70 Conquest
it would have had to be the case that there were no childless kings and no
cases of disputed paternity in the tenth, ninth, eighth, and seventh centuries—
which is, in the circumstances, most unlikely. The lists printed here can at best
be only a rough and ready guide.
That is one difficulty. There is another. Although the Agiad and Eurypon-
tid genealogies provided by Herodotus and Pausanias are exceedingly long,
they are not long enough to justify the assertion that the eponyms at the head
of the two lists lived before the tenth century, as the legends presume. To do
this, one would have to posit, as in desperation the ancient chronographers
sometimes did, that on average, in post-Mycenaean Greece, a generation lasted
forty years—which is to say, that the average father on such a list was forty
Ta b l e 1
The Early Agiad and Eurypontid Kings of Lacedaemon
A Partial Reconstruction
The Agiads The Eurypontids
Agis I, late tenth century Eurypon, early ninth century
Echestratos, early ninth century Prytanis, mid-ninth century
Leobatas, mid-ninth century Polydektes, late ninth century
Dorussos, late ninth century Eunomos, early eighth century
Agesilaos I, transition from ninth Charillos, ca. 776–48
to eighth century
Archelaos, ca. 786–59 Nikandros, ca. 748–18
Teleklos, ca. 759–39 Theopompus, ca. 718–668
Alcamenes, ca. 739–698 Anaxandridas I, ca. 668–59
Polydorus, ca. 698–64 Archidamus I, ca. 659–44
Eurykrates, ca. 664–39 Anaxilas, ca. 644–24
Anaxandros, ca. 639–14 Leotychidas I, ca. 624–599
Eurykratidas, ca. 614–589 Hippokratidas, ca. 599–74
Leon, ca. 589–59 Hegesicles, ca. 574–49
Anaxandridas II, ca. 559–24 Ariston, ca. 549–14
Cleomenes I, ca. 524–490 Demaratus, ca. 514–491
Leonidas I, 490–80 Leotychidas II, 491–69
Pleistarchus, 480–59 Archidamus II, 469–27