To the Greeks of the day, however, the death of Alexander seemed to promise them a renewal of freedom. They had never heartily acquiesced in his supremacy. Sparta, indeed, had never yielded to Philip, and had continued to play the part of protector of Greek freedom. In B.C. 338 one of its kings, Archedamus III., had crossed to Italy to assist the Lacedaemonian colony of Tarentum in its struggles with surrounding barbarians, and had fallen on the same day, it is said, as that of the battle of Chaeroneia.
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COINS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT, B.C. 356–323.
His son and successor, Agis III., made an alliance
with the Persian satraps in B.C. 333, and being
supplied by them with money and ships, occupied the
greater part of Crete, while Alexander was engaged
in Thrace and Boeotia. In B.C. 331, when he had
crossed to Asia, Agis induced the Eleians, Achaeans
and Arcadians to join in an open rebellion, and began
the war by besieging Megalopolis, which refused to
join him. But this short-lived revolt was sternly
suppressed by Antipater, whom Alexander had left
in charge of Macedonia.
More than 5,000 Lacedaemonians are said to have fallen, and this seems to
