Spartan king Agis IV gave his estate and 600 talents to a land division, and was strangled with his mother and grandmother before any land was divided

Plutarch says an ephor named Epitadeus, angry with his son, passed a law that let a man give or bequeath his estate to anyone he chose. Land gathered into a few hands. By the time Agis IV became king, about 245 BC, Sparta had about 700 full citizens, and about 100 of them held the land. Agis proposed to cancel all debts and divide Laconia into 4,500 lots for Spartans and 15,000 for the free non-citizens who could bear arms. His mother Agesistrata and grandmother Archidamia were, Plutarch says, the richest people in Sparta. Agis put his own farmland and 600 talents into the common fund, and both women did the same. His uncle Agesilaus, who was deep in debt, persuaded him to cancel debts first. The mortgage bonds were burned in the market-place. Agesilaus then kept finding reasons to delay the land division, and it never happened. While Agis was away on campaign, his rival King Leonidas II returned. Agis was seized and strangled in prison. Archidamia was executed next, and Agesistrata was hanged after helping take down her mother's body. Leonidas gave Agis's widow Agiatis, an heiress, to his own son Cleomenes. As king, Cleomenes killed the ephors and divided the land. He was defeated at Sellasia in 222 BC, fled to Egypt and killed himself there about 220 BC.