ABSTRACT
Soon after defeating the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, the Lakedaimonians and their allies invaded Eleia in what has become known as the Eleian War. The ancient sources provide us with three categories of information concerning the causes of the Eleian War: the reasons for the anger of the Lakedaimonians; their objectives; and the demands which they made upon the Eleians. Ultimately, the Eleian War was one consequence of the sustained determination of the dominant faction in Sparta centred around King Agis to impose aristocratic governments upon the various peoples of Greece. The chronology of the Eleian War, Underhill could already say in 1893, 'has occupied the attention of commentators and historians for more than a century'. In the first year of the Eleian War, Agis had marched across the Peneios valley from Akhaia to reach Olympia. The terms of the peace at the end of the Eleian War clearly went beyond the original demands of the Spartans.
