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Background:
The War Causes of the War 395 - 394 - 393 - 392
Winter 392/1 391 - 390 - 389 - 388 - 387 -386
The Corinthian War (395-386) saw the Spartans, with eventual Persian aid,
defeat an alliance of Thebes, Corinth, Argos and Athens and apparently remain
the dominant power on mainland Greece. However the early part of the war took
place at the same time as a Persian-Spartan War (400- 387) that saw Sparta lose
her short-lived maritime empire, and it was quickly followed by an intervention
at Thebes that ended in disaster.
Background:
In 404 Sparta finally won the Great Peloponnesian War (with Persian help).
Athens was forced to dismantle her walls, lost her empire, was only allowed a
tiny fleet and the democracy was dismantled. For a brief time Sparta became the
dominant Greek naval power, although most of her ships came from allies. Over
the next few years the Spartans made poor use of their dominance. They became
involved in a war with Elis that ended in 400 with a Spartan victory, but
didn't make them many friends. In Athens a pro-democratic revolt soon broke out
against the oligarchy. The Spartans intervened, but King
Pausanias
decided to allow the restoration of democracy. Further afield the Spartans
quarrelled with their Persian allies. They supported the revolt of
Cyrus the Younger
against his brother Artaxerxes II, but this
ended with the death of Cyrus at
Cunaxa in 401.
This left the Greek cities of Asia Minor exposed to Persian attack, and they
called for aid from Sparta. The Spartans responded to that call, triggering a
long war (Persian-Spartan War, 400-387 BC). The early campaigns of this war
were conducted with little energy on the Spartan side, but it did trigger the
construction of a new Persian fleet, with command of an Asian Greek contingent
going to the Athenian leader
Conon. Sparta responded by sending
Agesilaus II to Asia
Minor with reinforcements. Corinth, Boeotia and Athens all refused to provide
contributions to this army, and the Corinthians even disrupted its departure.
Agesilaus arrived at Ephesus in the spring of 396 and began a more effect
campaign. He won a battle at Sardis in 395, and was rewarded with command of a
strong fleet, but soon after this he was withdrawn to fight in Greece.
The War - Causes of the War:
In 404 a Spartan led alliance that included Thebes and Corinth had finally
defeated Athens, ending the Great Peloponnesian War. Spartan arrogance in the
aftermath of that victory helped to pave the way for the Corinthian War, in
which her former allies sided against her. Corinth and Thebes had wanted to see
the city of Athens totally destroyed after the war, but the Spartans had
refused. Their allies had also been denied any of the spoils of the victory. In
the years after the end of the war the Spartans had strengthened their position
in Thessaly, an area that Thebes considered to be within her sphere of
influence. As a result both Corinth and Thebes had refused to cooperate with
Sparta, first when the Spartans intervened to help end a period of political
chaos at Athens, then in a war against Elis and finally in the expeditions to
Asia Minor. The Athenians had provided troops for the conflict with Elis, and
for Thibron's expedition in Asia Minor, but in 396 they refused to provide
troops for Agesilaus's expedition. The Spartan-Persian War also saw Persian
envoys visit Greece, carrying with them sizable bribes. Their first envoy had
been captured by the Spartans, but a second, Timocrates of Rhodes, reached the
mainland safely and visited Thebes, Corinth, Argos and possibly Athens.
Timocrates won friends wherever he went, presumably aided by the absence of
Agesilaus and his troops in Asia Minor. According to our sources the Thebans
provided the spark that actually started the conflict. Boeotia was bordered on
the west by Phocis, the region that included Delphi, a sizable area that
stretched north from the Gulf of Corinth almost all the way to the Gulf of
Euboea. Phocis sat between the Eastern (or Opuntian) and Western (or Ozolian)
Locrians. Eastern Locris was a narrow strip of land on the Gulf of Euboea,
while Western Locris was a larger area, similar in shape to Phocis. The
Phocians and Locrians were long-standing rivals, although most of the time
their rivalry was limited to raiding.
395
In 395 the Theban leadership needed to find a way to force the rest of the
Boeotian League into a war with Sparta. Boeotia was allied with Locris, and
they decided to provoke a conflict between Locris and Phocis. The Theban
leaders convinced the Locrians to levy a tax in a disputed area. The Phocians
responded with an invasion of Western Locris. The Locrians called for help from
the Boeotian League, which responded by preparing to invade Phocis.
Battles of the Corinthian War:
The Phocians responded by sending envoys to Sparta to plead for help. In Sparta
they easily won over
Lysander, the great leader of the last phase of the Peloponnesian War, who
had just returned from a fairly unsuccessful intervention in Asia Minor, and
probably also got the support of King Pausanias. The Spartans ordered the
Boeotians not to intervene, but unsurprisingly the Boeotians ignored this
demand. The Spartans mobilised their forces and prepared for a two-pronged
invasion of Boeotia. The Spartans decided to invade Boeotia from east and west.
Lysander was given command of the western invasion, which was to be launched
from Phocis, using Phocian and Spartan allied troops. The main Spartan army and
their Peloponnesian allies were to concentrate at Tegea under the command of
King Pausanias, advance through Corinthian territory and invade from the east.
The two forces were meant to meet up at Haliartus, west of Thebes, close to the
southern shores of Lake Copais. Lysander moved quickest. He successfully
detached Orchomenus, on the western shores of Lake Copais, from the Boeotian
League, and then advanced around the lake towards Haliartus. He arrived outside
the city a few days ahead of Pausanias, but after the Thebans had thrown a
garrison into the city. The Thebans had also convinced the Athenians to agree
to an alliance, a remarkable resurgence for a city that had suffered a crushing
defeat in the previous decade. The Athenians moved quickly, and they were able
to take over the defence of Thebes, allowing the Theban army to move to
Haliartus. In a battle outside the walls Lysander was killed and his army
forced to retreat (battle of
Haliartus,
395). Pausanias arrived within a day or two, but chose not to risk a battle
against the combined Theban and Athenian armies close to the walls of a hostile
city. Instead he arranged for a truce, recovered the bodies of the Spartan
dead, and then retreated west into Phocis. Lysander was buried just across the
border. The Spartans left a garrison on Orchomenus and then returned home. In
the aftermath of this defeat Pausanias was put on trial, charged with moving
too slowly, failing to fight to recover Lysander's body and his earlier
decision to allow Athens to restore her democracy. He was condemned in his
absence, and spent the rest of his life in exile. His was succeeded by his
underage son Agesipolis, so for a short period Sparta was without a senior
leader in Greece.
394
The next recorded campaign took place in the north, in southern Thessaly,
around the Gulf of Malis. Medius, ruler of Larissa in Thessaly asked for help
in his war against Lycophron, tyrant of Pherae. The allies sent 2,000 men,
mainly from Boeotia and Argos, under the command of Ismenias of Thebes.
Together with Medius they captured Pharsalus. The Boeotians and Argives then
moved south and took Heracleia in Trachis, where the Spartans had a garrison.
In an attempt to divide the Peloponnesians any captured Spartans were executed
while other Peloponnesians were allowed to go home. The Argives were left as a
garrison and Ismenias advanced into friendly territory in Locris. On the way he
convinced the Aenianians (at the western end of the Gulf of Malis) and the
Athamanians (from western Thessaly) to join with him, giving him around 6,000
men. The Phocians sent an army to face him, but this was defeated in a costly
battle at Naryx in 394. The Boeotians and their allies lost 500 men, the
Phocians 1,000. Both armies were then disbanded, and the various contingents
returned home. Attention now turned to the Corinthian front, with the returning
Agesilaus II a looming presence. The anti-Spartan allies met at Corinth and
decided to invade Laconia, but they then wasted time deciding who would command
the army (eventually deciding to rotate command between the four main powers)
and how deep their battle line would be. In the meantime
Aristodemus, the
guardian of Agesipolis,
raised a fresh army and led it north to Sicyon, two miles from the Corinthian
gulf and twelve miles west of Corinth. The two armies clashed on the coastal
plain between Corinth and Sicyon (battle of
Nemea). According
to Xenophon the Spartans were outnumbered (although his figures miss out a
Achaean contingent that he then mentions in the battle). Along most of the line
the allies defeated Sparta's own allies, and pushed them off the battlefield.
However both lines had drifted to the right, and so the Athenians, on the
allied left, were badly outflanked by the Spartans. The Spartans crushed the
Athenians, and then advanced along the battle line, defeating the Argives,
Corinthians and Thebans in turn. The survivors escaped back to Corinth, where
at first they were denied access to the city. The battle of Nemea was a clear
Spartan victory, but it didn't open the road to Attica or Boeotia. With Corinth
still held against them by a powerful army, the Spartans decided to wait for
Agesilaus to return from Asia. The summons home had come as a bitter blow to
Agesilaus, who was in the middle of planning a major campaign in the east. He
obeyed his orders, and decided to return at the head of a powerful army.
The Greeks of Asia Minor were happy to move west, but his own Spartan troops
weren't so tokeep on fighting other Greeks and had to be enticed back with the
promises of prizes for the best contingent. He probably had around 15,000 men,
but his choice of the land route meant that he would need them. He left Asia
Minor in mid-summer, leaving his son in law
Peisander in
command of the war against Persia. Agesilaus had to fight off attacks as he
marched west across Thrace. He learnt of the Spartan victory at Nemea while
atAmphipolis in Thrace, and ordered the messenger to spread the news amongst
Sparta's allies. He was able to bluff his way through Macedon, but once again
came under attack on his way through Thessaly. He won a significant cavalry
victory over the Thessalians on the way south, and soon afterwards crossed into
pro-Spartan territory.
We now reach one of the few secure dates in this war. On 14 August 394 a
partial eclipse of the sun took place. On that day Agesilaus had just entered
Boeotia from the north-west, when news reached him of the disastrous Spartan
naval defeat at Cnidas. The Spartan
fleet had been destroyed and Peisander had been killed. In order to maintain
the morale of his men, many of whom came from cities that were now exposed to
Persian attack, he announced that the battle had actually been a victory,
although he did acknowledge the death of Peisander. The allies responded to the
new threat by dispatching an army north from Corinth. According to Xenophon
this included contingents from Boeotia, Athens, Argos, Corinth, Aeniania,
Euboea and Locris. Given that Corinth still had to be defended, the Athenian,
Corinthian and Argive contingents were probably not large. Agesilaus also had a
composite force. He had been sent one Spartan 'mora' from the Corinthian front,
and half a 'mora' from Orchomenus. He already had a force of enfranchised
helots who had been fighting with him in Asia Minor, along with the troops from
Asia Minor and reinforcements raised in Orchomenus and Phocis. He had a
numerical advantage in light infantry, and matched his opponents in cavalry.
The resulting battle of
Coronea and
Coronea in 394 was described in more detail than
normal by Xenophon. At the start the Spartans were successful on their right,
where the Argives fled without a fight. The Spartans allies in the centre were
also successful, although after some fighting. On the left the troops from
Orchomenus were defeated, and the Thebans advanced into the Spartan camp.
Agesilaus turned his main force around, and the hardest fighting took place as
the Thebans attempted to rejoin their defeated allies. Eventually some broke
through, but it was clear that the battle was a Spartan victory. Even so the
allied army was still largely intact. Agesilaus decided not to try and push his
way past them, and instead retreated west into Phocis. A Spartan raid into
Locris ended in disaster when the polemarch Gylis and eighteen Spartans were
killed, and after that Agesilaus disbanded his army and returned to Sparta. The
next few years were dominated by a stalemate around Corinth, which lasted into
390. The Spartans raided east from Sicyon into Corinthian territory, and the
allies responded to the raids. The Spartans were unable to carry out a siege of
Corinth while the allied army remained intact.
393
In 393 the Peloponnese came under direct attack when the Persian fleet under
Conon and Pharnabazus II crossed the Aegean and began to raid the coastline.
They attacked Pherae in Messenia, in the south-west of the Peloponnese,
attacked a number of other areas, and then captured the island of Cythera, off
the southern tip of the Peloponnese, to use as a base. Next Pharnabazus
travelled to Corinth to meet with the allies and offer them money. Conon was
then sent to Athens to help restore the long walls and the fortifications of
Piraeus. Conon provided money, and the crews from his ships carried out much of
the work. The Corinthians used their share of the money to build a fleet, which
under the command of Agathinus gained control of much of the Corinthian Gulf.
This was a short-lived success. The first Spartan commander, Podanemus, was
killed in a minor attack. His second in command, Pollis, was forced to retire
wounded. He was replaced by Herippidas, who had more success. During his time
in command a new Corinthian admiral, Proaenus, evacuated Rhium (on the northern
shore of the gulf), which was reoccupied by the Spartans. Herippidas was later
replaced by Agesilaus's half-brother Teleutias, who
regained control of the Gulf of Corinth.
392
In 392 Corinth was weakened by civil strife. A peace or pro-Spartan party began
to form, and the war party decided to strike first. Many of the pro-Spartan
leaders were massacred on the last day of a religious festival. Some of the
others fled into exile, while a few remained within the city. At about this
time Corinth and Argos merged into a single legal community - a novel legal
idea, and one that angered the exiles even more. Two of the leaders who had
remained within Corinth offered to let the Spartans into the Long Walls.
Praxitas, the Spartan polemarch at Sicyon, decided to take them up on their
offer. He was let into the gap between the walls, where he fought off an allied
counterattack and captured Leuchaeum, the northern port of Corinth, connected
to the city by the Long Walls. He then went on to capture positions on the
opposite side of the Isthmus of Corinth, opening the road to Attica and
Boeotia. During 392 the Spartans made a first attempt to end the war with
Persia. Antalcidas was
sent to Sardis to negotiate with the satrap Tiribazus. The Spartans
argued that Conon and his fleet actually posed a greater danger to Persia than
the Spartans did. The allies responded by sending envoys from Athens, Boeotia,
Corinth and Argos, who countered the Spartan arguments. Antalcidas's proposal
was that Sparta would abandon her support for the Greek cities of Asia. In
return the cities and islands would be declared autonomous. Tiribazus was won
over, but the other Greek powers opposed these proposals. The Athens were said
to have feared that they would lose control of Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros, key
points on the shipping route to the Black Sea, Thebes that she would lose the
Boeotian League and Argos that she would lose her merger with Corinth. Without
orders from Artaxerxes, Tiribazus was unable to accept these peace terms,
although he did arrest Conon and provide financial support for the Spartans.
Winter 392/1
Peace negotiations continued at Sparta during the winter of 392/1. The Spartans
had some success. The Athenian delegation, led by Andocides, accepted the
Spartan offer to acknowledge their rule of Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros, but not
any further expansion. Thebes would be allowed to keep all of the Boeotian
League apart from Orchomenus. Argos remained hostile as the Spartans refused to
accept her merger with Corinth. In any event the Athenians turned down the
peace terms, and the war continued.
Soon after the failure of the peace talks the allies recaptured Lechaeum and
the Long Wall, but they would prove unable to hold them for long.
391
In the spring of 391 Agesilaus led the first Spartan invasion of Argive
territory of the war. This may have been a diversionary tactic to pull allied
troops from Corinth, for Agesilaus then turned back and recaptured the Long
Walls while his brother Teleutias captured Lechaeum from the sea. In the east
Sparta suffered a setback in her war with Persia. The pro-Spartan satrap
Tiribazus had attempted to argue his case in front of Artaxerxes at Susa, but
lost his case and was replaced as satrap of Sardis by Struthas, who was more
pro-Athenian. The previously disgraced leader
Thibron was sent back to
Asia Minor to take command of a new campaign, but he was defeated and killed in
an ambush. In the autumn of 391 Ecdicus, the Spartan navarch for 391/390, was
sent east with eight ships to support a group of oligarchic exiles from Rhodes,
who had been ousted by a pro-Athenian democracy. Ecdicus had some success,
convincing Samos to change sides, but he discovered that Rhodes was firmly held
by the democrats and he was outnumbered by two-to-one. He decided to spend the
winter of 391-390 at Cnidus.
390
In the spring of 390 Ecdicus was replaced by
Teleutias, the Spartan
naval commander at Lechaeum. Teleutias took his own twelve ships with him, and
gained another 14 on the way. He then captured ten Athenian ships that were on
their way to support Evagoras of Salamis of Cyprus, who was involved in a
revolt against Artaxerxes. This was a dangerous move for the Athenians, who
began to alienate Artaxerxes. Also in the spring of 390 Agesilaus invaded
Corinthian territory once again. He captured the Piraeum peninsula, where the
Corinthians had their main herds of cattle. He may then have moved back towards
Corinth in an attempt to support a coup by the exiles based at Lechaeum, but if
so this was crushed by
Iphicrates before the Spartans could arrive. Agesilaus did capture the site
of the biannual festival of Poseidon at Isthmia, and the exiles conducted the
festival. After the Spartans withdrew the Argives reoccupied the site and held
a second festival. The Spartan successes encouraged the Boeotians to begin
fresh peace talks, but the situation was changed by a dramatic and unexpected
Spartan defeat. Spartan warfare was often disrupted by religious ceremonies and
festivals. On this occasion it was the biannual Hyacinthia, celebrated by the
people of Amycles. Agesilaus allowed all of the Amyclaeans in the army to
gather at Lechaeum at the start of their journey home. They were escorted out
of Corinthian territory by the Spartan mora and cavalry based by
Lechaeum. Their
commander then led his 600 hoplites back towards Lechaeum without any cavalry
escort. The Athenian commanders Iphicrates and
Callias decided to attack,
and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Spartans. Agesilaus was forced to
temporarily abandon his campaign, and the peace talks ended.
Later in the year the Athenians sent out a fleet of forty warships, commanded
by Thrasybulus, to
counter the temporary increase in Spartan sea power. His original orders were
to help the democrats of Rhodes, but he soon decided that they didn’t need
his help, and so instead he moved north to the Hellespont. He was able to form
an alliance with the Thracian kings Amadocus and Seuthes and won control of
Byzantium, Chalcedon and part of the Hellespont region. He was able to
re-impose a 10% tax on all ships coming from the Black Sea, an important source
of income for Imperial Athens. In about 390 Athen's old enemy of Aegina joined
the fray. The Spartan harmost on the island, Eteonicus, began to raid the Attic
coast. The Athenians built a fort on the island, and resisted a first Spartan
attempt to capture it.
389
In 389 Agesilaus was distracted by a campaign in Acarnania, to the north-west
of the Gulf of Corinth. Sparta's Achaean allies had taken control of Calydon, a
city in south-west Aetolia, and had enrolled the Calydonians as citizens. The
city was now being threatened by the Acarnanians, with the support of Athens
and Boeotia. The Achaeans demanded help from Sparta, and hinted that they would
have to end their alliance if they didn’t get it. The Spartans bowed to
this pressure and sent Agesilaus, with two mora and an allied force, supported
by an Achaean army. This army crossed the gulf and reached the Acarnanian
border. Agesilaus sent a message to the Acarnanian assembly, demanding that
they swapped sides. When this was turned down he invaded, and ravaged the area.
The Acarnanians moved their cattle into a remote mountain area, but Agesilaus
caught them out with a sudden eighteen mile march and captured most of the
animals. This success was short-lived - on the following day a force of light
infantry took up a position on high ground above the Spartans and forced them
to retreat. The Acarnanians almost trapped the Spartans in the mountains, but
Agesilaus managed to force his way out. He continued his raid into the autumn,
but despite several attempts was unable to capture any cities. He left just
before it was time to sow the next year's crops, arguing that the Acarnanians
would be more likely to accept peace terms in the next year if they had a crop
to protect. He then marched east through Aetolia and crossed the Corinthian
Gulf from Rhium.
In the spring of 389 Thrasybulus took his fleet south from the Hellespont. He
found some support for Sparta along the coast, and despite losing 23 ships in a
storm managed to capture Eresus and Antissa. He was then forced to head towards
Rhodes, where the democrats had suffered a defeat, but he was killed at
Aspendus while his troops were plundering the area. The rest of his fleet
safely reached Rhodes. In the Hellespont region Athens sent a force under
Agyrrhius, while Sparta sent Anaxibius to try and restore their position. The
Spartans had the best of the early fighting, but began to suffer after
Iphicrates was sent to take control on the Athenian side. Probably in the
following year Iphicrates ambushed and killed Anaxibius. In the summer of 389
the Spartan commander Gorgopas was posted at Aegina
with a fleet of twelve ships. This forced the Athenians to evacuate their fort,
and they then based a squadron of warships commanded by Eunomus at nearby Cape
Zoster to watch the Spartans.
388
In the spring of 388 Agesilaus announced that he was about to return to
Acarnania, and as he had predicted they sued for peace. The Acarnanians formed
an alliance with Sparta and made peace with the Achaeans, leaving the Spartans
free to campaign elsewhere. The Argives had avoided invasions in 390 and 389 by
moving the sacred month of the Carnea to match the Spartan preparations. After
accepting this for two years, King Agesipolis visited the oracles and Olympia
and Delphi to get permission to ignore this trick. The oracles agreed, and the
king led an invasion of Argive territory. On the first day there was an
earthquake, which many would have taken as a bad omen, but Agesipolis
publically interpreted it as a sign of divine support. The raid continued on
until a thunderbolt hit the camp, killing several men. By this point the
Spartans had done a great deal of damage and were happy to withdraw. Further
afield the Persians began to turn against the Athenians. As well as supporting
Evagoras, the Athenians also allied with an Egyptian rebel. This helped
convince Artaxerxes that the Athenians were indeed his main enemy, and
Tiribazus was restored as satrap at Sardis. The pro-Athenian satrap Pharnabazus
was also recalled, and replaced by
Ariobarzanes, a friend
of the Spartan diplomat Antalcidas. This encouraged the Spartans to appoint
Antalcidas as navarch, and he set off for Susa in the company of Tiribazus. The
Spartans won a minor naval victory during 388. The Athenian squadron of
warships at Cape Zoster opposite Aegina attempted to intercept the fleet that
had transported Antalcides to his new post. After a day-long chase the
Athenians gave up and returned to their base. Gorgopas, the new harmost of
Aegina, followed the retreating Athenians under the cover of darkness and ended
up taking four of their twelve triremes. The rest escaped back to the Piraeus.
387
In 387 the Athenians decided to send
Chabrias, their commander
at Corinth, to help Evagoras on Cyprus. He picked up reinforcements at Athens,
and decided to attack Aegina. He landed his light troops at night and placed
them in ambush. He then landed his hoplites in daylight and waited for
Gorgopas. The Spartan commander attacked, and fell into the trap. Gorgopas and
around 350 of his men were killed. The Spartans sent Teleutias to rally the
survivors. He began with a daring raid on the Piraeus, in which he captured
several ships. The profit from this raid paid his troops for a month.
Antalcides's visit to Artaxerxes at Susa had produced results. Artaxerxes had
agreed to support the Spartan peace terms, and to enter the war on Sparta's
side if the allies didn’t accept them. Antalcides then conducted a skilful
naval campaign and ended up with a fleet of 80 ships, with which he was able to
block the grain route from the Black Sea. In the autumn of 387 Tiribazus
summoned all of the Greek powers to come to Sardis to hear the new peace terms,
and every major Greek power responded by sending envoys.
386
There were two terms at the heart of the new peace deal. First, the cities of
Asia Minor, Cyprus and Clazomenae (built on an island very close to the coast)
would be ruled by Persia. Second, every other Greek city would be autonomous,
but Athens would keep Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros. The Peloponnessian League was
also allowed to survive, but Thebes had to dissolve the Boeotian League and the
merger between Corinth and Argos ended. This 'King's Peace' or
Peace of
Antalcidas effectively acknowledged that the Persians were the arbiters of
Greek politics, and gave them relatively uncontested control over the Greeks of
Asia Minor (the issue that had first triggered the Greek-Persian Wars over a
century earlier). It also gave Sparta a position of enhanced power, and
responsibility for implementing the peace (in fact, if not in the treaty
itself). This apparent increase in Spartan power wouldn't last for long. In 382
a passing Spartan army took control of Thebes. Three years later the Thebans
revolted, triggering the
Theban-Spartan
War (379-371 BC). Just as this war appeared to be coming to an end, the
Spartans suffered the crushing defeat at Leuctra in 371 that
ended their long series of victories in major hoplite battles and exposed the
Peloponnese to the invasions that crushed Spartan power.
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