Agesilaus II (ca. 444-360 B.C.), a Spartan king and general, dominated Spartan politics. Through military might he made his state supreme in Greece by about 380 B.C.

Agesilaus was a son of the Spartan king Archidamus II. Agesilaus was not in the direct line of succession after his elder brother King Agis II died, but the powerful military commander Lysander contrived to have Agis's son disqualified as a bastard fathered by Alcibiades and engineered Agesilaus's election as king about 399. Lysander hoped to exploit the lame and inexperienced Agesilaus, but the new king asserted his power and dismissed Lysander from service.

Agesilaus's first command was in Asia Minor against the Persians in 396-394. He failed to gain any permanent advantage but amassed a huge amount of booty. Meanwhile Sparta's supremacy in Greece was broken by the states in central Greece. Lysander was killed in Boeotia, and the other...