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The Battle of Cnidus was a military operation conducted in 394 by the
Achaemenid Empire against the Spartan naval fleet during the
Corinthian War. A
fleet under the joint command of
Pharnabazus and
former Athenian admiral, Conon, destroyed the Spartan
fleet led by the inexperienced
Peisander, ending
Sparta's brief bid for naval supremacy. The battle outcome was a significant
boost for the anti-Spartan coalition that resisted Spartan hegemony in the
course of the Corinthian War.
Opponents:
Achaemenid Empire versus Sparta
Commanders and leaders:
Persians - Pharnabazus and Conon
Spartns - Peisander †
Strength:
Persians 90 triremes
Spartans 85 triremes
Casualties and losses:
Persians - Minimal
Spartns - Entire fleet
Prelude:
In 394, King Agesilaus II
of Sparta and his army were recalled from Ionia to the Greek mainland to
help fight the Corinthian War. The Spartan fleet, under Peisander, also began a
return to Greece, sailing out from its harbor at Cnidus with eighty-five
triremes. The "Greek" vanguard, referred to as such only due to its
consisting of Greek mercenaries, of the Achaemenid fleet was commanded by
Conon, while the Persian satrap Pharnabazus led the main body of the forces, a
Phoenician fleet, from the Chersonese to oppose the Spartans. The fleets met
near Cnidus. According to Isocrates, King Evagoras of Cyprus contributed the
greatest part of the forces under Conon for the sea fight off Cnidus.
The battle:
Sources are vague for the events of the battle itself. It appears that the
Spartan fleet encountered advance elements of the Achaemenid fleet under Conon
and engaged them with some success. Then the main body of the Persian fleet
arrived and put the Spartans to flight, forcing them to beach many of their
ships. The Spartans suffered heavy casualties; according to Diodorus Siculus,
fifty Spartan triremes were captured by the Persians while the remaining
triremes safely returned to Cnidus. Peisander saw retreat as disgraceful
towards Sparta and was ultimately killed while fighting to defend his ship.
Aftermath:
This battle ended the Spartans' attempt to establish a naval empire. Sparta
never again engaged in major military efforts at sea, and within a few years
Athens had reclaimed her place as the preeminent Greek sea power. Following his
victory, Conon raided the coast of Peloponnesia with Pharnabazus in order to
put pressure on Sparta, and then was sent with his fleet to Athens, where he
supervised the rebuilding of the long walls, which had been destroyed at the
end of the Peloponnesian War. According to Pausanias, Conon commemorated the
victory by establishing a sanctuary of Aphrodite (the patron goddess of Cnidus
and a key deity for the Phoenicians) in Piraeus. With Sparta removed from the
scene, Persia re-established its dominance over Ionia and parts of the Aegean.
The Peace of
Antalcidas in 387 officially ceded control of these areas to Persia; it
would continue to hold them until the arrival of Alexander the Great half a
century later.
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The battle of Cnidus in 394 was a decisive Persian naval victory that
ended the brief period of Spartan naval supremacy that followed the end of the
Great Peloponnesian War, and in its aftermath the short-lived Spartan
domination of the Aegean crumbled. At the end of the war Athens had been
eliminated as a naval power, and Sparta had a fleet paid for with Persian
money. The Spartans took over much of Athens's maritime empire and imposed
their own governors. The Spartans didn't cope well with their increased power.
They soon alienated their Persian allies, supporting
Cyrus the
Younger's failed revolt against
Artaxerxes II. This
triggered the Persian-Spartan War
(400-387), which saw a series of Spartan armies campaigning in western Asian
Minor. At first these were led by fairly minor figures, but after they failed
Agesilaus II arrived to
take command. At about the same time the satrap Pharnabazus, possibly with the
help of the exiled Athenian admiral Conon, managed to convince Artaxerxes to
fund the construction of a new fleet, to counter the Spartan threat. Command of
this fleet was given to Conon, but the money soon ran short. Conon had to visit
the Persian Court, where he managed to convince the Emperor to provide more
funds. Conon was also allowed to pick a Persian to command the fleet, and
picked Pharnabazus. The new fleet is often described as a joint Persian and
Greek fleet, but this is a little misleading. The 'Greek' element was still
part of the Persian fleet, and came from cities and shipyards in Asia Minor.
Many of its sailors would also have been from that area, although Conon was
joined by a sizable number of Athenian exiles and volunteers. The Persian side
was based around a Phoenician squadron, representing the other great naval
power of the period. By the time of the battle the Persian fleet contained 90
triremes.
After some early successes Agesilaus had been sent reinforcements, including a
significant number of triremes, and the authority to pick his own commander. He
chose Peisander, his
brother in law and a capable, ambitious man who didn’t have much naval
experience. By the time of the battle Peisander had 85 triremes in his fleet.
Sparta soon found herself engaged in two wars, after a border incident in
central Greece triggered the
Corinthian War. Early
in this conflict the Spartan leader
Lysander was killed in
battle at Haliartus in 395. Agesilaus was
recalled to Greece, and left Peisander in command of the Spartan land and naval
forces in Asia. Diodorus gives some details of the campaign that led to the
battle. The Spartan fleet was based at Cnidus, at the western tip of the Carian
Chersonese. Conon and Pharnabazus had their fleet at Loryma, at the southern
tip of the Rhodian Chersonese, further east along the coast of Asia Minor, so
the two fleets were facing each other across the gulf between the two
peninsulas. The campaign began with Peisander taking his fleet east to Physcus
of the Chersonese (modern Marmaris), north-east of Loryma. This meant that he
would have taken his fleet right past the Persian base, but Loryma is at the
northern end of a deep narrow bay (still with a small jetty at its head), so it
isn't hard to imagine the Spartan fleet suddenly appearing as it crossed the
mouth of the bay, catching Conon and Pharnabazus by surprise.
According to Diodorus the battle happened after Peisander left Physcus and ran
into the enemy fleet, but he doesn't say in which direction the Spartans went
after leaving port. Xenophon gives a much briefer account of the battle, and
just says that it took place off Cnidus. The most likely course of events is
that the Spartans had turned back, and were heading west towards Cnidus, and
ran into the Persian fleet which was heading east to try and catch them. Both
of our sources agree that the battle began with Conon's squadron of the Persian
fleet in front, and Pharnabasus with the Phoenicians in the rear. They also
agree on the overall course of the battle, and only disagree in small details.
The fighting began with a clash between Conon's squadron of the Persian fleet
and Peisander's fleet. According to Diodorus the Spartans had the advantage in
this part of the battle, and if all of the Spartan fleet was engaged then Conon
would have been outnumbered. Xenophon states that Peisander could clearly see
that his fleet was smaller than Conon's formation, but this seems unlikely. It
is possible that he was distinguishing between the Spartan and Peloponnesian
core of the fleet and the Allied contingents. The battle turned when the
Phoenician fleet under Pharnabazus entered the fighting. Sparta's allies, on
the left of the fleet, fled to land, leaving the Spartans to fight on alone.
The Spartans fought on, but were eventually forced to land themselves and most
of the crews escaped. Peisander refused to run, and was eventually killed
fighting on his own ship. According to Diodorus the allies captured fifty
Spartan triremes and 500 crewmen, but the rest of the crews escaped. The
remaining 35 triremes also escaped and made it back to Cnidus. Xenophon also
has most of the crewmen escaping, and reaching safety at Cnidus overland.
We can only speculate about the exact division of ships. One possibility is
that Peisander had 50 Spartan and 35 allied ships. If the Spartans were
outnumbered by Conon's force then the allied fleet might have been split
between 60 Greek manned ships and 30 Phoenician ships - neither source gives a
breakdown of this fleet. Peisander's 85 had the edge over Conon's 60, but when
the Phoenicians arrived and the Allies fled that would have left him with 50
ships to face 90, the sort of odds that would explain the severity of the
defeat. The aftermath of the battle was more important than the fighting
itself. The Spartans had clearly made themselves rather unpopular amongst the
Greeks of Asia Minor, and as Conon and Pharnabazus cruised along the coast,
most cities expelled their Spartan governors. Their cause was helped by
Pharnabazus's promise not to leave Persian garrisons in any of the cities.
Spartan power collapsed around most of the coast of Asia Minor and on the
Aegean Islands. Only around the Hellespont did they retain some territory. In
393 Conon and Pharabazus crossed the Aegean to Greece, where they raided the
Peloponnese and visited Corinth to encourage the anti-Spartan coalition in the
Corinthian War. Conon's proudest moment must have been his return to Athens,
where he provided money and men to help rebuilt the walls of Piraeus and the
Long Walls, torn down less than a decade earlier at the end of the
Peloponnesian War. News of the defeat at Cnidus reached Agesilaus just before
the battle of Coronea. He realised that a large part of his army was made up of
Greek allies who would probably soon desert his cause, and so he told them that
the Spartans had won the battle, although he did admit that Peisander had died
in the fighting. He then went on to win an inconclusive victory at Coronea,
before disbanding his army. The battle of Cnidus changed the balance of power
across the Aegean. Although Sparta emerged as the victors in the Corinthian
War, their power was now limited to mainland Greece. They did manage to get
smaller fleets into Asia waters after Cnidus, but never threatened to restore
their dominance of that area.
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