Nabis

Tetradrachm of Nabis, with his portrait under the guise of Heracles, who is also pictured seated on the reverse. The legend reads "of king Nabis" in Doric Greek (ΒΑΙΛΕΟΣ ΝΑΒΙΟΣ). The coin is in the collection of the British Museum. Nabis (Ancient Greek: Νάβις) was the last king of independent Sparta. He was probably a member of the Heracleidae, and he ruled from 207 BC to 192 BC, during the years of the First and Second Macedonian Wars and the "War against Nabis" named for being against him. After taking the throne by executing two claimants, he began rebuilding Sparta's power. During the Second Macedonian War, Nabis sided with King Philip V of Macedon and in return he received the city of Argos. However, when the war began to turn against the Macedonians, he defected to Rome. After the war, the Romans, urged by the Achaean League, attacked Nabis and defeated him. He then was assassinated in 192 BC by the Aetolian League. He represented the last phase of Sparta's reformist period.

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