a citizen of Tegea, in Arcadia. He, along with two brothers, fought against the three sons of Demonstratus of Phenacus, in order to put an end to a long war between their respective nations. But the brothers of Critolaus were both killed, and he alone remained to withstand his three bold antagonists. He conquered them, however; and when at his return his sister deplored the death of one of his antagonists, to whom she was betrothed, he killed her in a fit of resentment. The offence deserved capital punishment; but he was pardoned on account of the services which he had rendered his country. He was afterwards general of the Achaeans; and it is said that he poisoned himself because he had been conquered by the Romans at Thermopylae, about 146 years before the Augustan age.