A Spartan Succession Crisis
Agesilaus II was born into the Eurypontid family, one of Sparta’s two royal lineages, circa 442 BC. He was the second son of King Archidamus II (reigned 477 – 426 BC), and the younger brother of King Agis II (reigned 426 – 400 BC). In the normal course of things, Agis II would have been succeeded by his son Leotychidas. Unfortunately for Leotychidas, he was considered to be a bastard: the biological son of the Athenian adventurer Alcibiades, who had spent time in Sparta as an exile, before he fled after he was caught in bed with the wife of Agis II. A succession crisis ensued, as Agesilaus argued that he should succeed to the throne because Leotychidas was a bastard.
His nephew countered that Agesilaus should not be crowned because he had been born lame, and there was an old Spartan prophecy that warned against a lame king. The supporters of Agesilaus deflected with an argument that the prophecy wasn’t meant literally, but figuratively. The “lame” king, as they put it, was the bastard, not the physically lamed one. It was a good enough argument for most Spartans, who crowned Agesilaus as king. In light of how things turned out, they probably regretted their failure to take the prophecy at face value and reject the literally lame king, rather than go for fancy explanations.