Anaxandridas II was a king of Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

, son of Leon, between 560 to 525 BC. At the time when Croesus

Croesus

Croesus was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S...

 sent his embassy to form alliance with " the mightiest of the Greeks," i. e. about 554, the war with Tegea, which in the late reigns went against them, had now been decided in the Spartans' favour, under Anaxandrides and Ariston. Under them, too, was mainly carried on the suppression of the tyrannies, and with it the establishment of the Spartan hegemony

Spartan hegemony

The city-state of Sparta was the greatest military land power of classical Greek antiquity. During the classical period, Sparta owned, dominated or influenced the entire Peloponnese. Additionally, the defeat of the Athenians and the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War in 431-404 BCE resulted in...

. Having a barren wife whom he would not divorce, the ephors, we are told, made him take with her a second. By her he had Cleomenes I

Cleomenes I

Cleomenes or Kleomenes was an Agiad King of Sparta in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. During his reign, which started around 520 BC, he pursued an adventurous and at times unscrupulous foreign policy aimed at crushing Argos and extending Sparta's influence both inside and outside the...

; and after this, by his first wife Dorieus (father of Euryanas), Leonidas, and Cleombrotus

Cleombrotus (regent)

Cleombrotus , regent of Sparta between 480 and 479 BC. He was a member of the Agiad family, the son of Anaxandridas II and the brother of Cleomenes I, Dorieus and of Leonidas I. When the latter died, he became the tutor of his nephew Pleistarchus, son of Leonidas, and leader of the Greek infantry...

. (Herod, i. 65-69, v. 39-41; Paus. iii. 3.) Several sayings are ascribed to him in Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

. Apophth. Lac. (where the old reading is Alexandridas instead of Anaxandrides). With the reign of Anaxandrides and Ariston commences the period of certain dates, the chronology of their predecessors "being doubtful and the accounts in many ways suspicious; the only certain point being the coincidence of historians Polydorus

Polydorus

In Greek mythology, Polydorus referred to several different people.*An Argive, son of Hippomedon...

 and Theopompus

Theopompus

Theopompus was a Greek historian and rhetorician- Biography :Theopompus was born on Chios. In early youth he seems to have spent some time at Athens, along with his father, who had been exiled on account of his Laconian sympathies...

 with the first Messenian War

First Messenian War

The First Messenian War was a war between Messenia and Sparta. It began in 743 BC and ended in 724 BC, according the dates given by Pausanias. They are considered solid....

, which itself cannot be fixed with certainty and it seemes related to the earlier Anaxandridas I, who was son of Theopompus, the 9th Eurypontid king of Sparta; himself never reigned, but by the accession of Leotychides became from the seventh generation the father of the kings of Sparta of that branch.

External links

• Dorieus in Sicily from Herodotus's Histories 5.42-5.48. The prince was killed in Sicily.
• http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Bios/AnaxandridasII.html
• http://www.spock.com/Anaxandridas-II