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The battle of Cnidus (394 BC) 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 BC), 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
(395 BC). 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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