Latest / The History of Greece: Philosophy, Empire, and Endless Reinvention — Fexingo History / The Corinthian War: Greece's Forgotten Coalition Against Sparta
Transcript
- Lucas: So, Luna, we've talked a lot about the Peloponnesian War—how Athens fell and Sparta emerged as the undisputed power in Greece. But what happened right after that is often glossed over. Sparta's victory didn't bring peace; it brought a new kind of trouble. Luna: You mean the Spartan hegemony wasn't popular? Lucas: Exactly. Sparta started acting like an imperial bully almost immediately. They installed oligarchies in former Athenian allies, demanded tribute, and even supported the Persian satraps in Asia Minor—which was a huge flip-flop, considering they'd spent years fighting Persia. And that arrogance sparked a massive backlash: the Corinthian War, from 395 to 387 BCE. Luna: Who fought whom? Lucas: On one side, Sparta. On the other, a coalition of four major Greek states: Athens, Corinth, Argos, and Thebes. And, in a twist, Persia backed the anti-Spartan coalition, because the Persians were fed up with Spartan interference in Asia Minor. So you had Athens and Persia fighting side by side—just a generation after the Peloponnesian War. The war is named after Corinth because much of the early fighting happened around the Isthmus of Corinth. Luna: What triggered it? Was there a specific spark? Lucas: Yes. In 395 BCE, a local dispute between the Phocians and the Locrians escalated. The Thebans, who were allied with the Locrians, marched against Phocis, and Sparta, as the hegemonic power, intervened. But the real catalyst was Persian money. The Persian satrap Pharnabazus—who had suffered from Spartan raids—sent envoys to Thebes, Athens, Argos, and Corinth, offering gold to raise armies against Sparta. The Greek states were happy to take Persian silver to settle old scores. Luna: So Persia was pulling the strings behind the scenes? Lucas: For a while, yes. The war began with a series of skirmishes. One early battle was at Haliartus in Boeotia, where the Spartan general Lysander—the hero of the Peloponnesian War—was killed. That was a huge shock. Without Lysander, Sparta's leadership stumbled. Then, in 394 BCE, there were two major battles on the same day: at Nemea, where Sparta defeated the coalition forces, and at Coronea, where the Spartan king Agesilaus II fought a bloody draw against the Thebans. But the real game-changer was at sea. Luna: The naval battle of Cnidus? Lucas: Exactly. In August 394 BCE, a Persian fleet under Pharnabazus and the Athenian admiral Conon—who had been in Persian service since the Peloponnesian War—crushed the Spartan navy off the coast of Cnidus in Asia Minor. Sparta's fleet was virtually wiped out. This was huge because it ended Sparta's naval dominance and allowed Athens to start rebuilding its empire. Conon used Persian gold to refortify the Piraeus and rebuild the Long Walls, which had been destroyed after Athens' surrender in 404 BCE. Luna: That must have felt like a rebirth for Athens. Lucas: It was. Within a few years, Athens was back on the offensive, reclaiming islands and allies in the Aegean. But the war also dragged on in Greece. The fighting around Corinth was especially brutal. The Corinthians and Argives even formed a political union—a kind of joint citizenship experiment—to pool their resources. But the war was exhausting for everyone. There were raids, sieges, and mercenary armies marching across the Peloponnese. One famous incident was the 'Battle of the Long Walls' at Corinth in 392 BCE, where a Spartan force actually breached the city's defenses and fought in the streets. Luna: How did it end? Lucas: With a Persian-imposed peace. By 387 BCE, the Persian king Artaxerxes II had had enough of the chaos—partly because the Greek mercenaries were causing trouble in his empire. He dictated a peace treaty known as the King's Peace, or the Peace of Antalcidas, after the Spartan diplomat who negotiated it. The terms were simple: all Greek cities were to be autonomous, except for those in Asia, which would belong to Persia. And any state that violated the treaty would face war with Persia and the other signatories. Sparta was made the enforcer of the peace, which gave them a new lease on power—but at the cost of betraying the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Luna: So Persia got what it wanted, and Sparta got to keep being the bully? Lucas: In the short term, yes. But the King's Peace was a turning point. It exposed the weakness of the old Greek system of independent city-states. From now on, the major powers—especially Sparta and Thebes—would use Persian support as a trump card. And the autonomy clause was a weapon: Sparta used it to break up federations and weaken rivals. But the peace also set the stage for the next big conflict: the Theban-Spartan war, which would culminate in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE. So the Corinthian War, though often overlooked, was really the opening act of Greece's fourth-century power struggles. Luna: And it shows how fragile Spartan power really was. Lucas: Absolutely. Sparta's victory over Athens didn't solve its fundamental problems: a shrinking citizen population, a reliance on helot labor, and a rigid system that couldn't adapt to long-term hegemony. The Corinthian War exposed those cracks. And it also showed that Persia was still the kingmaker in Greek affairs—a reminder that the Greek world was never fully independent, even at its peak.