A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. The grandson of the preceding, and the son of Areus I. king of Sparta. He had unlawful intercourse with Chelidonis, the young wife of Cleonymus, who was the uncle of his father Areus; and it was this, together with the disappointment of not obtaining the throne, which led Cleonymus to invite Pyrrhus to Sparta, B. C. 272. Areus was then absent in Crete, and the safety of Sparta was mainly owing to the valour of Acrotatts. He succeeded his father in B. C. 265, but was killed in the same year in battle against Aristodemus, the tyrant of Megalopolis. Pausanias, in speaking of his death, calls him the son of Cleonymus. but he has mistaken him for his grandfather, spoken of above. (Plut. Pyrrh. 26_28; Agis, 3; Paus. 3.6.3, 8.27.8, 30.3.) Areus and Acrotatus are accused by Phylarchus (apud Athen. iv. p. 142b.) of having corrupted the simplicity of Spartan manners.