The affairs of Sparta had fallen into a corrupt state by the third generation after Eurypon.  The king of his line was killed in a quarrel, and his widow, a wicked woman, offered his brother Lycurgus to kill her little new-born babe, if he would marry her, that she might continue to be queen.  Lycurgus did not show his horror, but advised her to send the child alive to him, that he might dispose of it.  So far from killing it was he, that he carried it at once to the council, placed it on the throne, and proclaimed it as Charilaus, king of Sparta.