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92-494: After the end of the Corinthian War , which had seen many of Sparta’s allies abandon her, Sparta began reconstructing its hegemony and punishing many disloyal allies. In 385 BC Sparta attacked Mantinea claiming they had failed to fulfil their allied obligations. When Sparta took the city they split it into four settlements, as that was what it had used to be. In the north the city of Olynthus grew in power and violated

184-609: 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

276-538: 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

368-465: A challenge, he ended the campaign, retiring unhindered by way of Creusis and Aigosthena . Although Athens had not yet committed itself, it was soon the target of an act of Spartan aggression which brought it firmly to the Theban camp. Sphodrias , the harmost (governor) whom Cleombrotus had left in command of a Spartan remnant garrisoned at Thespiae, launched an officially unauthorized nighttime raid on

460-518: A continuous trench and palisade that stretched from the border with Thespiae in the west, alongside the northern bank of the Asopus in the south, to the border with Tanagra in the east. Agesilaus probed the stockade looking for weak points, moving his camp around it and devastating the land outside, while the Thebans and Athenians sent out repeated forays to harass his forces. After getting a measure of

552-459: 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

644-414: A hill named Graos Stethos (probably the modern Golemi), but he ignored them and marched straight to Thebes itself. Fearing for their city's safety, the Thebans abandoned their hill and marched back home by way of Potniae , but despite being harried by the Spartans they reached Thebes first. As Agesilaus retired to Thespiae, his Olynthian cavalry inflicted some casualties on a group of enemy peltasts after

736-520: 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

828-554: 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

920-481: A market be set up for his troops, but, once the Thebans went that way to await his arrival, he instead marched eastwards at dawn to Erythrae and Scolus , slipping past the stockade at an undefended point. He began laying waste to enemy territory which had not been ravaged the previous year, before reaching the Spartan-held territory of Tanagra . Turning back westward, Agesilaus found the Theban army formed up in

1012-581: A naval force to try to block support for the Athenians. In response, the Athenians sent a powerful fleet towards Sparta. The Spartan general Pollis then led his small fleet to try to stop the siege, but was killed during a naval battle against the Athenian general Chabrias . This naval victory was the first ever victory by an Athenian naval fleet since the Peloponnesian War. Later in 376 BC Chabrias raided Laconia, and possibly reached Sellasia, which

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1104-459: 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

1196-540: 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

1288-633: 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 . Asopos (Boeotia) The Asopos ( Greek : Ασωπός , referred to in Latin sources as Asopus )

1380-592: 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

1472-682: 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,

1564-577: 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

1656-521: 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

1748-570: 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

1840-456: A whole rather than just for Thebes. In response, the Spartan king Agesilaus struck the name of Thebes off the list of signatories. Both sides then left the conference and prepared for renewed hostilities. As a result of the failure to come to terms with Thebes, the Spartans under Cleombrotus marched against Thebes in 371 BC; however, they were defeated at Leuctra by the Boeotians led by

1932-403: Is 57 km. Its basin is 718 km . The Asopos flows along the following places, from the source downstream: Lefktra , Agios Thomas , Oinofyta , Sykamino , Skala Oropou . The river is polluted with hexavalent chromium due to industrial activity. Pausanias (9.1.1) cites Plataean tradition that Asopus was ancient king of that region in succession to King Cithaeron who gave his name to

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2024-702: Is a river in Boeotia and northern Attica , Greece . In antiquity, it formed the border between the cities of Thebes and Plataea . The Battle of Plataea was fought on its banks. According to Pausanias (5.14.3) the Boeotian Asopus can produce the tallest reeds of any river. Its source is on the northern slope of the Cithaeron mountain, southwest of Thebes . It empties into the South Euboean Gulf , near Skala Oropou . Its total length

2116-582: Is to the north-east of Sparta. In 375 BC Athens mounted two successful expeditions - one into the northern Aegean under Chabrias and a second which sailed around the Peloponnese to western Greece. This force was led by Timotheos , son of Conon , who won the battle of Alyzeia in Acarnania . In 375 BC there was a renewal of the King's Peace , but this lasted but a few months. The capture of Plataea by

2208-480: 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

2300-665: 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

2392-643: The Peloponnesian League in return for recognition of its new government. Cleombrotus inflicted no damage to Theban territory, as he apparently hoped for a reconciliation, but the government at Sparta, led by the other king, the anti-Theban hardliner Agesilaus , would have nothing less than the punishment of the coup leaders and the restoration of a pro-Spartan regime, terms which Thebes rejected. Whatever negotiations Cleombrotus may have initiated on his own came to nothing, and, once it became apparent after 16 days that neither Thebes nor Athens would offer

2484-486: The Thebans . Due to this battle, Spartan supremacy was effectively overthrown and a new era of Theban hegemony was set up. Corinthian War The Corinthian War (395–387 BC) was a conflict in ancient Greece which pitted Sparta against a coalition of city-states comprising Thebes , Athens , Corinth and Argos , backed by the Achaemenid Empire . The war was caused by dissatisfaction with Spartan imperialism in

2576-580: 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

2668-475: 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

2760-505: The Athenian Chabrias refused to risk his hoplites in support. Although Agesilaus's scorched earth tactics caused severe food shortages at Thebes, his campaigns accomplished little else. He had failed to decisively engage the enemy or to capture Thebes, and his depredations had the effect of strengthening the resolve of the affected Boeotian communities against Sparta. Sparta's allies meanwhile grew increasingly dissatisfied with

2852-600: The Athenian port of Piraeus . The attack was a fiasco, as the Spartans were still a distance away from their objective when dawn broke, and Sphodrias had to content himself with plundering the Attic countryside while retreating. According to varying accounts, Sphodrias had either been enticed by a Theban bribe, aimed at forcing Athens to become more belligerent, or acted upon secret orders from Cleombrotus. A Spartan delegation in Athens, which had been probably sent earlier by Agesilaus to assess Athenian intentions, professed ignorance of

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2944-459: 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

3036-414: 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

3128-412: 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

3220-561: The Boeotian city of Thespiae was named either from Thespia , daughter of Asopus or from Thespius , a descendant of Erechtheus who came there from Athens . This Thespius is otherwise unknown to us. Finally Antiope mother of Amphion and Zethus by Zeus is sometimes a daughter of Asopus. Statius 's Thebaid tells of the warrior Hypseus , mortal son of Asopus, who leads the men of Alalcomene , Itone , Midea , Arne , Aulida , Graea , Plataea , Pleteon , and Anthedon . This Hypseus

3312-414: 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

3404-429: 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

3496-479: 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",

3588-594: 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

3680-535: 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

3772-542: 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

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3864-446: 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

3956-463: 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 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

4048-430: 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

4140-562: 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

4232-449: 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

4324-453: 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

4416-598: The Spartans failed to get over the Cithaeron Mountains, this gave the Thebans the chance to take the attack to the Spartans, and in doing so they conquered the Spartans' remaining strongholds in Boeotia while the Spartan base in Thespiae was also lost. The Spartans were only left with some land in the south and Orchomenus in the north-west. Because the Spartans were having a hard time attacking Thebes over land, they decided to change their strategy and rather use

4508-493: The Spartans launched an attack and drove them off. In 392 BC, 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

4600-459: 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

4692-417: 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

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4784-479: 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

4876-592: The Thebans put the Theban-Athenian Alliance under strain, as the Plataeans were expelled from their city and found asylum in Athens, where they were a strong voice against Thebes. Though the alliance held, Athens insisted on negotiations with Sparta. A peace treaty was agreed but significant disagreements arose at the treaty signing. Epaminondas insisted that he should sign for the Boeotians as

4968-440: The aftermath of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), both from Athens, the defeated side in that conflict, and from Sparta's former allies, Corinth and Thebes, who had not been properly rewarded. Taking advantage of the fact that the Spartan king Agesilaus II was away campaigning in Asia against the Achaemenid Empire, Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos forged an alliance in 395 BC with the goal of ending Spartan hegemony over Greece;

5060-441: The allied cities of Plataea and Thespiae , Cleombrotus's force camped at Cynoscephalae (6 km west of Thebes) to await events. The Athenians were alarmed at Cleombrotus's presence nearby, and, seeking to placate Sparta, immediately punished their own generals who had aided the Theban coup. It was probably around this time, likely due to fear that Athens would not offer support, that Thebes sent an embassy to Sparta, offering to rejoin

5152-542: 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 was to be the guardian of the peace, with

5244-406: The allies' war council was located in Corinth, which gave its name to the war. By the end of the conflict, the allies had failed to end Spartan hegemony over Greece, although Sparta was weakened by the war. 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

5336-427: 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

5428-402: The attack, but Sphodrias was then unexpectedly acquitted by the home government. Athens declared that Sparta had broken the peace and prepared for war. Sparta called upon all its allies and, led by Agesilaus, invaded Boeotia in the spring of 378. The Thebans and their commander, Gorgidas , had decided to resist the Spartans and screen their city by setting up, probably with aid of the Athenians,

5520-429: 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

5612-498: 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

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5704-578: The city and practically taking control of Thebes. Upon the seizure of the Theban citadel by the Spartans , Pelopidas and other leading Theban democrats fled to Athens where Pelopidas took the lead in a conspiracy to liberate Thebes. In 379 BC the democratic party surprised and killed their chief political opponents in Thebes (members of the aristocratic party that supported the Spartans), and roused

5796-403: The city. These exiles went to 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

5888-432: 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

5980-423: The constant and fruitless campaigning. A change in policy was made after the aged Agesilaus, while on a pause at Megara on the way back to Sparta, became afflicted with an illness which left him incapacited for years. Encouraged by the other king, Cleombrotus , Sparta shifted its focus from Thebes on land to Athens at sea. An expedition in 376 BC led by King Cleombrotus was blocked at the passes of Cithaeron . As

6072-474: The defenders' movements and having them grow used to his own movements, the King surprised them by marching at daybreak and crossed the stockade at an undefended position before the enemy could reach him. Agesilaus then encountered a Theban and Athenian force set up on a defensive position in a hill some 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 km southwest of Thebes. He dispersed their light troops and brought his army uphill to threaten

6164-506: 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

6256-595: The enemy, but the latter, led by the Athenian Chabrias , defiantly stood their ground in a defensive and provocative manner. Unwilling to charge uphill against a strong opponent, Agesilaus decided not to engage the enemy and, his bluff called, continued devastating Theban territory, reaching the walls of the city itself. After Agesilaus's departure, Phoebidas, whom he had left as commander of the garrison at Thespiae, continued raiding enemy territory, which prompted Gorgidas to bring his entire Theban force and plunder

6348-567: 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,

6440-443: 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,

6532-434: 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

6624-460: 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

6716-486: 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

6808-439: 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

6900-579: 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

6992-413: The mountain as King Asopus gave his name to the river and that the city Plataea was named after Plataea daughter of the river Asopus. Pausanias then comments oddly that he thinks that this eponymous Plataea was daughter of King Asopus rather than of the river Asopus. Oroe , a tributary river of Boeotian Asopus is termed by Herodotus (9.51.2) and Pausanias (9.4.4) daughter of Asopus. Pausanias says that

7084-532: 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

7176-478: 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

7268-404: The people against the Spartan garrison, which surrendered to an army gathered by Pelopidas. Sparta immediately sent against Thebes a force under one of their kings, Cleombrotus , in the middle of winter. As the border fort of Eleutherae was held by an Athenian garrison, he was forced to enter Boeotia through Mount Cithaeron , where he wiped out a force of Theban democrats. After passing through

7360-518: 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

7452-498: 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

7544-612: The surroundings of Thespiae in retaliation. Gorgidas was then surprised and put to flight by Phoebidas, but successfully regrouped at the Thespios ( Kanavari ) river valley and counterattacked his pursuers there, killing Phoebidas and chasing the Spartans back to Thespiae. In 377, Agesilaus, once again in command of the Peloponnesian forces, implemented a ruse against the Theban army to bypass their stockade unopposed. After arriving at Plataea, he sent word to Thespiae requesting that

7636-583: The terms agreed upon at the end of the Corinthian War. Because of this Sparta sent an army against the city under the command of Phoebidas . When the army was in Boeotia around 383 or 382 BC, Leontiades , who was leader of the oligarchic party in Thebes, asked Phoebidas to occupy the Theban Citadel as Leontiades felt threatened by the democratic party. The Spartans were ruled by kings and, therefore, were supportive of oligarchic governments in other Greek cities. Because of this Phoebidas agreed, occupying

7728-459: 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

7820-414: 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

7912-527: 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

8004-674: 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,

8096-483: 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

8188-440: 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

8280-401: 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

8372-402: 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

8464-534: 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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