A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἱππομέδων), a Spartan, son of Agesilaus, the uncle of Agis IV. He must have been older than his cousin Agis, as he is said by Plutarch (Plut. Agis 6) to have already distinguished himself on many occasions in war when the young king first began to engage in his constitutional reforms. Hippomedon entered warmly into the schemes of Agis, and was mainly instrumental in gaining over his father Agesilaus to their support. But the latter sought in fact only his own advantage, under the cloak of patriotism; and during the absence of Agis, on his expedition to Corinth to support Aratus, he gave so much dissatisfaction by his administration at Sparta, that Leonidas was recalled by the opposite party, and Agesilaus was compelled to fly from the city. Hippomedon shared in the exile of his father, though he had not participated in his unpopularity. (Plut. Agis 6, 16.) At a subsequent period we find him mentioned as holding the office for Ptolemy, king of Egypt, of governor of the cities subject to that prince on the confines of Thrace. (Teles. ap. Stobaeum, Flor. vol. ii. p. 82. ed. Gaisf.; comp. Niebuhr, Kl. Schrift. p. 461; Schorn. Gesch. Griech. p. 100.) We learn from Polybius (4.35.13) that he was still living at the death of Cleomenes. in B. C. 220, when the crown would have devolved of right either to him or to one of his two grandchildren, the sons of Archidamus V., who had married a daughter of Hippomedon ; but their claims were disregarded, and Lycurgus, a stranger to the royal family, was raised to the throne.

[E.H.B]