Agesilaus in the meantime turned to the prosecution of Sparta’s war against Boeotia, Athens, Corinth, and Argos. This war has received the conventional name “Corinthian War” because much of the fighting took place near Corinth (Diod. XIV 86). In addition the anti-Lacedaemonian alliance maintained a council at Corinth to oversee its efforts (Diod. XIV 82). A word now on terminology: In the following the political term “Boeotia” will be strictly used although Xenophon’s Hellenica almost always speaks of “Thebes,” the chief city of Boeotia. Boeotia was a league-state, and league-states both in theory and in practice functioned on terms of parity with city-states (see Box 4.1).
The initial fighting, before Agesilaus’ return, went against the Lacedaemonians. At Haliartus in Boeotia, a Boeotian army had defeated a small Lacedaemonian force under Lysander, who himself had fallen in the fighting. Athenian troops arrived to reinforce the Boeotians just before King Pausanias could lead a second Lacedaemonian force to Haliartus. Pausanias opted to conclude a truce rather than to fight, and upon his return to Sparta the ephors put him on trial for his life (Xen. Hell. III 5,17-25; Diod. XIV 81). Pausanias went into exile and, pre-
Sumably as an act of vengeance, composed a tract on the poor quality of Sparta’s laws (Ephorus, BNJ 70, Fr. 118).
Determined to win the war, the Lacedaemonians mobilized in full and met their opponents’ army at Nemea, near Corinth, in 394 BC. This time the army of Spartiates carried the day (Xen. Hell. IV 2,14-23; Diod. XIV 83). Meanwhile Agesilaus had arrived in Boeotia and defeated the anti-Lacedaemonian coalition in a remarkable battle at Coroneia a little later in the same year (Xen. Hell. IV 3,15-23; Diod. XIV 84). All the same, neither battle was decisive and the war continued with the fighting centered on Corinth, where the anti-Lacedaemonian coalition had its base, and Sicyon, which the Lacedaemonians used as theirs (Xen. Hell. IV 4,1).
Over the next few years both sides stayed bunkered down in their bases. They spared their own citizens and relied heavily on mercenaries (Xen. Hell. IV 4,14). Of potentially far greater consequence than any fighting was a curious political experiment of the Argives and the Corinthians who in 393 formed a sympolity - a political union which did not involve the physical relocation of either or both cities. There was a common citizenship so that the former Corinthians were now “Argives” (Xen. Hell. IV 4,2-6; Diod. XIV 92). The new state dominated the northeastern Peloponnese and controlled the Isthmus’ southern portion. If this new state had endured, it might have had a greater effect on developments in Greece. In Athens, meanwhile, Conon, though in Persian employ, used his crews as laborers to help the Athenians rebuild their Long Walls between the city and the Peiraeus (Xen. Hell. IV 8,9-10; Diod. XIV 85).
Additionally, negotiations for a peace treaty were underway. The Lacedaemonians approached the Persians with a view towards securing the withdrawal of Persian support for Conon’s activities and went on to suggest a peace treaty (Xen. Hell. IV 8,12-14). The Persians also had a vested interest in establishing peace in the Aegean region and so attempted to broker this treaty. First, Lacedaemonian troops still stood in Asia Minor and, under the command of Thibron, were carrying out raids (Xen. Hell. IV 8,17-19; Diod. XIV 99). Second, the Athenian commanders Thrasybulus and Iphicrates were actively campaigning in the Propontis, including on the Asian side, in an attempt to re-establish Athenian control over this strategic area (Xen. Hell. IV 8,25-39; Diod. XIV 99). Finally, the Persians wanted once and for all to restore their control over the Greek regions in Asia Minor - and to have the Greeks all acknowledge it (that is, not just the Lacedaemonians as in 411 or the Athenians as in the Peace of Callias).
That final Persian wish proved the sticking point. The Athenians refused to hand over fellow Greeks to Barbarians, so the Persians’ first attempt to establish peace (in 391 BC) came to nothing (Philochorus, BNJ 328, Fr. 149). The war continued in a desultory fashion for an additional five years during which neither Diodorus nor Xenophon has much to report. By the year 386, however, all warring parties were ready to make peace - whether they had to acknowledge Persian overlordship of Asia Minor or not (cf. Diod. XIV 110).
World History
