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Agesilaus II, king of Sparta (c.444-360) was a successful general who
was unable to prevent the slow decline of Sparta from its position of dominance
at the end of the Great
Peloponnesian
War. He was a member of the Eurypontid house, one of the two royal families
of Sparta, and was the son of King
Archidamus II. He
came to the throne in 399, after the death of King Agis II, with the support of
Lysander, the dominant Spartan commander of the last years of the Great
Peloponnesian War. He hadn’t been the obvious candidate for the throne,
having been born with a club foot, but the Spartans decided that Agis's son was
illegitimate, and Lysander supported Agesilaus's claim to the throne. In 397
the Spartan system was threatened by a plot to kill the full Spartan citizens,
who were massively outnumbered by the other elements in the Spartan population.
Agesilaus suppressed this potential plot, killing most of the plotters. By the
time Agesilaus came to the throne Sparta was at war with her former ally Persia
(Persian-Spartan War, 400-387). Sparta had offered limited support to the
revolt of Cyrus the Younger, which had been defeated at Cunaxa in 401. In the
aftermath of this revolt the Persians began to attack the Greek cities of Asia
Minor, and they turned to Sparta for help. The Spartans decided to intervene
and sent an army to Asia Minor. At first the fighting was on a fairly small
scale, but when the Persians began to commit more troops the Spartans decided
to send reinforcements. Agesilaus offered to lead an army of 30 Spartiates, two
thousand freed helots and six thousand allies to Asia. As had happened earlier
in the war, Corinth and Thebes refused to contribute troops, and this time
Athens also refused to help. The Thebans further alienated Agesilaus by
interrupting his attempt to sacrifice to Artemis at Aulis (copying Agamemnon
before the attack on Troy). Agesilaus arrived at Ephesus in 396. His first
action was to negotiate a three month truce with the Persians, which he used to
manoeuvre Lysander into leaving for a different theatre. After the truce
expired, Agesilaus raided into Phrygia, after convincing the satrap
Tissaphernes that he was actually heading for Caria. One of his officers during
this campaign was the historian Xenophon, who had recently helped lead the
'10,000' as they escaped from the heart of the Persian Empire after the battle
of Cunaxa. Xenophon was very impressed with Agesilaus, and later made him the
subject of several of his books. Battles of the Corinthian War Battles of the
Corinthian War In 395 Agesilaus raided Lydia and defeated a Persian force
outside Sardis. He then raided into Mysia, Phrygia and Paphlagonia, where he
briefly won over local support before losing most of again. However the same
year saw the outbreak of the Corinthian War (395-386), which saw Sparta face a
powerful coalition of Greek states, including Thebes, Athens, Argos and
Corinth. In 394 Agesilaus planned another major expedition, possibly in the
hope of advancing further east across Asia Minor, but he was then recalled to
fight in Greece after the Spartan leader Lysander was killed at the battle of
Nemea (395) during an invasion of Boeotia. Agesilaus was thus not involved in
the major Spartan naval defeat at Cnidus (394), where a Persian fleet commanded
by the Athenian admiral Conon destroyed Spartan naval power. Agesilaus returned
to Greece at the head of a fairly powerful but rather mixed army. He had no
problem convincing the Greeks of Asia Minor to join his army, but the troops
from mainland Greece (including a force of enfranchised helots) were less keen
on fighting fellow Greeks. Agesilaus used the promise of prizes for the best
contingent to get them to move. His army also included a contingent of
survivors from the '10,000', commanded by Herippidas. Agesilaus chose to return
via the overland route. He had to fight his way through Thrace, where he learnt
that the Spartans had won a significant victory at Nemea near Corinth, and
again as he moved south through Thessaly. Here he used his own cavalry to
inflict a defeat on the famous cavalry of Thessaly. Back in Greece Agesilaus
won a victory over the allies at Coronea in Boeotia in 394, defeating an army
that was attempting to block his path, but the defeat at Cnidus meant that this
victory had little impact. News of the defeat at Cnidus reached Agesilaus just
before the battle of Coronea, but he lied to his men, telling them that the
Spartans had won. Most of the anti-Spartan allied troops performed badly in
this battle, although the Thebans broke their immediate opponents and reached
the Spartan camp before they realised they were dangerously isolated. Agesilaus
formed a new line to stop them reaching safety, and was wounded in the heavy
fighting that followed. The Thebans eventually broke through the Spartan lines,
but only after suffering significant casualties. However the allied army
remained largely intact, and Agesilaus was forced to retreat west into Locris,
where he disbanded his army, crossed the Gulf of Corinth and returned to
Sparta. In the spring of 391 Agesilaus led the first invasion of Argive
territory, then quickly returned to Corinth where he recaptured the Long Walls
that linked the city to the Corinthian Gulf. These had been taken by the
Spartans as a result of civil strife within Corinth, but then retaken by a
major allied army. After Agesilaus recaptured the walls and the port of
Lechaeum they stayed in Spartan hands for the rest of the war. In 390 Agesilaus
invaded Corinthian territory, campaigning in the Piraeum peninsula, where the
Corinthians had their main herds of cattle. His successes here encouraged the
Boeotians to suggest peace talks, but before anything came of this a Spartan
hoplite regiment suffered a major defeat outside Lechaeum, when they were
caught by Iphicrates's light peltasts. Agesilaus was forced to temporarily
abandon the expedition, and when he returned the idea of peace talks had
disappeared. In 389 Agesilaus was forced to campaign in Acarnania, to the
north-west of the Gulf of Corinth. Sparta's Achaean allies had taken control of
Calydon in the south-west of Aetolia, but this was now being threatened by the
Acarnanians and their Boeotian and Athenian allies. Agesilaus was sent to
support the Achaeans. He was able to raid the Acarnanian countryside, but
failed to take any of their cities and almost suffered an embarrassing defeat
when he attempted to chase them into the mountains. He left in the early
autumn, before disrupting the planting season. His argument was that the
Acarnanians were more likely to seek peace if they had a crop to protect, and
when he announced his plan to return in 388 he was proved right as they sued
for peace. In 387-6 the Persian-Spartan War and the Corinthian War were both
ended by the King's Peace. A key clause of this treaty was the granting of
autonomy to all Greek cities. Agesilaus used this to force Thebes to disband
the Boeotian League, leaving Sparta as the dominant military power in Greece.
In 385 the Spartans turned against Mantinea, having decided that they had been
disloyal during the Corinthian War. Agesipolis led the Spartan troops that
ravaged Mantinean territory and besieged the city, and eventually defeated the
defenders by diverting a stream so that it flooded the city. The Mantineans
were forced to abandon the city and return to the original five villages it had
been formed from. In 381-380 the Spartans intervened at Phlius, north-west of
Argos, supporting a group of exiled friends of Agesilaus. He took command of
the siege, which lasted for a year and eight months. On this occasion he was
rather more merciful- the city was left intact and a group of 50 of the exiles
and 50 of the defenders were ordered to create a new constitution. Battles of
the Theban-Spartan War, 379-371 Battles of the Theban-Spartan War, 379-371 BC
In 382 a passing Spartan army seized power in Thebes. This turned out to be a
disastrous mistake. Sparta soon found herself facing an alliance of Thebes and
Athens (Theban-Spartan War, 379-371). At first Sparta held the advantage,
almost besieging Thebes in 378 and 377. Agesilaus wasn't involved in the
earliest campaigns, but he took command of the army in 378. He advanced almost
to Thebes, where he was faced by a major Boeotian and Athenian army, and
eventually decided not to fight. He also led the campaign of 377, but later in
the year a vein in his leg ruptured, leaving him bedridden for some time.
Eventually events turned against the Spartans and in 371 they entered into
peace negotiations. Once again Agesilaus refused to allow Thebes to speak for
the Boeotian League, and Epaminondas, the Theban leader, withdrew from the
negotiations. Agesilaus's co-ruler, King Cleombrotus, led a Spartan army into
Boeotian, but suffered a crushing defeat at Leuctra (371). This battle marked
the end of the period of Spartan military supremacy. Thebes became the dominant
Greek power for the next decade. Agesilaus was able to prevent the Thebans from
directly threatening Sparta, and led the defence of the city when Epaminondas
threatened it in 370, putting up enough of a defence to discourage a direct
attack on the city and defeating two internal threats. He saved the city for a
second time in 362 when Epaminondas attacked for a second time. He wasn’t
present at the battle of Mantinea (362), another Theban victory and Spartan
defeat. However the most important outcome of this battle was the death of
Epaminondas. With their great leader gone, the Theban hegemony collapsed.
Spartan prestige had also been crushed, and the field was open for Philip II of
Macedonia. Agesilaus was also involved in the Satrap's Revolt of the 360s, a
series of rebellions against the authority of Artaxerxes II of Persia. He
helped lift the siege of Adramyttium, where the rebel satrap Ariobarzanes was
being besieged by Autophradates. Agesilaus himself was away from Sparta at this
point, fighting on behalf of Pharaoh Teos (or Tachos), who was attempting to
regain Egypt's long lost provinces. Agesilaus then fell out with Tachos after
the Pharaoh insisted in taking personal commander of an army campaigning in
Phoenicia, and supported his rival Nectanbo II (r.360-343), who came to the
throne with Greek support. Agesilaus helped defeat an attempt to overthrow
Nectanbo and then set out for home, but died in 360 before reaching Sparta.
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