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In a short time, the wife whom he had last married bore him a son,
who received the name of Cleomenes; and so the heir to the throne was
brought into the world by her. After this, the first wife also, who
in time past had been barren, by some strange chance conceived, and
came to be with child. Then the friends of the second wife, when they
heard a rumour of the truth, made a great stir, and said it was a
false boast, and she meant, they were sure, to bring forward as her
own a supposititious child. So they raised an outcry against her; and
therefore, when her full time was come, the Ephors, who were
themselves incredulous, sat round her bed, and kept a strict watch on
the labour. At this time then she bore Dorieus, and after him,
quickly, Leonidas, and after him, again quickly, Cleombrotus.
Some even say that Leonidas and Cleombrotus were twins. On the
other hand, the second wife, the mother of Cleomenes (who was a
daughter of Prinetadas, the son of Demarmenus), never gave birth to
a second child.
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