Agis III was the eldest son of Archidamus III, and the 21st Eurypontid king of Sparta between 338 and 331 BC. He tried to lead a revolt against Macedonian hegemony over Greece, but was defeated by Antipater—Alexander the Great's regent in Greece—at the Battle of Megalopolis in 331 BC, where he died.
Agis III received the financial and military support of Autophradates, Achaemenid satrap of Lydia, against Alexander the Great.
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in the Eurotas valley of Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.
Hollow Lacedaemon. Site of the Menelaion, the ancient shrine to Helen and Menelaus constructed in the Bronze Age city that stood on the hill of Therapne on the left bank of the Eurotas River overlooking the future site of Dorian Sparta. Across the valley the successive ridges of Mount Taygetus are in evidence.
Eurotas River
The theater of ancient Sparta with Mt. Taygetus in the background.
Ruins of the Temple of Artemis Orthia
