Agis, the name of four kings of Sparta. - Agis 1., who gave name to the Agid line of the joint kings of Sparta, is of uncertain history, but is said to have reigned about 1,000 B. C, to have deprived the conquered people of Laconia of their equality with the Spartans, and to have made slaves of the revolted Helots (citizens of Helos). The following were all of the Proclid line. - Agis II. (427-398 B. C), son of Archidamus II., was actively engaged in the Peloponnesian war, and repeatedly invaded Attica. His son Leotychides being considered illegitimate, he was succeeded by his brother Agesilaus. - Agis III. (338-331 B. C.) reigned at the time of Alexander the Great's expedition into Asia. In the absence of that conqueror, he made an irruption into Arcadia, but was defeated with great slaughter by Antipater, the viceroy whom Alexander had left behind him, and fell fighting. - Agis IV. (244-240 B. C), son of Eudamidas II., having come to the throne when he was but 20 years of age, conceived a liberal system of political and social change. The privileged class, who engrossed all the power of the state, and almost all its wealth, and who were alone entitled to call themselves Spartans, had dwindled down to 700 heads of families, of whom not more than 100 were wealthy.

As by the laws of Lycurgus no Spartan citizen could possess more than one lot of land, three fourths of these 100 wealthy proprietors were women, who were not deemed to be affected by the Lycurgian laws, and in whose hands most of the landed estates had accumulated. Agis himself, his mother, and his grandmother were among the wealthiest proprietors. His plan was, that the great proprietors should give up all their estates above the limit prescribed by Lycurgus, and that this surplusage should be divided in this way: 4,500 estates, situated in the districts adjoining the city of Sparta, to be given to the poorer Spartan citizens and the most respectable aliens, and 15,000 estates to be cut out from the outlying portions of Laconia, and bestowed on as many Periœci capable of bearing arms, who were to be admitted to Spartan citizenship; all debts to be cancelled, and the whole community to start with a fresh score. He gained over his mother Agesistrata and his grandmother Archidamia, and afterward his other relatives and private friends.

The senate rejected the project by a majority of one, but a public meeting was called, when Agis spoke, and offered to give up his property.