Chapter 336: Corinthian War

As a Spartan hero that defeated Athens, Lysander once supported all the naval allies of Athens and established a puppet government loyal to Sparta. Now that he came to Asia Minor, the rulers of these city-states often came to visit him, followed him around and even made all kinds of requests on him, as if he were the real king and Agesilaus was just his follower.

But soon after, Lysander tasted the might of Agesilaus. Any request he made to Agesilaus, even if it was reasonable, was rejected, and Agesilaus had even secretly sent his men to spread out words that Lysander was only an ordinary member of the Spartan “Thirty Military Council”  and had no authority.

As a consequence, Lysander could not fulfil his promises to these people, leading the rulers to realise that the situation had changed and began pleasing Agesilaus.

And Agesilaus’ distancing from Lysander made him uneasy, and he realised that he had been naive, as the new king was by no means a mediocre man that he could manipulate.

At this moment, Lysander was no longer the brilliant Spartan hero a few years ago. The failure of his scheme to overthrow the Spartan System prompted the Ephors to deprive him of his authority. In the end, he could only take the initiative to propose to Agesilaus to go to the Straight of Hellespont and win over the city-states that were previously affiliated to Persia, which Agesilaus approved.

After dealing with the ambitious Lysander, Agesilaus began showing his military talent. He was more flexible than Dercylidas when commanding the troops as he moved back and forth between the two satrapies of the two Persian satraps, Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus, leaving the Persian army at a loss. Finally, in the spring of 395 B.C., he defeated Tissaphernes and inflicted severe losses to his army in the Battle of Sardis.

Due to this tragic defeat, Parysatis, the mother of Artaxerxes, the Persian King, finally seized the opportunity to ask his son to remove Tissaphernes from his position. Afterwards, Tissaphernes was assassinated, thus avenging her younger son, Cyrus.

When this report reached the army of Agesilaus, the mercenaries who had experienced the “Retreat of the Ten Thousand” were excited. Xenophon also wrote a letter to Davos, who was far away in Thurii, to express his joy and admiration for the Spartan king, Agesilaus.

The military action of Agesilaus in Asia Minor put tremendous pressure on the Persians that the Persian King had to mobilise the troops from other places to deal with Sparta. As a result, the defence on those places became empty. In Egypt, the farthest province of Persia, the Egyptians who had been fighting against the Persian rule finally seized this opportunity to rebel under the leadership of Achoris and successfully driving away the Persians, achieving independence and rebuilding the Kingdom of Egypt. With Achoris becoming the new Pharaoh (this is the 29th Dynasty in ancient Egyptian history).

In order to recapture Egypt, Persia sent envoys to propose a peace agreement with Agesilaus many times in 395 B.C., but Agesilaus refused the Persian’s request for peace. Artaxerxes then realise that Agesilaus’ goal was him, hence why the Spartans had no intention of withdrawing their troops from Asia Minor. Therefore in anger and with the advice of his ministers, he sent his men to Greece and began offering massive monetary bribes to the strategoi and statesmen of Thebes, Corinth, Argos and other city-states that were not friendly with Sparta, on the sole condition that they wage war on the Spartans.

And these city-states answer were all similar, ‘Even if we don’t receive the money, we are all eager to go to war because the Spartans are too overbearing. They not only disrespect us, but they also repeatedly harm the interests of our city-states!’

At the instigation of the Persian envoys, these city-states began to negotiate an alliance secretly. Among them, Thebes was the most active in declaring war on Sparta and began provoking their ally Locris to stir up a conflict with Sparta’s ally Phocis. When Phocis finally attack Locris, the Thebans declared that in order to defend their allies, they would declare war on Phocis.

Hence the Thebans began calling their army to invade the territory of Phocis, and the weakened Phocis had to ask for help from Sparta. Although Phocis is small, it is an important city-state near Delphi, which is beneficial for the Spartans in intervening in the religious affairs of Delphi. What’s more, the Spartans still remember that Thebes humiliated and destroyed their ceremony before their expedition to Persia. Thus they are thrilled to find a reason to attack Thebes and immediately decided to punish the Thebans for their contempt and disrespect to Sparta.

The Spartans started their invasion of Thebes by arranging for two armies, one under the other Spartan king, Pausanias, to advance northward, and the other under Lysander, who had returned to Sparta and was sent by the Ephors to go to Phocis and organise a local coalition to attack Thebes southward. Lysander manages to quickly complete his task splendidly and also instigated the people of Orchomenus in Boeotia to rebel.

Facing a powerful threat, the Thebans turned to Athens, the nearest strongest city-state, for help.

After experiencing a series of ordeals such as their defeat in the Peloponnesian War and the “Thirty Tyrants”’ dark rule, the Athenians finally restored the Democratic faction, who had shed their arrogance and reconciled with the nobles of the moderate faction while treating their former allies as equals. Under this pragmatic and stable policy, Athens rapidly recover its strength after nearly a decade. Thus after regaining its strength, Athens wants to eliminate Sparta’s control and gain absolute freedom in military and trade.

So after receiving a request for help from Thebes, Athens immediately held an ecclesia. At the ecclesia, the overwhelming majority of the citizens voted to ally with Thebes, their former enemy, and go to war with Sparta.

In the end, Thrasybulus, the leader of the democratic faction, who had rebelled and fought the “Thirty Tyrants” hard and overthrew them, and bringing Athens back to life, notified the Theban envoy of Athens’ determination and firmly said, “…although the port of Piraeus has no walls yet, we Athenians will face the danger bravely and face the cruel Spartans together with you, Thebes!”

The Thebans were moved at the fact that the two city-states that had been feuding for decades had quickly entered into an alliance declaring that Thebes and Athens formed a permanent alliance.

At this moment, the troops led by Lysander and Pausanias approached the region of Boeotia from both south and north, agreeing to meet near the city of Haliartus, to the south of Thebes.

However, after Lysander’s arrival, the army of Pausanias was still not there. Thus Lysander tried to persuade the Haliartians to betray Thebes.

And the Haliartians pretended to agree, but the truth was, they are secretly delaying the time. And when the Theban reinforcements arrived, they suddenly went out of the city attacking Lysander’s troops together with the army of Thebes.

Lysander, who had laid the foundation for the Spartan hegemony, died unexpectedly in this battle. However, in the ensuing battle, the Thebans failed to completely defeat the remnant army, which has lost its leader and had instead suffered heavy losses.

The next day, Pausanias arrived with his army.

When the Thebans saw that there were numerous, powerful and orderly Spartan troops, their morale fell.

However, Pausanias did not immediately lead his army to attack and instead camped nearby.

On the third day, the Athenian reinforcements arrived.

This made the Thebans become more confident as they joined up with the Athenians and prepared to fight the Spartans.

Pausanias, however, did not immediately lead his troops towards the coalition forces, nor did he accept the challenge of the enemy. Instead, he gathered the officers under his command and discussed whether they should go to war immediately or to sign a truce so that they could recover the bodies of Lysander and the other fallen soldiers.

In the end, the Spartans decided on a truce.

After the two sides negotiated, the Spartan troops left Boeotia with the bodies of their comrades.

After seeing the body of Lysander, the Spartan citizens became sad and recalled Lysander’s great contribution to Sparta. Then they turned their grief into anger and accused the Spartan King, Pausanias, of deliberately delaying the rendezvous time, which killed Lysander and withdrawing without even fighting.

The Ephors did not fully defend the Spartan king because the death of Lysander and the withdrawal of Sparta had caused significant impacts, which directly led to the establishment of an Anti-Spartan Alliance among the four powerful Greek city-states: Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos.

As a result, Pausanias – the Spartan King, was convicted and exiled.

The Spartans then became aware that the Anti-Spartan Alliance would do great harm to the hegemony of Sparta, and thus, they quickly called on the army to try to wipe them out.

And the Anti-Spartan Alliance also quickly gathered its troops in the Isthmus of Corinth, hoping to resist the Spartan’s attack and then attack the Spartan territory and completely burn the “wasp’s nest.”

Thus both sides began a protracted battle in the Isthmus of Corinth.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the same year, a war in Sicily has taken place.

Syracuse and Carthage’s troops fought on the northern coast of Sicily for more than half a year.

When 394 B.C. came, the important Mediterranean countries and city-states were in the mire of war, while Magna Graecia enjoyed more than three years of peace.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lycasis came early in the morning and began cleaning and tidying up the clinic. As a physician apprentice, his job was to prepare everything before the physician arrived. But he firmly believes that hard work can win his teacher’s trust and learn real medical skills. Today, he is in a very good mood because he would accompany his teacher on a long journey.

When Nicostratos came to the clinic, Lycasis had already completed packing and Nicostratos, who had never been one to worry about trivial matters, simply asked, “Have you bought everything?”

After receiving affirmation from Lycasis, he nodded and said, “Let’s go.”

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