From the end of the Peloponnesian War onwards, for over three centuries, the watchword of relief of the debts, associated with that of redistribution of the land, had often resonated in the Middle Ages, both in the East and in the West, inspiring attempts of revolt among impoverished peasants and artisans. The two claims already appear coupled in Demosthenes and Isocrates, since the fourth century BC, and still echo in Plutarch, at the dawn of our era. Indeed, the latter brings us back, in one of his Lives, to an episode singularly similar, in its religious repercussions, to the drama of Christ's passion and death.
This is the case of Cleomenes III, king of Sparta, who during the 111th century BC. C. had proposed to "cancel debts, redistribute land and emancipate the helots." Expelled from his own people, he took refuge in Alexandria in Egypt, organized a revolt against Ptolemy IV and in the face of the failure of this latter enterprise, he gave himself up to death. Before killing himself he had summoned twelve of his friends and supporters for a kind of "last supper": he had regretted having been betrayed and had invited everyone to desist from a useless struggle, as Jesus will do in Gethsemane. His corpse had been nailed to a cross and the populace, deeply struck by his tragic end and by a whole series of extraordinary events that had occurred after his crucifixion, had cried out to the miracle and proclaimed him "son of the gods". In this regard, it should be added that there were fairly close relations between the Spartans and the Jews, especially after the transfer of a group of Israelites to Sparta, at the invitation of King Areo (309-265 BC). The high priest Jason, in 1 68 BC. C., to escape the repression of Antiocus IV, had sought and found hospitality among the Spartans. It cannot therefore be excluded that the story of Cleomenes' "passion" 111 has left traces in the popular imagination in the land of Palestine
This is the case of Cleomenes III, king of Sparta, who during the 111th century BC. C. had proposed to "cancel debts, redistribute land and emancipate the helots." Expelled from his own people, he took refuge in Alexandria in Egypt, organized a revolt against Ptolemy IV and in the face of the failure of this latter enterprise, he gave himself up to death. Before killing himself he had summoned twelve of his friends and supporters for a kind of "last supper": he had regretted having been betrayed and had invited everyone to desist from a useless struggle, as Jesus will do in Gethsemane. His corpse had been nailed to a cross and the populace, deeply struck by his tragic end and by a whole series of extraordinary events that had occurred after his crucifixion, had cried out to the miracle and proclaimed him "son of the gods". In this regard, it should be added that there were fairly close relations between the Spartans and the Jews, especially after the transfer of a group of Israelites to Sparta, at the invitation of King Areo (309-265 BC). The high priest Jason, in 1 68 BC. C., to escape the repression of Antiocus IV, had sought and found hospitality among the Spartans. It cannot therefore be excluded that the story of Cleomenes' "passion" 111 has left traces in the popular imagination in the land of Palestine
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