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124-529: At first, the Spartans achieved several successes in pitched battles (at Nemea and Coroneia ), but lost their advantage after their fleet was destroyed at the naval Battle of Cnidus against the Persian fleet, which effectively ended Sparta's attempts to become a naval power. As a result, Athens launched several naval campaigns in the later years of the war, recapturing a number of islands that had been part of

248-550: A base there. This was the first time in 90 years, since the Greco-Persian Wars , that the Achaemenid fleet was going so far west. The military occupation by these pro-Athenian forces led to several democratic revolutions and new alliances with Athens in the islands. The fleet proceeded further west to take revenge on the Spartans by invading Lacedaemonian territory, where they laid waste to Pherae and raided along

372-538: A brief engagement between Thebes and Phocis, in which Thebes was victorious, the allies gathered a large army at Corinth. A sizable force was sent out from Sparta to challenge this force. The forces met at the dry bed of the Nemea River, in Corinthian territory, where the Spartans won a decisive victory. As often happened in hoplite battles, the right flank of each army was victorious, with the Spartans defeating

496-558: A centaur is indicative of the unstable alliance of Persian and Mede formulated by Cyrus. He cites the regression of the Persians directly after the death of Cyrus as the result of this instability, a union made possible only through Cyrus. The strength of Cyrus in holding the empire together is praiseworthy, according to Xenophon. However, the empire began to decline upon the death of Cyrus. By this example, Xenophon sought to show that empires lacked stability and could only be maintained by

620-458: A day later, took back the bodies of the Spartan dead under a truce, and returned to Sparta. There, he was put on trial for his life for failing to arrive and support Lysander at the designated time. He fled to Tegea before he could be convicted. In the wake of these events, both the Spartans and their opponents prepared for more serious fighting to come. In late 395 BC, Corinth and Argos entered

744-463: A follower of Socrates." Diogenes Laërtius also relates an incident "when in the battle of Delium Xenophon had fallen from his horse" and Socrates reputedly "stepped in and saved his life." Both Plato and Xenophon wrote Apology concerning the death of Socrates. Xenophon and Plato seem to be concerned with the failures of Socrates to defend himself. Xenophon asserts that Socrates dealt with his prosecution in an exceedingly arrogant manner, or at least

868-599: A horse, so much so that the Persians may actually seem to be centaurs (4.3.22–23). Xenophon plays upon the post-Persian-war propagandistic paradigm of using mythological imagery to represent the Greco-Persian conflict . Examples of this include the wedding of the Lapiths , Gigantomachy , Trojan War , and Amazonomachy on the Parthenon frieze . Johnson believes that the unstable dichotomy of man and horse found in

992-463: A large part of the fleet to Attica , where he joined in the rebuilding of the long walls from Athens to Piraeus , a project that had been initiated by Thrasybulus in 394 BC. With the assistance of the rowers of the fleet, and the workers paid for by the Persian money, the construction was soon completed. Xenophon in his Hellenica gives a vivid contemporary account of this endeavour: Conon said that if he (Pharnabazus) would allow him to have

1116-553: A large part of the wall, giving his own crews for the work, paying the wages of carpenters and masons, and meeting whatever other expense was necessary. There were some parts of the wall, however, which the Athenians themselves, as well as volunteers from Boeotia and from other states, aided in building. Athens quickly took advantage of its possession of walls and a fleet to seize the islands of Scyros , Imbros , and Lemnos , on which it established cleruchies (citizen colonies). As

1240-459: A number of Athenian merchant ships. Worried that Thrasybulus's accomplishments were being undermined, the Athenians sent Iphicrates to the region to confront Anaxibius. For a time, the two forces merely raided each other's territory, but eventually Iphicrates succeeded in guessing where Anaxibius would bring his troops on a return march from a campaign against Antandrus , and ambushed the Spartan force. When Anaxibius and his men, who were strung out in

1364-540: A peace conference in late 387 BC, the major parties of the war were ready to discuss terms. The basic outline of the treaty was laid out by a decree from the Persian king Artaxerxes : King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia should belong to him, as well as Clazomenae and Cyprus among the islands, and that the other Greek cities, both small and great, should be left autonomous ( αὐτονόμους ), except Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros; and these should belong, as of old, to

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1488-666: A person of remarkable prowess, such as Cyrus. Xenophon displays Cyrus as a lofty, temperate man. He is depicted as not subject to the foibles of others. He used the example of the Persians to decry the attempts at empire made by Athens and Sparta. Having written the Cyropaedia after the downfall of Athens in the Peloponnesian War , this work criticizes the Greek attempts at empire and "monarchy". Another passage that Johnson cites as criticism of monarchy and empire concerns

1612-573: A philosopher. Today, Xenophon is recognized as one of the greatest writers of antiquity. Xenophon's works span multiple genres and are written in plain Attic Greek , which is why they have often been used in translation exercises for contemporary students of the Ancient Greek language. In the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers , Diogenes Laërtius observed that Xenophon was known as

1736-462: A pursuing enemy by the systematic devastation of the country traversed and the destruction of its villages to deprive him of food and shelter. And Xenophon is moreover the first who established in rear of the phalanx a reserve from which he could at will feed weak parts of his line. This was a superb first conception." The Ten Thousand eventually made their way into the land of the Carduchians ,

1860-572: A rallying cry since the beginning of the 5th century, but after the Corinthian War, the mainland states made no further attempts to interfere with Persia's control of the region. After over a century of disruption and struggle, Persia at last ruled western Anatolia without disruption or intervention for over 50 years, until the time of Alexander the Great . Battle of Nemea The Battle of Nemea of 394 BC , also known in ancient Athens as

1984-592: A reference to "Archers" ( Toxotai ) the Greek nickname for the Darics from their obverse design, because that much money had been paid to politicians in Athens and Thebes in order to start a war against Sparta. The Thebans, who had previously demonstrated their antipathy towards Sparta, undertook to bring about a war. Xenophon claims that, unwilling to challenge Sparta directly, the Thebans instead choose to precipitate

2108-615: A resentful Thebes resumed in 378 BC, which finally led to the destruction of Spartan hegemony at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. In the Peloponnesian War , which had ended in 404 BC, Sparta had enjoyed the support of nearly every mainland Greek state and the Achaemenid Empire , and in the months and years following that war, a number of the island states of the Aegean had come under its control. This solid base of support, however,

2232-606: A reward for his success, Pharnabazus was allowed to marry the king's daughter. He was recalled to the Achaemenid Empire in 393 BC, and replaced by satrap Tiribazus . At about this time, civil strife broke out in Corinth between the democratic party and the oligarchic party. The democrats, supported by the Argives, launched an attack on their opponents, and the oligarchs were driven from the city. These exiles went to

2356-454: A rhetorical challenge worthy of the great persuader. By contrast, Plato argued that Socrates was attempting to demonstrate a higher moral standard and teach a lesson. Xenophon's lessons on leadership have been reconsidered for their modern-day value. The Cyropaedia , in outlining Cyrus as an ideal leader, is the work that O'Flannery suggests be used as a guide or example for those striving to be leaders. The linking of moral code and education

2480-397: A second major battle at Coronea later in the same year. These two battles marked the only traditional large-scale land fighting that would take place in the war, which lasted until 386 BC. Xenophon Xenophon of Athens ( / ˈ z ɛ n ə f ən , ˈ z iː n ə -, - ˌ f ɒ n / ; Ancient Greek : Ξενοφῶν ; c.  430  – probably 355 or 354 BC)

2604-588: A small Athenian force, then united his fleet with a supporting fleet sent from Syracuse . With this force, which was soon further augmented with ships supplied by the satraps of the region, he sailed to the Hellespont, where he could cut off the trade routes that brought grain to Athens. The Athenians, mindful of their similar defeat in the Peloponnesian War less than two decades before, were ready to make peace. In this climate, when Tiribazus called

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2728-522: A temporary truce, and the Greek army retired for a winter camp at Byzantium . In 398 BC, Xenophon captured the city of Lampsacus . The Spartan ephors officially cleared the Ten Thousand of any previous wrongdoing (the Ten Thousand were likely a part of the investigation of Thimbron's failure at Larissa) and integrated the Ten Thousand into Dercylidas' army. Hellenica mentions the response of

2852-569: A war by encouraging their allies, the Locrians , to collect taxes from territory claimed by both Locris and Phocis . In response, the Phocians invaded Locris, and ransacked Locrian territory. The Locrians appealed to Thebes for assistance, and the Thebans invaded Phocian territory; the Phocians, in turn, appealed to their ally, Sparta, and the Spartans, pleased to have a pretext to discipline the Thebans, ordered general mobilization. A Theban embassy

2976-518: A wild tribe inhabiting the mountains of modern southeastern Turkey. "Once the Great King had sent into their country an army of 120,000 men, to subdue them, but of all that great host not one had ever seen his home again." The Ten Thousand were shot at with stones and arrows for several days before they reached a defile where the main Carduchian host sat. Xenophon had 8,000 men feint and marched

3100-513: A young boy (present at the banquet alongside his own father). In Oeconomicus , Socrates explains how to manage a household. Both the Apology and the Memorabilia defend Socrates' character and teachings. The former is set during the trial of Socrates, while the latter explains his moral principles and that he was not a corrupter of the youth. Although Xenophon claims to have been present at

3224-461: Is best outlined in the Histories of Herodotus . Herodotus contradicts Xenophon at several other points. Herodotus says that Cyrus led a rebellion against his maternal grandfather, Astyages , king of Media, and defeated him, thereafter keeping Astyages in his court for the remainder of his life ( Histories 1.130). The Medes were thus "reduced to subjection" (1.130) and became "slaves" (1.129) to

3348-552: The Battle of Corinth , was a battle in the Corinthian War , between Sparta and the coalition of Argos , Athens , Corinth , and Thebes . The battle was fought in Corinthian territory, at the dry bed of the Nemea River. The battle was a decisive Spartan victory, which, coupled with the Battle of Coronea later in the same year, gave Sparta the advantage in the early fighting on the Greek mainland. Hostilities in

3472-593: The Boeotians , 3,000 from Corinth , and 3,000 from Euboea . Of the allied cavalry, 800 were Boeotian, 600 were Athenian, about 100 from Chalcis in Euboea, and about 50 from the Ozolian Locrians . The Spartans and their allies lined up for battle with the Spartans on the right and the allies on the left. The opposing coalition was divided over how to arrange themselves; the Athenians wanted to line up on

3596-427: The Cyropaedia to outline his political and moral philosophy. He did this by endowing a fictional version of the boyhood of Cyrus the Great , founder of the first Persian Empire , with the qualities of what Xenophon considered the ideal ruler. Historians have asked whether Xenophon's portrait of Cyrus was accurate or if Xenophon imbued Cyrus with events from Xenophon's own life. There is a consensus that Cyrus's career

3720-533: The Gulf of Corinth . These armies met each other at Coronea, in Theban territory; as at Nemea, both right wings were victorious, with the Thebans breaking through while the rest of the allies were defeated. Seeing that the rest of their force had been defeated, the Thebans formed up to break back through to their camp. Agesilaus met their force head on, and in the struggle that followed a number of Thebans were killed before

3844-660: The Messenian coast. Their aim was probably to instigate a revolt of the Messanian helots against Sparta. Eventually they left due to scarce resources and few harbors for the Achaemenid fleet in the area, as well as the looming possibility of Lacedaemonian relief forces being dispatched. They then raided the coast of Laconia and seized the island of Cythera , where they left a garrison and an Athenian governor to cripple Sparta's offensive military capabilities. Cythera in effect became Achaemenid territory. Seizing Cythera also had

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3968-492: The Nabonidus Chronicle , there is mention of the death of the wife of the king (name not given) within a month after the capture of Babylon. It has been conjectured that this was Cyrus's first wife; Cyropaedia' s stated (8.5.19) that Cyaxares II gave his daughter in marriage to Cyrus soon after the fall of the city, with the kingdom of Media as her dowry. The Cyropaedia praises the first Persian emperor, Cyrus

4092-703: The Spartiates that died in the battle, since the Spartiates themselves only made up a fraction of the Spartan army (the bulk being Perioikoi , armed helots and allies). The main source of the battle is the pro-Spartan historian Xenophon, who put most of the blame of the allies' defeat on the arrogance and indiscipline of the Thebans. Although the Spartans held the field at the end of the battle, they were unable to force their way past Corinth and enter central Greece. Accordingly, they returned home. The allied army, after several months of inactivity, saw action in

4216-534: The Symposium , he was only a young boy at the date on which he proposes. Xenophon was not present at the trial of Socrates, having been on campaign in Anatolia and Mesopotamia . It seems that Xenophon wrote his Apology and Memorabilia as defences of his former teacher and to further the philosophic project, not to present a literal transcript of Socrates' response to the historical charges incurred. Xenophon

4340-560: The Ten Thousand while in the service of Cyrus the Younger , Cyrus's failed campaign to claim the Persian throne from Artaxerxes II of Persia , and the return of Greek mercenaries after Cyrus's death in the Battle of Cunaxa . Xenophon wrote Cyropaedia , outlining both military and political methods used by Cyrus the Great to conquer the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC. Anabasis and Cyropaedia inspired Alexander

4464-520: The Thessalians during its march through that country, had arrived in Boeotia, where it was met by an army gathered from the various states of the anti-Spartan alliance. Agesilaus's force from Asia, composed largely of emancipated helots and mercenary veterans of the Ten Thousand , was augmented by half a Spartan regiment from Orchomenus, and another half a regiment that had been transported across

4588-546: The deme (local district) of Erchia in Athens ; his father was called Gryllus ( Γρύλλος ) and belonged to an Athenian aristocratic family. The Peloponnesian War was being waged throughout Xenophon's childhood and youth. A contemporary of Plato , Xenophon associated with Socrates , as was common for wealthy young men in this period, and probably served in the Athenian cavalry. He appears to have remained in Athens during

4712-605: The "Attic Muse" because of the sweetness of his diction. Despite being born an Athenian citizen, Xenophon came to be associated with Sparta , the traditional opponent of Athens. Much of what is known today about the Spartan society comes from Xenophon's royal biography of the Spartan king Agesilaus and the Constitution of the Lacedaemonians . The sub-satrap Mania is primarily known through Xenophon's writings. Xenophon's Anabasis recounts his adventures with

4836-473: The Aeginetans and their Spartan allies, killing a number of them including Gorgopas. The Spartans then sent Teleutias to Aegina to command the fleet there. Noticing that the Athenians had relaxed their guard after Chabrias's victory, he launched a raid on Piraeus, seizing numerous merchant ships. Antalcidas , meanwhile, had entered into negotiations with Tiribazus , and reached an agreement under which

4960-459: The Athenians sent out a fleet of 40 triremes under Thrasybulus . He, judging that he could accomplish more by campaigning where the Spartan fleet was not than by challenging it directly, sailed to the Hellespont . Once there, he won over several major states to the Athenian side and placed a duty on ships sailing past Byzantium , restoring a source of revenue that the Athenians had relied on in

5084-413: The Athenians while the Thebans, Argives, and Corinthians defeated the various Peloponnesians opposite them; the Spartans then attacked and killed a number of Argives, Corinthians, and Thebans as these troops returned from pursuing the defeated Peloponnesians. The coalition army lost 2,800 men, while the Spartans and their allies lost only 1,100. The next major action of the war took place at sea, where both

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5208-409: The Athenians. But whichever of the two parties does not accept this peace, upon them I will make war, in company with those who desire this arrangement, both by land and by sea, with ships and with money. According to the terms of this peace treaty: In a general peace conference at Sparta, the Spartans, with their authority enhanced by the threat of Persian intervention, secured the acquiescence of all

5332-470: The Boeotian confederacy, and advanced to Haliartus with his troops and a force of Orchomenians. There, he was killed in the Battle of Haliartus after bringing his force too near the walls of the city; the battle ended inconclusively, with the Spartans suffering early losses but then defeating a group of Thebans who pursued the Spartans onto rough terrain where they were at a disadvantage. Pausanias, arriving

5456-442: The Corinthian War began in 395 BC with raiding in northwestern Greece, eventually leading to a clash between Sparta and Thebes at the Battle of Haliartus , a Theban victory. In the wake of this battle, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos joined together to form an anti-Spartan alliance, with its forces commanded by a council at Corinth. In 394 BC, the council gathered together its forces at Corinth. A Spartan army under Aristodemus,

5580-428: The Corinthian war was at an end. In the years following the signing of the peace, the two states responsible for its structure, Persia and Sparta, took full advantage of the gains they had made. Persia, freed of both Athenian and Spartan interference in its Asian provinces, consolidated its hold over the eastern Aegean and captured both Egypt and Cyprus by 380 BC. Sparta, meanwhile, in its newly formalized position atop

5704-480: The Great and other Greeks to conquer Babylon and the Achaemenid Empire in 331 BC. The Hellenica continues directly from the final sentence of Thucydides ' History of the Peloponnesian War covering the last seven years of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) and the subsequent forty-two years (404–362 BC) ending with the Second Battle of Mantinea . Xenophon was born c.  430 BC in

5828-570: The Great , and it was through his greatness that the Persian Empire held together. However, following the lead of Leo Strauss , David Johnson suggests that there is a subtle layer to the book in which Xenophon conveys criticism of the Persians, the Spartans, and the Athenians. In section 4.3 of the Cyropaedia , Cyrus wrote his desire to institute cavalry. He wrote that he desires that no Persian kalokagathos ("noble and good man" literally, or simply "noble") ever be seen on foot but always on

5952-477: The Greek mainland. He dispatched Timocrates of Rhodes , an Asiatic Greek, to distribute ten thousand gold darics in the major cities of the mainland and incite them to act against Sparta. Timocrates visited Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos, and succeeded in persuading powerful factions in each of those states to pursue an anti-Spartan policy. According to Plutarch , Agesilaus, the Spartan king, said upon leaving Asia "I have been driven out by 10,000 Persian archers",

6076-593: The Greek political system, took advantage of the autonomy clause of the peace to break up any coalition that it perceived as a threat. Disloyal allies were sharply punished— Mantinea , for instance, was broken up into five component villages. With Agesilaus at the head of the state, advocating for an aggressive policy, the Spartans campaigned from the Peloponnese to the distant Chalcidic peninsula . Their dominance over mainland Greece would last another sixteen years before being shattered at Leuctra . The war also marked

6200-583: The Greeks led by Thimbron lay siege to Larissa . Failing to capture Larissa, the Greeks fall back to Caria . As a result, the ephors of Sparta recall Thimbron and send Dercylidas to lead the Greek army. After facing the court at Sparta, Thimbron is banished. Xenophon describes Dercylidas as a significantly more experienced commander than Thimbron. Led by Dercylidas, Xenophon and the Greek army march to Aeolis and capture nine cities in 8 days, including Larissa , Hamaxitus , and Kolonai . The Persians negotiated

6324-595: The Greeks made an alliance with the locals and fought one last battle against the Colchians , vassals of the Persians. Xenophon ordered his men to deploy the line extremely thin so as to overlap the enemy. The Colchians divided their army to check the Greek deployment, opening a gap in their line through which Xenophon rushed in his reserves. They then made their way westward back to Greek territory via Chrysopolis ( Anabasis 6.3.16). Once there, they helped Seuthes II make himself king of Thrace before being recruited into

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6448-478: The Greeks reached the Great Zab river, one of the men devised a plan: goats, cows, sheep, and donkeys were to be slaughtered and their bodies stuffed with hay, sewn up, laid across the river, and covered with dirt so as not to be slippery and be used as a bridge to cross the river. This plan was discarded as impractical. Dodge notes, "On this retreat also was first shown the necessary, if cruel, means of arresting

6572-488: The Greeks to Leucophrys . Dercylidas proposed the new terms of truce to Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus and the three parties submitted the truce proposal to Sparta and the Persian king for ratification. Under Dercylidas' proposal, the Persians abandoned claims to independent Greek cities in Ionia, and the Spartans withdrew the army. In 396 BC, the newly appointed Spartan king, Agesilaus , arrived at Ephesus and assumed command of

6696-534: The Gulf of Corinth to attack Acarnania , an ally of the anti-Spartan coalition. After initial difficulties in coming to grips with the Acarnanians, who kept to the mountains and avoided engaging him directly, Agesilaus was eventually able to draw them into a pitched battle, in which the Acarnanians were routed and lost a number of men. He then sailed home across the Gulf. The next year, the Acarnanians made peace with

6820-476: The Lacedaemonians. He also funded the rebuilding of a Corinthian fleet to resist the Spartans. After being convinced by Conon that allowing him to rebuild the Long Walls around Piraeus , the main port of Athens, would be a major blow to the Lacedaemonians, Pharnabazus eagerly gave Conon a fleet of 80 triremes and additional funds to accomplish this task. Pharnabazus dispatched Conon with substantial funds and

6944-711: The Medes were the strongest of the kingdoms that opposed the Babylonians (1.5.2). In the Harran Stele, a document from the court of Nabonidus wrote the same point. In the entry for year 14 or 15 of his reign (542–540 BC), Nabonidus speaks of his enemies as the kings of Egypt, the Medes, and the Arabs. There is no mention of the Persians; according to Herodotus and the current consensus, the Medians had been made "slaves" of

7068-577: The Nemea river. The Spartan army was composed of some 18,000–19,000 hoplites , with associated light troops. Of the hoplites, 6,000 were Spartan, with the remainder coming from the other states of the Peloponnesian League : 3,000 from the Eleans , Triphylians , Acrorians , and Lasionians ; 1,500 from Sicyon ; and at least 3,000 from Epidaurus , Troezen , Hermione , and Halieis . There

7192-444: The Peloponnesian War. Corinth and Thebes refused to send troops to assist Sparta in its campaign against Elis. Thebes, Corinth and Athens also refused to participate in a Spartan expedition to Ionia in 398 BC, with the Thebans going so far as to disrupt a sacrifice that the Spartan king Agesilaus attempted to perform in their territory before his departure. Despite the absence of these states, Agesilaus campaigned effectively against

7316-504: The Persians 20 years before the capture of Babylon in 539 BC. The Cyropaedia relates instead that Astyages died and was succeeded by his son, Cyaxares II , the maternal uncle of Cyrus (1.5.2). In the initial campaign against the Lydians, Babylonians, and their allies, the Medians were led by Cyaxares and the Persians by Cyrus, who was crown prince of the Persians since his father was still alive (4.5.17). Xenophon relates that at this time

7440-429: The Persians and the Spartans had assembled large fleets during Agesilaus's campaign in Asia. By levying ships from the Aegean states under his control, Agesilaus had raised a force of 120 triremes , which he placed under the command of his brother-in-law Peisander , who had never held a command of this nature before. The Persians, meanwhile, had already assembled a joint Phoenician , Cilician , and Cypriot fleet, under

7564-561: The Persians in Lydia , advancing as far inland as Sardis . The satrap Tissaphernes was executed for his failure to contain Agesilaus, and his replacement, Tithraustes , bribed the Spartans to move north, into the satrapy of Pharnabazus , Hellespontine Phrygia . Agesilaus did so, but simultaneously began preparing a sizable navy. Unable to defeat Agesilaus' army, Pharnabazus decided to force Agesilaus to withdraw by stirring up trouble on

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7688-457: The Persians several years previously. An archaeological bas-reliefs in the stairway at Persepolis shows no distinction in official status between the Persian and Median. Olmstead nevertheless wrote, "Medes were honored equally with Persians; they were employed in high office and were chosen to lead Persian armies." Both Herodotus (1.123,214) and Xenophon (1.5.1,2,4, 8.5.20) present Cyrus as about 40 years old when his forces captured Babylon. In

7812-413: The Persians to detach a major part of their force parallel. Xenophon overwhelmed the force at his ford. Winter has arrived as the Greeks marched through Armenia "absolutely unprovided with clothing suitable for such weather". The Greeks decided to attack a wooden castle known to have had storage. The castle was stationed on a hill surrounded by forest. Xenophon ordered small parties of his men to appear on

7936-448: The Persians would enter into the war on the Spartan side if the allies refused to make peace. It appears that the Persians, unnerved by certain actions of Athens, including supporting king Evagoras of Cyprus and Akoris of Egypt , both of whom were at war with Persia, had decided that their policy of weakening Sparta by supporting its enemies was no longer useful. After escaping from the blockade at Abydos, Antalcidas attacked and defeated

8060-449: The Spartan bases at Abydos and Sestos under the command of Dercylidas , as well as the small bases of Aigai and Temnos . Apart from Mytilene, Lesbos also remained pro-Spartan. Based on numismatic evidence, the cities of Rhodes, Iasos , Knidos , Ephesos, Samos , Byzantium , Kyzikos , and Lampsakos , likely made an alliance against Sparta after the battle of Cnidus. By this time, Agesilaus's army, after brushing off attacks from

8184-427: The Spartans dispatched an ambassador, Antalcidas , to the satrap Tiribazus , hoping to turn the Persians against the allies by informing them of Conon's use of the Persian fleet to begin rebuilding the Athenian empire. The Athenians learned of this, and sent Conon and several others to present their case to the Persians; they also notified their allies, and Argos, Corinth, and Thebes dispatched embassies to Tiribazus. At

8308-457: The Spartans prepared to send out an army against this new alliance, and sent a messenger to Agesilaus ordering him to return to Greece. The orders were a disappointment to Agesilaus, who had looked forward to further successful campaigning. It is said he wryly observed, but for ten thousand Persian " archers ", he would have vanquished all Asia. Thus, he turned back with his troops, crossing the Hellespont and marched west through Thrace . After

8432-414: The Spartans to avoid further invasions. In 388 BC, Agesipolis led a Spartan army against Argos. Since no Argive army challenged him, he plundered the countryside for a time, and then, after receiving several unfavorable omens, returned home. After their defeat at Cnidus, the Spartans began to rebuild a fleet, and, in fighting with Corinth, had regained control of the Gulf of Corinth by 392 BC. Following

8556-476: The Spartans with money to equip a fleet. Although Conon quickly escaped, he died soon afterward. A second peace conference was held at Sparta in the same year, but the proposals made there were again rejected by the allies, both because of the implications of the autonomy principle and because the Athenians were outraged that the terms proposed would have involved abandoning the Ionian Greeks to Persia. In

8680-519: The Spartans' allies. The Spartan phalanx took first the Argives, then the Corinthians, and then the Boeotians in the side, inflicting heavy losses on all three. According to Diodoros of Sicily , Sparta and its allies had inflicted 2,800 casualties, while suffering only 1,100. Xenophon tells that the Spartans only lost 8 men. This last number seems unrealistic, but he could just be mentioning

8804-437: The Spartans, based at this time at Sicyon , for support, while the Athenians and Boeotians came up to support the democrats. In a night attack, the Spartans and exiles succeeded in seizing Lechaeum , Corinth's port on the Gulf of Corinth, and defeated the army that came out to challenge them the next day. The anti-Spartan allies then attempted to invest Lechaeum, but the Spartans launched an attack and drove them off. In 392 BC,

8928-427: The area, successfully seizing several fortified points, along with a large number of prisoners and amounts of booty. While Agesilaus was in camp preparing to sell off his spoils, the Athenian general Iphicrates , with a force composed almost entirely of light troops and peltasts (javelin throwers), won a decisive victory against the Spartan regiment that had been stationed at Lechaeum in the Battle of Lechaeum . During

9052-608: The army from Dercylidas. Xenophon joined Agesilaus' campaign for the Ionian Greece independence of 396–394 BC. In 394 BC, Agesilaus' army returned to Greece, taking the route of the Persian invasion eighty years earlier and fought in the Battle of Coronea . Athens banished Xenophon for fighting on the Spartan side. Xenophon probably followed Agesilaus' march to Sparta in 394 BC and finished his military journey after seven years. Xenophon received an estate in Scillus where he spent

9176-506: The army of the Spartan general Thimbron (whom Xenophon refers to as Thibron). Xenophon's conduct of the retreat caused Dodge to name the Athenian knight the greatest general that preceded Alexander the Great. Xenophon's Anabasis ends in 399 BC in the city of Pergamon with the arrival of the Spartan commander Thimbron . Thimbron's campaign is described in Hellenica . In the describtors, after capturing Teuthrania and Halisarna ,

9300-429: The battle, Iphicrates took advantage of the Spartans' lack of peltasts to repeatedly harass the regiment with hit-and-run attacks, wearing the Spartans down until they broke and ran, at which point a number of them were slaughtered. Agesilaus returned home shortly after these events, but Iphicrates continued to campaign around Corinth, recapturing many of the strong points which the Spartans had previously taken, although he

9424-497: The beginning of Athens' resurgence as a power in the Greek world. With their walls and their fleet restored, the Athenians were in position to turn their eyes overseas. By the middle of the 4th century, they had assembled an organization of Aegean states commonly known as the Second Athenian League , regaining at least parts of what they had lost with their defeat in 404 BC. The freedom of the Ionian Greeks had been

9548-459: The captains in Cyrus's mercenary army, Xenophon, sailed to Ephesus to meet Cyrus the Younger and participate in Cyrus's military campaign against Tissaphernes , the Persian satrap of Ionia . Xenophon describes his life in 401 BC and 400 BC in the memoir Anabasis . Written years after the events it recounts, Xenophon's book Anabasis (Greek: ἀνάβασις, literally "going up") is his record of

9672-498: The commander of the Ten Thousand, "But men of Lacedaemon, we are the same men now as we were last year; but the commander now is one man (Dercylidas), and in the past was another (Thimbron). Therefore you are at once able to judge for yourselves the reason why we are not at fault now, although we were then." In 397 BC, Dercylidas' force mirrored the movement of Tissaphernes ' and Pharnabazus ' forces near Ephesus but did not engage in battle. The Persian army retreated to Tralles and

9796-432: The conference that resulted, the Spartans proposed a peace based on the independence of all states; this was rejected by the allies, as Athens wished to hold the gains it had made in the Aegean, Thebes wished to keep its control over the Boeotian league, and Argos already had designs on assimilating Corinth into its state. The conference thus failed, but Tiribazus, alarmed by Conon's actions, arrested him, and secretly provided

9920-583: The devaluation of the homotīmoi ("equal", or "same honours", i.e., "peers"). Homotīmoi were highly educated and thus became the core of the soldiers as heavy infantry. Their band (1000 when Cyrus fought the Assyrians ) shared equally in the spoils of war. However, in the face of overwhelming numbers against the Assyrians, Cyrus armed the commoners with similar arms instead of their normal light ranged armament ( Cyropaedia 2.1.9). Argument ensued as to how

10044-504: The effect of cutting the strategic route between Peloponnesia and Egypt and thus avoiding Spartan-Egyptian collusion, and directly threatening Taenarum , the harbour of Sparta. This strategy to threaten Sparta had already been recommended, in vain, by the exiled Spartan Demaratus to Xerxes I in 480 BC. Pharnabazus II, leaving part of his fleet in Cythera, then went to Corinth , where he gave Sparta's rivals funds to further threaten

10168-463: The emperor for positions and honours; from this point, they were referred to as entīmoi , no longer of the "same honours" but having to be "in" to get the honour. The Spartans wrote nothing about themselves, or if they did it, it is lost. Xenophon, in the Constitution of the Spartans, wrote: It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly populated of states, was evidently

10292-629: The expedition of Cyrus and the Greek mercenaries' journey to home. Xenophon writes that he asked Socrates for advice on whether to go with Cyrus and that Socrates referred him to the Pythia . Xenophon's query to the oracle, however, was not whether or not to accept Cyrus' invitation, but "to which of the gods he must pray and do sacrifice, so that he might best accomplish his intended journey and return in safety, with good fortune". The oracle answered his question and told him which gods to pray and sacrifice to. When Xenophon returned to Athens and told Socrates of

10416-566: The failure of the peace conferences of 392 BC, the Spartans sent a small fleet, under the commander Ecdicus , to the Aegean with orders to assist oligarchs exiled from Rhodes. Ecdicus arrived at Rhodes to find the democrats fully in control, and in possession of more ships than him, and thus waited at Cnidus. The Spartans then dispatched their fleet from the Gulf of Corinth, under Teleutias , to assist. After picking up more ships at Samos, Teleutias took command at Cnidus and commenced operations against Rhodes. Alarmed by this Spartan naval resurgence,

10540-441: The first attempt at a Common Peace in Greek history; under the treaty, all cities were to be autonomous, a clause that would be enforced by the Spartans as guardians of the peace. Under threat of Spartan intervention, Thebes disbanded its league, and Argos and Corinth ended their experiment in shared government; Corinth, deprived of its strong ally, was incorporated back into Sparta's Peloponnesian League . After 8 years of fighting,

10664-434: The fleet, he would maintain it by contributions from the islands and would meanwhile put in at Athens and aid the Athenians in rebuilding their long walls and the wall around Piraeus, adding that he knew nothing could be a heavier blow to the Lacedaemonians than this. (...) Pharnabazus, upon hearing this, eagerly dispatched him to Athens and gave him additional money for the rebuilding of the walls. Upon his arrival Conon erected

10788-403: The genre of Socratic dialogue . These works include Xenophon's Apology , Memorabilia , Symposium , and Oeconomicus . The Symposium outlines the character of Socrates as he and his companions discuss what attributes they take pride in. One of the main plots of the Symposium is about the type of loving relationship ( noble or base ) a rich aristocrat will be able to establish with

10912-412: The guardian of the boy king Agesipolis , was sent north from Sparta to challenge the allies. The allied army, meanwhile, waited at Corinth, while the council debated over who should command it. Before a decision was reached, the Spartan army entered Corinthian territory, burning and plundering along the way. The allies marched out to meet the Spartans, and the two armies met each other near the dry bed of

11036-491: The hill road, and when the defenders shot at them, one soldier would leap into the trees. Then, "the other men followed his example [...] When the stones were almost exhausted, the soldiers raced one another over the exposed part of the road", storming the fortress with most of the garrison now neutralized. Soon after, Xenophon's men reached Trapezus on the coast of the Black Sea ( Anabasis 4.8.22). Before their departure,

11160-460: The joint command of Achaemenid satrap Pharnabazus II and the experienced Athenian admiral Conon who was in self-exile and in the service of the Achaemenids after his infamous defeat at the Battle of Aegospotami . The fleet had already seized Rhodes from Spartan control in 396 BC. These two fleets met off the point of Cnidus in 394 BC. The Spartans fought determinedly, particularly in

11284-452: The larger army of King Artaxerxes II ( Anabasis 1.1.8–11). At Tarsus , the soldiers became aware of Cyrus's plans to depose the king and, as a result, refused to continue ( Anabasis 1.3.1). However, Clearchus , a Spartan general, convinced the Greeks to continue with the expedition. The army of Cyrus met the army of Artaxerxes II in the Battle of Cunaxa . Cyrus was killed in the battle ( Anabasis 1.8.27–1.9.1). Shortly thereafter, Clearchus

11408-485: The late Peloponnesian War. He then sailed to Lesbos , where, with the support of the Mytileneans , he defeated the Spartan forces on the island and won over a number of cities. While still on Lesbos, however, Thrasybulus was killed by raiders from the city of Aspendus. After this, the Spartans sent out a new commander, Anaxibius , to Abydos. For a time, he enjoyed a number of successes against Pharnabazus, and seized

11532-438: The line of march, had entered the rough, mountainous terrain in which Iphicrates and his men were waiting, the Athenians emerged and ambushed them, killing Anaxibius and many others. In 389 BC, the Athenians attacked the island of Aegina , off the coast of Attica. The Spartans soon drove off the Athenian fleet, but the Athenians continued their land assault. Under Antalcidas' command, the Spartan fleet sailed east to Rhodes but it

11656-574: The major states of Greece to these terms. The terms were ratified by the city governments over the next year. The reassertion of Spartan hegemony over Greece by abandoning the Greeks of Aeolia , Ionia , and Caria has been called the "most disgraceful event in Greek history ". The agreement eventually produced was commonly known as the King's Peace, reflecting the Persian influence the treaty showed. This treaty placed Greece under Persian suzerainty and marked

11780-460: The most powerful and most celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I wondered no longer. Xenophon goes on to describe in detail the main aspects of Laconia . A short treatise on the Constitution of the Athenians exists that was once thought to be written by Xenophon was probably written when Xenophon

11904-479: The next several years, to knock either Corinth or Argos out of the war; the anti-Spartan allies, meanwhile, sought to preserve their united front against Sparta, while Athens and Thebes took advantage of Sparta's preoccupation to enhance their own power in areas they had traditionally dominated. Pharnabazus followed up his victory at Cnidus by capturing several Spartan-allied cities in Ionia, instigating pro-Athenian and pro-Democracy movements. Abydus and Sestus were

12028-506: The next twenty-three years. In 371 BC, after the Battle of Leuctra , the Elians confiscated Xenophon's estate, and, according to Diogenes Laërtius , Xenophon moved to Corinth . Diogenes writes that Xenophon lived in Corinth until his death in 354 BC, at around the age of 74 or 75. Pausanias mentions Xenophon's tomb in Scillus . Xenophon took a keen interest in political philosophy and his work often examines leadership. Xenophon wrote

12152-477: The only cities to refuse to expel the Lacedemonians despite threats from Pharnabazus to make war on them. He attempted to force these into submission by ravaging the surrounding territory, but this proved fruitless, leading him to leave Conon in charge of winning over the cities in the Hellespont. From 393 BC, Pharnabazus II and Conon sailed with their fleet to the Aegean island of Melos and established

12276-474: The oracle's advice, Socrates chastised him for asking so disingenuous a question ( Anabasis 3.1.5–7). Under the pretext of fighting Tissaphernes , the Persian satrap of Ionia , Cyrus assembled a massive army composed of native Persian soldiers and Greeks. Prior to waging war against Artaxerxes, Cyrus proposed that the enemy was the Pisidians , and so the Greeks were unaware that they were to battle against

12400-683: The original Delian League during the 5th century BC. Alarmed by these Athenian successes, the Persians stopped backing the allies and began supporting Sparta. This defection forced the allies to seek peace. The King's Peace, also known as the Peace of Antalcidas , was dictated by the Achaemenid King Artaxerxes II in 387 BC, ending the war. This treaty declared that Persia would control all of Ionia , and that all other Greek cities would be "autonomous", in effect prohibiting them from forming leagues, alliances or coalitions. Sparta

12524-481: The other 2,000 to a pass revealed by a prisoner under the cover of a rainstorm, and at daylight, they pushed in. After the fighting, the Greeks went to the northern foothills of the mountains at the Centrites River, later finding a Persian force blocking the route north. Xenophon's scouts found another ford, but the Persians blocked this as well. Xenophon sent a small force back toward the other ford, causing

12648-506: The overthrow of Athenian democracy under the Thirty Tyrants , and fought democratic insurgents in the civil war of 403-404. Accounts of events in Hellenica suggest that Xenophon personally witnessed tumultuous political events such as the return of Alcibiades in 407 BC, the trial of the generals in 406 BC, and the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants in 403 BC. Personally invited by Proxenus of Beotia ( Anabasis 3.1.9), one of

12772-497: The remainder were able to force their way through and rejoin their allies. After this victory, Agesilaus sailed with his army across the Gulf of Corinth and returned to Sparta. The events of 394 BC left the Spartans with the upper hand on land, but weak at sea. The coalition states had been unable to defeat the Spartan phalanx in the field, but had kept their alliance strong and prevented the Spartans from moving at will through central Greece. The Spartans would continue to attempt, over

12896-430: The right to gain the protection of their neighbor's shield as well as their own). This shift meant that, by the time the armies met, both of them extended past their opponents' left flank. Consequently, the right flanks of both armies were victorious, while the left flanks of both were defeated. The Spartans then turned from their defeat of the Athenians to face the soldiers from the allied right wing who had rashly pursued

13020-442: The right, but ultimately had acceded to the demand of the Boeotians that they take the left, while the Boeotians took the right. This meant that the Athenians were opposite the Spartans, while the Boeotians and other allies faced the Spartans' allies. As the two phalanxes closed for battle, both shifted to the right (this was a common occurrence in hoplite battles—hoplites carried their shield on their left arm, so men would shift to

13144-401: The spoils would now be split, and Cyrus enforced a meritocracy . Many homotīmoi found this unfair because their military training was no better than the commoners, only their education, and hand-to-hand combat was less a matter of skill than strength and bravery. As Johnson asserts, this passage decries imperial meritocracy and corruption, for the homotīmoi now had to ingratiate themselves to

13268-446: The system of retreat [...] He reduced its management to a perfect method." Xenophon and his men initially had to deal with volleys by a minor force of harassing Persian missile cavalry. One night, Xenophon formed a body of archers and light cavalry. When the Persian cavalry arrived the next day, now firing within several yards, Xenophon unleashed his new cavalry, killing many and routing the rest. Tissaphernes pursued Xenophon, and when

13392-457: The two cities were merged. After Iphicrates's victories near Corinth, no more major land campaigns were conducted in that region. Campaigning continued in the Peloponnese and the northwest. Agesilaus had campaigned successfully in Argive territory in 391 BC, and he launched two more major expeditions before the end of the war. In the first of these, in 389 BC, a Spartan expeditionary force crossed

13516-414: The vicinity of Peisander's ship, but were eventually overwhelmed; large numbers of ships were sunk or captured, and the Spartan fleet was essentially wiped from the sea. Following this victory, Conon and Pharnabazus sailed along the coast of Ionia, expelling Spartan governors and garrisons from the cities of Kos , Nisyros , Telos , Chios , Mytilene , Ephesos , Erythrae , although they failed to reduce

13640-526: The wake of the unsuccessful conference in Persia, Tiribazus returned to Susa to report on events, and a new general, Struthas , was sent out to take command. Struthas pursued an anti-Spartan policy, prompting the Spartans to order their commander in the region, Thibron , to attack him. Thibron successfully ravaged Persian territory for a time, but was killed along with much of his army when Struthas ambushed one of his poorly organized raiding expeditions. Thibron

13764-672: The war as co-belligerents with Athens and Thebes. A council was formed at Corinth to manage the affairs of this alliance. The allies then sent emissaries to a number of smaller states and received the support of many of them. Among the defections, there were: East Lokris, Thessaly , Leukas , Acarnania , Ambracia , Chalcidian Thrace, Euboea , Athamania , and Ainis . Meanwhile, the Boiotians and Argives captured Heraclea Trachinia . Only Phokis and Orchomenos remained loyal to Sparta in Central Greece. Alarmed by these developments,

13888-474: Was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Greek mercenaries , the Ten Thousand , who had been part of Cyrus the Younger 's attempt to seize control of the Achaemenid Empire . As the military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge wrote, "the centuries since have devised nothing to surpass the genius of this warrior". Xenophon established precedents for many logistical operations and

14012-545: Was a student of Socrates. In his Lives of Eminent Philosophers , the Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius (who writes many centuries later) reports how Xenophon met Socrates. "They say that Socrates met [Xenophon] in a narrow lane, and put his stick across it and prevented him from passing by, asking him where all kinds of necessary things were sold. And when he had answered him, he asked him again where men were made good and virtuous. And as he did not know, he said, 'Follow me, then, and learn.' And from this time forth, Xenophon became

14136-543: Was about five years old. The author, often called in English the "Old Oligarch" or Pseudo-Xenophon, detests the democracy of Athens and the poorer classes, but he argues that the Periclean institutions are well designed for their deplorable purposes. Xenophon's works include a selection of Socratic dialogues; these writings are preserved. Except for the dialogues of Plato , they are the only surviving representatives of

14260-415: Was also a cavalry force of about 600, about 300 Cretan archers, and at least 400 Marganian , Letrinian , and Amphidolian slingers. Opposing the Spartans, the allied side consisted of about 24,000 hoplites, with associated light troops. Thebes , Athens , and Argos each provided about one quarter of the allied hoplites: 6,000 hoplites from Athens under Thrasybulus , about 7,000 from Argos, 5,000 from

14384-600: Was among the first to describe strategic flanking maneuvers and feints in combat. For at least two millennia, it has been debated whether or not Xenophon was first and foremost a general, historian, or philosopher. For the majority of time in the past two millennia, Xenophon was recognized as a philosopher. Quintilian in The Orator's Education discusses the most prominent historians, orators and philosophers as examples of eloquence and recognizes Xenophon's historical work, but ultimately places Xenophon next to Plato as

14508-481: Was dispatched to Athens to request support; the Athenians voted to assist Thebes, and a perpetual alliance was concluded between Athens and the Boeotian confederacy . The Spartan plan called for two armies, one under Lysander and the other under Pausanias , to rendezvous at and attack the Boeotian city of Haliartus . Lysander, arriving before Pausanias, successfully persuaded the city of Orchomenus to revolt from

14632-439: Was eventually blockaded at Abydos by the regional Athenian commanders. The Athenians on Aegina, meanwhile, soon found themselves under attack, and withdrew after several months. Shortly thereafter, the Spartan fleet under Gorgopas ambushed the Athenian fleet near Athens, capturing several ships. The Athenians responded with an ambush of their own; Chabrias , on his way to Cyprus, landed his troops on Aegina and laid an ambush for

14756-400: Was fragmented in the years following the war. Despite the collaborative nature of the victory, Sparta alone received the plunder taken from the defeated states and the tribute payments from the former Athenian Empire. Sparta's allies were further alienated when, in 402 BC, Sparta attacked and subdued Elis , a member of the Peloponnesian League that had angered the Spartans during the course of

14880-406: Was invited by Tissaphernes to a feast, where, alongside four other generals and many captains, including Xenophon's friend Proxenus, he was captured and executed ( Anabasis 2.5.31–32). The mercenaries , known as the Ten Thousand , had no leadership in territory near Mesopotamia . They elected new leaders, including Xenophon himself. Dodge says of Xenophon's generalship, "Xenophon is the father of

15004-401: Was later replaced by Diphridas , who raided more successfully, securing a number of small successes and even capturing Struthas's son-in-law, but never achieved any dramatic results. At Corinth, the democratic party continued to hold the city proper, while the exiles and their Spartan supporters held Lechaeum, from where they raided the Corinthian countryside. In 391 BC, Agesilaus campaigned in

15128-421: Was perceived to have spoken arrogantly. Conversely, while not omitting it completely, Plato worked to temper that arrogance in his own Apology . Xenophon framed Socrates' defense, which both men admit was not prepared at all, not as a failure to argue, but as striving for death even in the light of unconvincing charges. As Danzig interprets it, convincing the jury to condemn him even on unconvincing charges would be

15252-559: Was to be the guardian of the peace, with the power to enforce its clauses. The effects of the war, therefore, were to establish Persia's ability to interfere successfully in Greek politics, to atomize and isolate from one another Greek city states, and to affirm Sparta's hegemonic position in the Greek political system. Thebes was the main loser of the war, as the Boeotian League was disbanded and their cities were garrisoned by Sparta. Peace did not last long: war between Sparta and

15376-531: Was unable to retake Lechaeum. He also campaigned against Phlius and Arcadia , decisively defeating the Phliasians and plundering the territory of the Arcadians when they refused to engage his troops. After this victory, an Argive army came to Corinth, and, seizing the acropolis , effected the merger of Argos and Corinth. The border stones between Argos and Corinth were torn down, and the citizen bodies of

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