The second is also remarkable for the nobility of the women who aided it. Cleomenes,[32] a man of great vigour and capacity, the son of Leonidas mentioned above, came to the throne. His father had compelled him to marry Agiatis, the widow of Agis; but he soon began to love the noble and gentle lady. They talked much together about Agis and his projects, and Cleomenes at length resolved to carry out the projected reforms. Again the young prince was helped most effectively by his mother, Cratesicleia, who supplied him with resources, and even married again for his sake, for she thereby secured the support of one of the most influential men in Sparta. But again destiny was too powerful for the reformer. He did, indeed, succeed in introducing his reforms into Sparta, and in again giving her the foremost place in Peloponnesus. But he awoke the jealousy of Aratus, the head of the Achæan League; the Macedonian stranger was called in, and after a fatal battle Cleomenes had to flee. During the course of his struggles his noble wife Agiatis died, and was bitterly lamented. His mother, Cratesicleia, was always ready to help him, and stood by him to the last. At one time he required the alliance of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, but Ptolemy would not agree to it unless the Spartan king sent his mother and child as hostages. Cleomenes did not venture to mention this proposal to his mother, but the mother’s keen eye observed that he was keeping some secret from her. At last she prevailed on him to disclose it, and on hearing it she laughed loudly and said, “Will you not send immediately this body where it is likely to be most useful to Sparta, before it is dissolved by old age?” After she had gone to Egypt she heard that Cleomenes was afraid to take certain measures because Ptolemy held his mother and child as hostages, and she at once wrote to him, “Do what is proper, and never mind what becomes of an old woman and a little child.”