Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/344

326 HISTORY OF GREECE. macy of Demaratus's birth. His reputed father Aristo had bad no offspring by two successive wives : at last, he became enamored of the wife of his friend Agetus, a woman of surpassing beauty, and entrapped him into an agreement, whereby each solemnly bound himself to surrender anything belonging to him which the other might ask for. That which Agetus asked from Aristo was at once given : in return, the latter demanded to have the wife of Agetus, who was thunderstruck at the request, and indignantly complained of having been cheated into a sacrifice of all others the most painful: nevertheless, the oath was peremptory, and he was forced to comply. The birth of Demaratus took place so soon after this change of husbands, that when it was first made known to Aristo, as he sat upon a bench along with the ephors, he counted on his fingers the number of months since his mar- riage, and exclaimed with an oath, " The child cannot be mine." He soon, however, retracted his opinion, and acknowledged the child, who grew up without any question being publicly raised as to his birth, and succeeded his father on the throne. But the original words of Aristo had never been forgotten, and private suspicions were still cherished that Demaratus was really the son of his mother's first husband. 1 Of these suspicions, Kleomenes now resolved to avail him- self, exciting Leotychides, the next heir in the Prokleid line of kings, to impugn publicly the legitimacy of Demaratus ; engag- ing to second him with all his influence as next in order for the crown, and exacting in return a promise that he would support the intervention against JEgina. Leotychides was animated not merely by ambition, but also by private enmity against Dema- ratus, who had disappointed him of his intended bride : he warmly entered into the scheme, arraigned Demaratus as no true Herakleid, and produced evidence to prove the original doubts expressed by Aristo. A serious dispute was thus raised at Sparta, and Kleomenes, espousing the pretensions of Leotychi- des, recommended that the question as to the legitimacy of Dema- ratus should be decided by reference to the Delphian oracle. Through the influence of Kobon, a powerful native of Delphi, he procured from the Pythian priestess an answer pronouncing 1 Herodot. vi, 61, 62. fi.T