Xenias of Elis

Who is Xenias of Elis?

Xenias was an Elean, of great wealth, who was a proxenos of Sparta, and was also connected by private ties of hospitality with king Agis II. In 400 BC, during the war between Sparta and Elis, Xenias and his oligarchical partizans made an attempt to bear down their adversaries by force, and to subject their country to the Spartans -Sallying out into the streets, they murdered several of their opponents, and among them a man whom they mistook for Thrasydaeus, the leader of the democratic party. Thrasydaeus of Elis, however, who had fallen asleep under the influence of wine, soon rallied his friends, defeated the oligarchs in a battle, and drove Xenias into exile.