for his notorious effeminacy, but also for the pretentiousness of his dress: "he seems to think of himself, in all his elegant finery, as a rival to the old Ionian poets, perhaps even to Anacreon himself." |
Agathon | Plato's epigram | Plato's epigram
Agathon is the subject of an epigram attributed to Plato:
τὴν ψυχὴν Ἀγάθωνα φιλῶν ἐπὶ χείλεσιν εἶχον·
ἦλθε γὰρ ἡ τλήμων ὡς διαβησομένη.
One translation reads:
<blockquote>My soul was on my lips as I was kissing Agathon. Poor soul! she came hoping to cross over to him.<ref name="Paton">Greek Anthology, translated by W. R. Paton, Volume 1.</ref></blockquote>
The epigram was probably not composed by Plato. Stylistic evidence suggests that the poem (with most of Plato's other alleged epigrams) was actually written sometime after Plato had died: its form is that of the Hellenistic erotic epigram, which did not become popular until after 300 BC. According to 20th-century scholar Walther Ludwig, the poems were spuriously inserted into an early biography of Plato sometime between 250 BC and 100 BC and adopted by later writers from this source. It is unlikely Plato would write a love epigram about Agathon, who was approximately twenty years older than he.
Known plays
Of Agathon's plays, only six titles and thirty-one fragments have survived:AeropeAlcmeonAnthos or Antheus ("The Flower")Mysoi ("Mysians")Telephos ("Telephus")ThyestesFragments in A Nauck, Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta (1887).
Fragments in Greek with English translations in Matthew Wright's "The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy (Volume 1)
Neglected Authors" (2016)
Quotations
See also
List of speakers in Plato's dialogues
Symposium (Feuerbach)
References
Notes
SourcesThe Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, volume 1, by Alfred Bates. (London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906)Thesmoph. 59, 106, Eccles. 100 (Aristophanes)Lovers' Lips by Plato in the Project Gutenberg eText Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology'' by J. W. Mackail. |
Agathon | External links | External links
Agathon Poems
Category:440s BC births
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:400s BC deaths
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:5th-century BC Athenians
Category:Ancient Athenian dramatists and playwrights
Category:Ancient Greek LGBTQ people
Category:Courtiers of Archelaus of Macedon
Category:Ancient Greek tragic poets
Category:5th-century BC Greek poets |
Agathon | Table of Content | Short description, Life and career, Physical appearance, Plato's epigram, External links |
Agesilaus II | short description | Agesilaus II (; ; 445/4 – 360/59 BC) was king of Sparta from 400 to 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Although brave in combat, Agesilaus lacked the diplomatic skills to preserve Sparta's position, especially against the rising power of Thebes, which reduced Sparta to a secondary power after its victory at Leuctra in 371 BC.
Despite the traditional secrecy fostered by the Spartiates, the reign of Agesilaus is particularly well-known thanks to the works of his friend Xenophon, who wrote a large history of Greece (the Hellenica) covering the years 411 to 362 BC, therefore extensively dealing with Agesilaus' rule. Xenophon furthermore composed a panegyric biography of his friend, perhaps to clean his memory from the criticisms voiced against him. Another historical tradition—much more hostile to Agesilaus than Xenophon's writings—has been preserved in the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, and later continued by Diodorus of Sicily. Moreover, Plutarch wrote a biography of Agesilaus in his Parallel Lives, which contains many elements deliberately omitted by Xenophon. |
Agesilaus II | Early life | Early life |
Agesilaus II | Youth | Youth
Agesilaus' father was King Archidamos II (r. 469–427), who belonged to the Eurypontid dynasty, one of the two royal families of Sparta. Archidamos already had a son from a first marriage with Lampito (his own step-aunt) named Agis.Shipley, Commentary on Agesilaos, p. 58, spells her Lampido.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 12, 13. After the death of Lampito, Archidamos remarried in the early 440s with Eupolia, daughter of Melesippidas, whose name indicates an aristocratic status.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 21, 22. Lampito was probably 40 years younger than Archidamos.Shipley, Commentary on Agesilaos, p. 58, translates the name of Eupolia as "well-foaled". The dates of Agesilaus' birth, death, and reign are disputed. The only secured information is that he was 84 at his death. The majority opinion is to date his birth to 445/4,Cawkwell, "Agesilaus and Sparta", p. 63 (note 8).Shipley, Commentary on Agesilaos, p. 58.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 8.Powell et al., A Companion to Sparta, pp. 16, 375, 382, 430, 454, 457, 465, 559; although François Ruzé uses the later date p. 326. but a minority of scholars move it a bit later, c.442.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. xvii.Pascual, "La datación de la ascensión", p. 43. Most of the other dates of Agesilaus are similarly disputed, with the minority moving them about two years later than the majority. Agesilaus also had a sister named Kyniska (the first woman in ancient history to achieve an Olympic victory).Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 145, is unsure whether Kyniska was Agesilaos' full sister.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 13. The name Agesilaus was rare and harks back to Agesilaus I, one of the earliest kings of Sparta.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 22, 23.
Agesilaus was born lame, a fact that should have cost him his life, since in Sparta deformed babies were thrown into a chasm. As he was not heir-apparent, he might have received some leniency from the tribal elders who examined male infants, or perhaps the first effects of the demographic decline of Sparta were already felt at the time, and only the most severely impaired babies were killed.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 22.Sneed, "Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece", pp. 749–751, suggests that Spartans did not kill deformed infants.
Starting at the age of 7, Agesilaus had to go through the rigorous education system of Sparta, called the agoge.Xenophon, Hellenica, iii. 3.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 23. Despite his disability, he brilliantly completed the training,Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 14. which massively enhanced his prestige, especially after he became king.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 24-27. Indeed, as heirs-apparent were exempted of the agoge, few Spartan kings had gone through the same training as the citizens;Shipley, Commentary on Agesilaos, p. 62. another notable exception was Leonidas, the embodiment of the "hero-king".Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 24. Between 433 and 428, Agesilaus also became the younger lover of Lysander, an aristocrat from the circle of Archidamos, whose family had some influence in Libya.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 28, 29.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 19. |
Agesilaus II | Spartan prince | Spartan prince
Little is known of Agesilaus' adult life before his reign, principally because Xenophon—his friend and main biographer—only wrote about his reign.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 10. Due to his special status, Agesilaus likely became a member of the Krypteia, an elite corps of young Spartans going undercover in Spartan territory to kill some helots deemed dangerous.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 30–32. Once he turned 20 and became a full citizen, Agesilaus was elected to a common mess, presumably that of his elder half-brother Agis II, who had become king in 427, of which Lysander was perhaps a member.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 32, 33.
Agesilaus probably served during the Peloponnesian War (431–404) against Athens, likely at the Battle of Mantinea in 418.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 21. Agesilaus married Kleora at some point between 408 and 400.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 147. Despite the influence she apparently had on her husband, she is mostly unknown. Her father was Aristomenidas, an influential noble with connections in Thebes.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 146, 147.
Thanks to three treaties signed with Persia in 412–411, Sparta received funding from the Persians, which it used to build a fleet that ultimately defeated Athens.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 186–189. This fleet was essentially led by Lysander, whose success gave him an enormous influence in the Greek cities of Asia as well as in Sparta, where he even schemed to become king.Hamilton, Sparta's Bitter Victories, pp. 27, 76, 88–98.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 94–99. In 403 the two kings, Agis and Pausanias, acted together to relieve him from his command.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 23–25. |
Agesilaus II | Reign | Reign |
Agesilaus II | Accession to the throne (400–398 BC) | Accession to the throne (400–398 BC)
Agis II died while returning from Delphi between 400 and 398. After his funeral, Agesilaus contested the claim of Leotychidas, the son of Agis II, using the widespread belief in Sparta that Leotychidas was an illegitimate son of Alcibiades—a famous Athenian statesman and nephew of Pericles, who had gone into exile in Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, and then seduced the queen. The rumours were strengthened by the fact that even Agis only recognised Leotychidas as his son on his deathbed.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 110.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 26.
Diopeithes, a supporter of Leotychidas, however quoted an old oracle telling that a Spartan king could not be lame, thus refuting Agesilaus' claim, but Lysander cunningly returned the objection by saying that the oracle had to be understood figuratively. The lameness warned against by the oracle would therefore refer to the doubt on Leotychidas' paternity, and this reasoning won the argument.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 110–113.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 26, 27. The role of Lysander in the accession of Agesilaus has been debated among historians, principally because Plutarch makes him the main instigator of the plot, while Xenophon downplays Lysander's influence.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 112, gives more credence to Plutarch.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 28, favours Plutarch's version. Lysander doubtless supported Agesilaus' accession because he hoped that the new king would in return help him to regain the importance that he lost in 403.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 233. |
Agesilaus II | Conspiracy of Cinadon (399 BC) | Conspiracy of Cinadon (399 BC)
The Conspiracy of Cinadon took place during the first year of Agesilaus' reign, in the summer of 399.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 164. Cinadon was a hypomeion, a Spartan who had lost his citizen status, presumably because he could not afford the price of the collective mess—one of the main reasons for the dwindling number of Spartan citizens in the Classical Era, called oliganthropia.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 165.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 70.Gish, "Spartan Justice", pp. 353, 354. It is probable that the vast influx of wealth coming to the city after its victory against Athens in 404 triggered inflation in Sparta, which impoverished many citizens with a fixed income, like Cinadon, and caused their downgrade.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 83. Therefore, the purpose of the plot was likely to restore the status of these disfranchised citizens.Gish, "Spartan Justice", p. 356. However, the plot was uncovered and Cinadon and its leaders executed—probably with the active participation of Agesilaus,Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 235. but no further action was taken to solve the social crisis at the origin of the conspiracy. The failure of Agesilaus to acknowledge the critical problem suffered by Sparta at the time has been criticised by modern historians.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 84, 85.Gish, "Spartan Justice", p. 357 (note 40). |
Agesilaus II | Invasion of Asia Minor (396–394 BC) | Invasion of Asia Minor (396–394 BC)
According to the treaties signed in 412 and 411 between Sparta and the Persian Empire, the latter became the overlord of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor.Hamilton, Sparta's Bitter Victories, p. 27.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 87. In 401, these cities and Sparta supported the bid of Cyrus the Younger (the Persian Emperor's younger son and a good friend of Lysander) against his elder brother, the new emperor Artaxerxes II, who nevertheless defeated Cyrus at Cunaxa.Hamilton, Sparta's Bitter Victories, pp. 104–107. As a result, Sparta remained at war with Artaxerxes, and supported the Greek cities of Asia, which fought against Tissaphernes, the satrap of Lydia and Caria.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 88. In 397 Lysander engineered a large expedition in Asia headed by Agesilaus, likely to recover the influence he had over the Asian cities at the end of the Peloponnesian War.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 191.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 90, 91. Lysander had placed partisans in the cities taken from the Athenian Empire, but was forced to abandon them in order to respect the treaties with Persia, which were enforced in 404. In order to win the approval of the Spartan assembly, Lysander built an army with only 30 Spartiates (full Spartan citizens), so the risk would be limited; the bulk of the army consisted of 2,000 neodamodes (freed helots) and 6,000 Greek allies.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 213.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 92, 93. In addition, Agesilaus obtained the support of the oracles of Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 93. |
Agesilaus II | The sacrifice at Aulis (396 BC) | The sacrifice at Aulis (396 BC)
Lysander and Agesilaus had intended the expedition to be a Panhellenic enterprise,Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 192. but Athens, Corinth, and especially Thebes, refused to participate.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 212.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 94. In Spring 396, Agesilaus came to Aulis (in Boeotian territory) to sacrifice on the place where Agamemnon had done so just before his departure to Troy at the head of the Greek army in the Iliad, thus giving a grandiose aspect to the expedition. However he did not inform the Boeotians and brought his own seer to perform the sacrifice, instead of the local one. Learning this, the Boeotians prevented him from sacrificing and further humiliated him by casting away the victim; they perhaps intended to provoke a confrontation, as the relations between Sparta and Thebes had become execrable. Agesilaus then left to Asia, but Thebes remained hateful to him for the rest of his life.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 95.thumb|Meeting between Spartan king Agesilaus (left) and Pharnabazus II (right) in 395 BC, when Agesilaus agreed to remove himself from Hellespontine Phrygia. |
Agesilaus II | Campaign in Asia (396–394 BC) | Campaign in Asia (396–394 BC)
Once Agesilaus landed in Ephesus, the Spartan main base, he concluded a three months' truce with Tissaphernes, likely to settle the affairs among the Greek allies.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 32, 33. He integrated some of the Greek mercenaries formerly hired by Cyrus the Younger (the Ten Thousand) in his army. They had returned from Persia under the leadership of Xenophon, who also remained in Agesilaus' staff.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 59. In Ephesus, Agesilaus' authority was nevertheless overshadowed by Lysander, who was reacquainted with many of his supporters, men he had placed in control of the Greek cities at the end of the Peloponnesian War. Angered by his local aura, Agesilaus humiliated Lysander several times to force him to leave the army, despite his former relationship and Lysander's role in his accession to the throne.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 213, Lysander was sent away in a diplomatic mission.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 32–37. Plutarch adds that after Agesilaus' emancipation from him, Lysander returned to his undercover scheme to make the monarchy elective.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 36.
After Lysander's departure, Agesilaus raided Phrygia, the satrapy of Pharnabazus, until his advance guard was defeated not far from Daskyleion by the superior Persian cavalry.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 213, 214.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 96, 97. He then wintered at Ephesus, where he trained a cavalry force, perhaps on the advice of Xenophon, who had commanded the cavalry of the Ten Thousand.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 214.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 97. In 395, the Spartan king managed to trick Tissaphernes into thinking that he would attack Caria, in the south of Asia Minor, forcing the satrap to hold a defence line on the Meander river. Instead, Agesilaus moved north to the important city of Sardis. Tissaphernes hastened to meet the king there, but his cavalry sent in advance was defeated by Agesilaus' army.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 215, 216.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 97–99. After his victory at the Battle of Sardis, Agesilaus became the first king to be given the command of both land and sea.Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, p. 237. He delegated the naval command to his brother-in-law Peisander, whom he appointed navarch despite his inexperience; perhaps Agesilaus wanted to avoid the rise of a new Lysander, who owed his prominence to his time as navarch. After his defeat, Tissaphernes was executed and replaced as satrap by Tithraustes, who gave Agesilaus 30 talents to move north to the satrapy of Pharnabazus (Persian satraps were often bitter rivals).Hamilton, Sparta's Bitter Victories, p. 101.Cartledge, Agesilaos, pp. 216, 217.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 100. Augesilaus' Phrygian campaign of 394 was fruitless, as he lacked the siege equipment required to take the fortresses of Leonton Kephalai, Gordion, and Miletou Teichos.Cartledge, Agesilaos, p. 217.thumb|Tens of thousands of Darics (popularly called "archers"), the main currency in Persia, were used to bribe the Greek states to start a war against Sparta, so that Agesilaus would have to be recalled from Asia.Xenophon tells that Agesilaus then wanted to campaign further east in Asia and sow discontent among the subjects of the Achaemenid empire, or even to conquer Asia. Plutarch went further and wrote that Agesilaus had prepared an expedition to the heart of Persia, up to her capital of Susa, thus making him a forerunner of Alexander the Great. It is very unlikely that Agesilaus really had such a grand campaign in mind; regardless, he was soon forced to return to Europe in 394.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 100–103. |
Agesilaus II | Corinthian War (395–387 BC) | Corinthian War (395–387 BC)
Although Thebes and Corinth had been allies of Sparta throughout the Peloponnesian War, they were dissatisfied by the settlement of the war in 404, with Sparta as leader of the Greek world. Sparta's imperialist expansion in the Aegean greatly upset its former allies, notably by establishing friendly regimes and garrisons in smaller cities.Hamilton, Sparta's Bitter Victories, pp. 41–48, 54 (note 117), 65.Robin Seager, "The Corinthian War", in Lewis et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, p. 97. Through large gifts, Tithraustes also encouraged Sparta's former allies to start a war in order to force the recall of Agesilaus from Asia—even though the influence of Persian gold has been exaggerated.Robin Seager, "The Corinthian War", in Lewis et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, p. 98. The initiative came from Thebes, which provoked a war between their ally Ozolian Locris and Phocis in order to bring Sparta to the latter's defence.Robin Seager, "The Corinthian War", in Lewis et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, p. 99. Thebes wanted to avoid being seen as having broken the peace. Lysander and the other king Pausanias entered Boeotia, which enabled the Thebans to bring Athens in the war. Lysander then besieged Haliartus without waiting for Pausanias and was killed in a Boeotian counter-attack. In Sparta, Pausanias was condemned to death by Lysander's friends and went into exile.Xenophon, Hell. iii. 3, to the end, AgesilausRobin Seager, "The Corinthian War", in Lewis et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, p. 100. After its success at Haliartus, Thebes was able to build a coalition against Sparta, with notably Argos and Corinth, where a war council was established, and securing the defection of most of the cities of northern and central Greece.Hamilton, Sparta's Bitter Victories, pp. 211–215.Françoise Ruzé, "The Empire of the Spartans (404–371)", p. 335. Unable to wage war on two fronts and with the loss of Lysander and Pausanias, Sparta had no choice but to recall Agesilaus from Asia.Robin Seager, "The Corinthian War", in Lewis et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, p. 101. The Asian Greeks fighting for him said they wanted to continue serving with him, while Agesilaus promised he would return to Asia as soon as he could.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 104, 105.
thumb|245x245px|Map of the situation in the Aegean in 394 BC, with the long return of Agesilaus from Asia.
Agesilaus returned to Greece by land, crossing the Hellespont and from there along the coast of the Aegean Sea. In Thessaly he won a cavalry battle near Narthacium against the Pharsalians who had made an alliance with Thebes.Stamatopoulou, "Thessalians Abroad", p. 221.Richard Bouchon and Bruno Helly, "The Thessalian League", in Beck (ed.), Federalism, p. 236.Françoise Ruzé, "The Empire of the Spartans (404–371)", p. 333. He then entered Boeotia by the Thermopylae, where he received reinforcements from Sparta.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 105. Meanwhile, Aristodamos—the regent of the young Agiad king Agesipolis—won a major victory at Nemea near Argos, which was offset by the disaster of the Spartan navy at Cnidus against the Persian fleet led by Conon, an exiled Athenian general. Agesilaus lied to his men about the outcome of the battle of Knidos to avoid demoralising them as they were about to fight a large engagement against the combined armies of Thebes, Athens, Argos and Corinth. The following Battle of Coronea was a classic clash between two lines of hoplites.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 106. The anti-Spartan allies were rapidly defeated, but the Thebans managed to retreat in good order, despite Agesilaus' activity on the front line, which caused him several injuries. The next day the Thebans requested a truce to recover their dead, therefore conceding defeat, although they had not been bested on the battlefield.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 108. Agesilaus appears to have tried to win an honourable victory, by risking his life and being merciful with some Thebans who had sought shelter in the nearby Temple of Athena Itonia.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 108, 109. He then moved to Delphi, where he offered one tenth of the booty he had amassed since his landing at Ephesus, and returned to Sparta.
No pitched battle took place in Greece in 393. Perhaps Agesilaus was still recovering from his wounds, or he was deprived of command because of the opposition of Lysander's and Pausanias' friends, who were disappointed by his lack of decisive victory and his appointment of Peisander as navarch before the disaster of Knidos.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 109, 110. The loss of the Spartan fleet besides allowed Konon to capture the island of Kythera, in the south of the Peloponnese, from where he could raid Spartan territory.Françoise Ruzé, "The Empire of the Spartans (404–371)", p. 336. In 392, Sparta sent Antalcidas to Asia in order to negotiate a general peace with Tiribazus, the satrap of Lydia, while Sparta would recognise Persia's sovereignty over the Asian Greek cities. However, the Greek allies also sent emissaries to Sardis to refuse Antalcidas' plan, and Artaxerxes likewise rejected it. A second peace conference in Sparta failed the following year because of Athens.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 111, 112. A personal enemy of Antalcidas, Agesilaus likely disapproved these talks, which show that his influence at home had waned.Hamilton, Agesilaus, pp. 112, 113. Plutarch says that he befriended the young Agiad king Agesipolis, possibly to prevent his opponents from coalescing behind him.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 110.
By 391 Agesilaus had apparently recovered his influence as he was appointed at the head of the army, while his half-brother Teleutias became navarch.Hamilton, Agesilaus, p. 114. The target was Argos, which had absorbed Corinth into a political union the previous year. In 390 BC he made several successful expeditions into Corinthian territory, capturing Lechaeum and Peiraion. The loss, however, of a battalion (mora), destroyed by Iphicrates, neutralised these successes, and Agesilaus returned to Sparta. In 389 BC he conducted a campaign in Acarnania, but two years later the Peace of Antalcidas, warmly supported by Agesilaus, put an end to the war, maintaining Spartan hegemony over Greece and returning the Greek cities of Asia Minor to the Achaemenid Empire. In this interval, Agesilaus declined command over Sparta's aggression on Mantineia, and justified Phoebidas' seizure of the Theban Cadmea so long as the outcome provided glory to Sparta. |
Agesilaus II | Decline | Decline
thumb|right|Agesilaus expels the Illyrians from Epirus in 385 BC
When war broke out afresh with Thebes, Agesilaus twice invaded Boeotia (in 378 and 377 BC), although he spent the next five years largely out of action due to an unspecified but apparently grave illness. In the congress of 371 an altercation is recorded between him and the Theban general Epaminondas, and due to his influence, Thebes was peremptorily excluded from the peace, and orders given for Agesilaus's royal colleague Cleombrotus to march against Thebes in 371. Cleombrotus was defeated and killed at the Battle of Leuctra and the Spartan supremacy overthrown.Agesilaus from Livius.Org
In 370 Agesilaus was engaged in an embassy to Mantineia, and reassured the Spartans with an invasion of Arcadia. He preserved an unwalled Sparta against the revolts and conspiracies of helots, perioeci and even other Spartans; and against external enemies, with four different armies led by Epaminondas penetrating Laconia that same year. |
Agesilaus II | Asia Minor expedition (366 BC) | Asia Minor expedition (366 BC)
In 366 BC, Sparta and Athens, dissatisfied with the Persian king's support of Thebes following the embassy of Philiscus of Abydos, decided to provide careful military support to the opponents of the Achaemenid king. Athens and Sparta provided support for the revolting satraps in the Revolt of the Satraps, in particular Ariobarzanes: Sparta sent a force to Ariobarzanes under an aging Agesilaus, while Athens sent a force under Timotheus, which was however diverted when it became obvious that Ariobarzanes had entered frontal conflict with the Achaemenid king. An Athenian mercenary force under Chabrias was also sent to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tachos, who was also fighting against the Achaemenid king. According to Xenophon,Xenophon, Agesilaus, ii. 26, 27 Agesilaus, in order to gain money for prosecuting the war, supported the satrap Ariobarzanes of Phrygia in his revolt against Artaxerxes II in 364 (Revolt of the Satraps).
Again, in 362, Epaminondas almost succeeded in seizing the city of Sparta with a rapid and unexpected march. The Battle of Mantinea, in which Agesilaus took no part, was followed by a general peace: Sparta, however, stood aloof, hoping even yet to recover her supremacy. |
Agesilaus II | Expedition to Egypt | Expedition to Egypt
thumb|Agesilaus offers his services to the Egyptian pharaoh Teos, Egypt.
Sometime after the Battle of Mantineia, Agesilaus went to Egypt at the head of a mercenary force to aid the king Nectanebo I and his regent Teos against Persia. In the summer of 358, he transferred his services to Teos's cousin and rival, Nectanebo II, who, in return for his help, gave him a sum of over 200 talents. On his way home Agesilaus died in Cyrenaica, around the age of 84, after a reign of some 41 years. His body was embalmed in wax, and buried at Sparta.
He was succeeded by his son Archidamus III. |
Agesilaus II | Legacy | Legacy
Agesilaus was of small stature and unimpressive appearance, and was lame from birth. These facts were used as an argument against his succession, an oracle having warned Sparta against a "lame reign." Most ancient writers considered him a highly successful leader in guerrilla warfare, alert and quick, yet cautious—a man, moreover, whose personal bravery was rarely questioned in his own time. Of his courage, temperance, and hardiness, many instances are cited, and to these were added the less Spartan qualities of kindliness and tenderness as a father and a friend. As examples, there was the story of his riding a stick-horse with his children and upon being discovered by a friend desiring that the friend not mention what he had seen until he was the father of children; and because of the affection of his son Archidamus for Cleonymus, he saved Sphodrias, Cleonymus' father, from execution for his incursion into Piraeus and dishonourable retreat in 378. Modern writers tend to be slightly more critical of Agesilaus' reputation and achievements, reckoning him an excellent soldier, but one who had a poor understanding of sea power and siege-craft.
As a statesman he won himself both enthusiastic adherents and bitter enemies. Agesilaus was most successful in the opening and closing periods of his reign: commencing but then surrendering a glorious career in Asia; and in extreme age, maintaining his prostrate country. Other writers acknowledge his extremely high popularity at home, but suggest his occasionally rigid and arguably irrational political loyalties and convictions contributed greatly to Spartan decline, notably his unremitting hatred of Thebes, which led to Sparta's humiliation at the Battle of Leuctra and thus the end of Spartan hegemony. Historian J. B. Bury remarks that "there is something melancholy about his career:" born into a Sparta that was the unquestioned continental power of Hellas, the Sparta which mourned him eighty four years later had suffered a series of military defeats which would have been unthinkable to his forebears, had seen its population severely decline, and had run so short of money that its soldiers were increasingly sent on campaigns fought more for money than for defense or glory.
Plutarch also describes how often, to remove the threat of instigators of internal dissension, Agesilaus would send his enemies abroad with governorships, where they often were corrupt and procured themselves enemies. Agesilaus would then protect them against these new enemies of theirs, so as to make them his friends. As a result, he no longer had to face internal opposition, as his enemies had henceforth become allies.
As for his personal life, though he had two daughters, Eupolia and Prolyta, and a wife, Cleora, he nonetheless had the habit of forming homosexual "attachments for young men".
thumb|upright|Xenophon's Agesilaus.
Other historical accounts paint Agesilaus as a prototype for the ideal leader. His awareness, thoughtfulness, and wisdom were all traits to be emulated diplomatically, while his bravery and shrewdness in battle epitomised the heroic Greek commander. These historians point towards the unstable oligarchies established by Lysander in the former Athenian Empire and the failures of Spartan leaders (such as Pausanias and Kleombrotos) for the eventual suppression of Spartan power. The ancient historian Xenophon was a huge admirer and served under Agesilaus during the campaigns into Asia Minor.
Plutarch includes among Agesilaus' 78 essays and speeches comprising the apophthegmata Agesilaus' letter to the ephors on his recall:
And when asked whether Agesilaus wanted a memorial erected in his honour:
Agesilaus lived in the most frugal style alike at home and in the field, and though his campaigns were undertaken largely to secure booty, he was content to enrich the state and his friends and to return as poor as he had set forth.Diodorus Siculus, xiv. xvPausanias, Description of Greece iii. 97 10Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos, in vitaPlutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica |
Agesilaus II | Notes | Notes |
Agesilaus II | References | References |
Agesilaus II | Sources | Sources |
Agesilaus II | Ancient sources | Ancient sources
Plutarch, Parallel Lives.
Xenophon, Hellenica. |
Agesilaus II | Modern sources | Modern sources
Hans Beck & Peter Funke, Federalism in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Paul Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia, A Regional History 1300–362 BC, London, Routledge, 1979 (originally published in 1979).
George L. Cawkwell, "Agesilaus and Sparta", The Classical Quarterly 26 (1976): 62–84.
David, Ephraim. Sparta Between Empire and Revolution (404-243 BC): Internal Problems and Their Impact on Contemporary Greek Consciousness. New York: Arno Press, 1981.
Forrest, W.G. A History of Sparta, 950-192 B.C. 2d ed. London: Duckworth, 1980.
Dustin A. Gish, "Spartan Justice: The Conspiracy of Kinadon in Xenophon's Hellenika", in Polis, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, pp. 339–369.
Hamilton, Charles D. Sparta's Bitter Victories: Politics and Diplomacy in the Corinthian War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979.
D. M. Lewis, John Boardman, Simon Hornblower, M. Ostwald (editors), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, The Fourth Century B.C., Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Anton Powell (editor), A Companion to Sparta, Volume I, Hoboken/Chichester, Wiley Blackwell, 2018.
D. R. Shipley, A Commentary on Plutarch's Life of Agesilaos: Response to Sources in the Presentation of Character, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997.
Debby Sneed, "Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece", Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 90, No. 4, 2021, pp. 747–772.
Maria Stamatopoulou, "Thessalians Abroad, the Case of Pharsalos", in Mediterranean Historical Review, vol. 22.2 (2007), pp. 211–236.
Graham Wylie, "Agesilaus and the Battle of Sardis", in Klio, n°74 (1992), pp. 118–130.
Category:440s BC births
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:358 BC deaths
Category:Year of death uncertain
Category:4th-century BC Spartans
Category:Eurypontid kings of Sparta
Category:Ancient Greek generals
Category:Spartan hegemony |
Agesilaus II | Table of Content | short description, Early life, Youth, Spartan prince, Reign, Accession to the throne (400–398 BC), Conspiracy of Cinadon (399 BC), Invasion of Asia Minor (396–394 BC), The sacrifice at Aulis (396 BC), Campaign in Asia (396–394 BC), Corinthian War (395–387 BC), Decline, Asia Minor expedition (366 BC), Expedition to Egypt, Legacy, Notes, References, Sources, Ancient sources, Modern sources |
Agis | '''Agis''' | Agis or AGIS may refer to: |
Agis | People | People
Agis I (died 900 BC), Spartan king
Agis II (died 401 BC), Spartan king
Agis III (died 331 BC), Spartan king
Agis IV (265–241 BC), Spartan king
Agis (Paeonian) (died 358 BC), King of the Paeonians
Agis of Argos, ancient Greek poet
Maurice Agis (1931–2009), British sculptor and artist |
Agis | Other uses | Other uses
Agis (play), by John Home
Agis, several fictional emperors of Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire
Apex Global Internet Services
Atomic gravitational wave interferometric sensor
Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study, conducted by the National Eye Institute |
Agis | See also | See also
Agide (disambiguation), modern Italian given name related to Agis
Category:Greek masculine given names
Category:Masculine given names |
Agis | Table of Content | '''Agis''', People, Other uses, See also |
Antonio Agliardi | Short description | Antonio Agliardi (4 September 1832 – 19 March 1915) was an Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal, archbishop, and papal diplomat. |
Antonio Agliardi | Biography | Biography
Agliardi was born at Cologno al Serio, in what is now the Province of Bergamo.
He studied theology and canon law, and after acting as parish priest in his native diocese for twelve years was sent by the pope to Canada as a bishop's chaplain. On his return he was appointed secretary to the Congregation of the Propaganda.
In 1884, he was created by Pope Leo XIII Archbishop of Caesarea in partibus and sent to India as an Apostolic Delegate to report on the establishment of the hierarchy there.
In 1887 he again visited India, to carry out the terms of the concordat arranged with Portugal. The same year he was appointed secretary of the Congregation super negotiis ecclesiae extraordinariis. In 1889 he became papal Apostolic Nuncio to Bavaria at Munich and in 1892 at Vienna. Allowing himself to be involved in the ecclesiastical disputes that divided Hungary in 1895, he was made the subject of formal complaint by the Hungarian government and in 1896 was recalled.
In the consistory of 1896 he was elevated to Cardinal-Priest of Santi Nereo e Achilleo. In 1899 he was made Cardinal Bishop of Albano. In 1903, he was named vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church, and became the Chancellor of the Apostolic Chancery in the Secretariat of State in 1908.
He died in Rome and was buried in Bergamo. |
Antonio Agliardi | Episcopal lineage | Episcopal lineage
Agliardi's episcopal lineage, or apostolic succession was:
Cardinal Scipione Rebiba
Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio
Cardinal Girolamo Bernerio
Archbishop Galeazzo Sanvitale
Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi
Cardinal Luigi Caetani
Cardinal Ulderico Carpegna
Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni
Pope Benedict XIII
Pope Benedict XIV
Cardinal Enrico Enríquez
Archbishop Manuel Quintano Bonifaz
Cardinal Buenaventura Fernández de Córdoba Spínola
Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili
Pope Pius VIII
Pope Pius IX
Cardinal Alessandro Franchi
Cardinal Giovanni Simeoni
Cardinal Antonio Agliardi |
Antonio Agliardi | Notes | Notes |
Antonio Agliardi | References | References |
Antonio Agliardi | External links | External links
Catholic-Hierarchy.org
Category:1832 births
Category:1915 deaths
Category:Clergy from the Province of Bergamo
Category:Apostolic nuncios to Austria
Category:20th-century Italian cardinals
Category:Cardinal-bishops of Albano
Category:Cartellverband members
Category:19th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops
Category:20th-century Italian Roman Catholic archbishops
Category:Apostolic Nuncios to Bavaria
Category:Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII
Category:Roman Catholic titular archbishops of Caesarea |
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