Unable to achieve victory on their own, the Spartans invited the Persians to intervene.
Date: 395-386 b. c.e. Category: Wars and battles Locale: Greece
Summary Both the Persians and Sparta’s erstwhile allies became alarmed by the success of the Spartan expedition in Asia Minor led by Agesilaus II of Sparta.
In 395 b. c.e., the Persians bribed politicians in Argos, Corinth, Thebes, and possibly Athens to instigate a war against Sparta, and an anti-Sparta coalition was formed. After the Spartan defeat at the Battle of Haliartus in Boeotia in 395 b. c.e., Agesilaus II was recalled from Asia Minor. In 394 b. c.e., the Spartans won two land battles, but these victories were negated by the defeat at sea to the renegade Athenian general Conon, in command of the Persian fleet, which put an end to Spartan domination of the sea. Desultory fighting around Corinth ensued. In 392 b. c.e., the Spartans, worried about increasing Athenian naval activity, attempted unsuccessfully to make separate peace agreements with Persia and within Greece. Eventually the threat of renewed Athenian imperialism caused the Persians to intervene in support of Sparta and impose the King’s Peace (also known as the Peace of Antalcidas) of 386 b. c.e.
Significance The King’s Peace thwarted the imperial ambitions of Athens, Argos, and Thebes and confirmed Sparta’s hegemony over Greece.
Further Reading
Hamilton, Charles D. Sparta’s Bitter Victories. Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press, 1979.
Strauss, Barry S. Athens After the Peloponnesian War. Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press, 1986.
Xenophon. Hellenika. Translated by Peter Kretz. Warminister, England: Aris & Phillips, 1995.
Frances Skoczylas Pownall
See also: Agesilaus II of Sparta; King’s Peace.
World History
