The Corinthian War

The Persians now took the initiative in the Aegean. They stimulated a revolt against Sparta by Thebes and Corinth, former allies of Sparta who had been dissatisfied by the outcome of the Peloponnesian War, from which they had gained nothing. This was the so-called Corinthian War (395-386). On land it was a series of inconclusive battles. Lysander died in one of the first in 395. (It was said that, after his death, papers were found in his house in Sparta, with details of a plot to overthrow the Spartan monarchy and replace it with a government of ‘men of excellence’.) On sea the outcome was more significant. A Persian fleet commanded by an Athenian mercenary, Conon, destroyed the Spartan navy in the Aegean, and Conon then sailed to Athens, where the source of his support was overlooked in the joy that the Spartan hold on the Aegean had been broken. Persian money was used to rebuild the Long Walls and there was even some attempt to re-create the Athenian empire.

The Corinthian War was in many ways a continuation of the Peloponnesian, and once again it was the Persians who provided the means of ending it. Artaxerxes now realized that a revived Athenian empire would be to his detriment, particularly as the Athenians would challenge his renewed control of the Greek cities of Asia. He moved back towards Sparta, and in 386, in the so-called King’s Peace, the Spartans once again acquiesced in his control of the Greeks of Asia. In return Artax-erxes guaranteed the independence of every Greek city and gave Sparta subsidies to uphold it. Both Artaxerxes and Sparta were the victors, and Sparta now had the excuse and the resources to break up the alliances that were forming around her enemies, Thebes and Athens. Artaxerxes had his empire restored, and threats that it would be challenged by an Athenian empire reduced.