Latest / Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo History / The Corinthian War: Sparta's Empire Crumbles
Transcript
- Lucas: So, after the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BCE, Sparta stood supreme. Athens was humiliated, its walls torn down, its fleet destroyed. You'd think the Spartans would have known how to manage an empire, but... they really didn't. Luna: They'd spent centuries perfecting their own military society, not running other people's cities. Lucas: Exactly. And almost immediately, Sparta started alienating its own allies. They imposed oligarchies, demanded tribute, and got heavy-handed. By 395 BCE, four powers—Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos—had formed a coalition to push back. That kicks off what we call the Corinthian War. Lucas: If you've been coming along with us through these conversations about how Greek city-states fought and rebuilt, you know that the cost of war was constant. This show stays ad-free because of listeners who step in to support it at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep these histories accessible. Anyway—what's fascinating is how Persia got involved. Luna: Persia? They were the enemy in the Persian Wars. Lucas: Right, but by now the Persian king Artaxerxes II saw a chance. Sparta had been raiding Persian territory in Asia Minor, so the Persians decided to fund the anti-Spartan coalition. They sent a Rhodian agent named Timocrates with gold to bribe the Greek leaders into war. It worked. Lucas: So the war begins with a Theban sneak attack on a Spartan ally, Phokis. Sparta's king Agesilaus II was campaigning in Asia Minor at the time. He had to rush back to defend the homeland. Luna: Agesilaus—he's the one who'd been fighting the Persians, right? Lucas: Yes, and he was a brilliant general. But when he returned, he found a messy situation. The coalition had scored some early wins, including a naval victory at Knidos in 394 BCE, led by the Athenian admiral Konon. That battle destroyed the Spartan fleet and ended Sparta's brief naval dominance. Lucas: Konon is a key figure here. He'd been in exile after the Peloponnesian War, serving as a mercenary for Persia. Now he got Persian backing to rebuild the Athenian fleet and, crucially, to rebuild the Long Walls connecting Athens to Piraeus. Those walls had been torn down by Sparta in 404, and now they went back up. Luna: So Athens is rising again, literally brick by brick, with Persian silver. Lucas: Precisely. And on land, the fighting was brutal. In 394 BCE, two massive hoplite battles took place almost simultaneously: the Battle of Nemea, near Corinth, and the Battle of Koroneia, in Boeotia. At Nemea, the Spartans defeated the coalition forces—Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, and Thebans—but it was a costly victory. At Koroneia, Agesilaus faced a Theban-led army and won, but again, heavy losses on both sides. Luna: These battles sound like slugfests. What made them so bloody? Lucas: Standard hoplite phalanx combat. You line up, you push. But the Spartans were still the best. At Nemea, they executed a classic maneuver: they refused their left flank, let the enemy advance, then pivoted and rolled up the opposing line. Still, the coalition kept fighting. The war dragged on for years, mostly around Corinth—hence the name. Lucas: The Corinthians actually got tired of being the battlefield. In 392 BCE, there was an attempted oligarchic coup in Corinth, which led to a pro-Spartan faction taking over briefly. But the democratic faction, backed by Argos, fought back. For a while, Corinth and Argos even merged into a single state—something almost unheard of in Greek politics. Luna: A merger? That's drastic. Did it last? Lucas: No. By 386 BCE, the war had exhausted everyone. Persia, which had funded the coalition, now decided it was better to have a weak Greece. So Artaxerxes II dictated a peace settlement—the Peace of Antalkidas, also called the King's Peace. It declared that all Greek cities would be autonomous, except those in Asia, which would belong to Persia. Lucas: The peace was enforced by Persia, essentially. Sparta was appointed the guardian of the peace, meaning they could attack any city that violated autonomy. So Sparta got to keep its hegemony, but now it was Persia's enforcer. Athens had to give up its new empire, but it kept its walls and a small fleet. Thebes was forced to dissolve its Boeotian League. Luna: So nobody really won. Sparta was dominant but dependent on Persia. Athens was back but not powerful. Thebes was humiliated. Lucas: Exactly. The King's Peace held for about a decade, but it sowed the seeds for the next big conflict: the rise of Thebes under Epaminondas. For now, though, the Corinthian War showed that Greek city-states couldn't sustain endless war without outside intervention. And Persia learned that playing kingmaker in Greece was profitable. Lucas: It's a sobering chapter. The Peloponnesian War ended with Sparta on top, but within a decade, they'd proven just as incapable of building a stable peace as Athens had. The Corinthian War is a lesson in how hard it is to maintain an empire—especially when your allies remember your harshness. Luna: And how gold from a foreign king can tip the scales. Lucas: Always.