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These Elderly People Peaked During their Twilight Years and Changed History

Khalid Elhassan November 30, 2022 31 min

Old - An elderly Bishop Hugh Latimer on his way to the stake — An elderly Bishop Hugh Latimer on his way to the stake. Davenant Institute

A Spartan Succession Crisis

Spartans, the ancient Greek world's super soldiers, at the Battle of Plataea — Spartans, the ancient Greek world’s super soldiers, at the Battle of Plataea. iStock

Agesilaus II was born into the Eurypontid family, one of Sparta’s two royal lineages, circa 442 BC. He was the second son of King Archidamus II (reigned 477 – 426 BC), and the younger brother of King Agis II (reigned 426 – 400 BC). In the normal course of things, Agis II would have been succeeded by his son Leotychidas. Unfortunately for Leotychidas, he was considered to be a b-a-s-t-a-r-d: the biological son of the Athenian adventurer Alcibiades, who had spent time in Sparta as an exile, before he fled after he was caught in bed with the wife of Agis II. A succession crisis ensued, as Agesilaus argued that he should succeed to the throne because Leotychidas was a b-a-s-t-a-r-d.

His nephew countered that Agesilaus should not be crowned because he had been born lame, and there was an old Spartan prophecy that warned against a lame king. The supporters of Agesilaus deflected with an argument that the prophecy wasn’t meant literally, but figuratively. The “lame” king, as they put it, was the b-a-s-t-a-r-d, not the physically lamed one. It was a good enough argument for most Spartans, who crowned Agesilaus as king. In light of how things turned out, they probably regretted their failure to take the prophecy at face value and reject the literally lame king, rather than go for fancy explanations.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.