Abstract
The Conspiracy of Cinadon is an attempted coup d'état which took place in Sparta in the 4th century BCE, (during the first years of Agesilaus II's reign). Led by Cinadon, it aimed to break the power of the elite of the oligarchic Spartan system. This event was reported by Xenophon in the third book of his Hellenica : I am going to rely on this text - even if we can for sure question the reliability of the source and the exactitude of the facts – but Xenophon's Hellenica remains a highly significant source on Spartan history and one of the only texts reporting that conspiracy (-> Aristotle mentioned Cinadon). In the Hellenica, Xenophon describes it as a real threat towards the Spartan society. Therefore, we'll go through the conspiracy and see how it was triggered and organized. We'll also see that the conspiracy was a failure and we'll try to understand why.
The leaders of Sparta were the five ephors: whereas they officially shared their power with the two Kings of Sparta, they were, according to Plato, real tyrants whereas the kings were little more than generals. Their role was to control and to supervise the respect of the spartan laws and the behavior of the sovereigns. During the wars, they were also in charge of the mobilization of the whole population and of the adoption of the strategies.
