Battle of Coronea (394 BC)
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Coronea in 394 BC was a battle in the Corinthian War
, in which the Sparta
ns and their allies under King Agesilaus II
defeated a force of Thebans and Argives
that was attempting to block their march back into the Peloponnese
.
, and Athens
, with Persian support and funding, united to oppose Spartan intervention in Locris
and Phocis
. At the start of the war, Agesilaus was in Ionia
, campaigning against the Persians. When hostilities opened, he was recalled with his forces, and began an overland march through Thrace
and central Greece back to the Peloponnese. Entering Boeotia
, he was opposed by a force composed primarily of Thebans, allied Boeotians, and Argives.
Agesilaus's forces were composed of a regiment and a half of Spartiate
s, augmented by a force of freed helots
, and a sizable force of allied troops from the Peloponnese and Ionia. Facing him on the plain, near the foot of Mount Helicon, was an army made up of Boeotians, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, Euboea
ns, and Locrians. In all, the allies probably had 20,000 hoplite
s. To oppose these, Agesilaus had 15,000 hoplites. The cavalry forces of the two sides were roughly equal, but Agesilaus had substantially more peltast
s.
Prior to the battle some of Agesilaus's army were disturbed by an omen witnessed some days before, when the sun had appeared crescent shaped. To reassure his men, Agesilaus first reminded them of the recent Spartan victory at Nemea
. He then told them that the Spartan navarch
Peisander
had been killed in a victory over the Persian fleet. In fact, as Agesilaus knew, Peisander had been killed while suffering a crushing defeat at Cnidus
. These reassurances, however, buoyed his army's morale going into the battle.
The defeat at Nemea weighed heavily on the Argives and Corinthians. The Athenians were too familiar with the ups and downs of their previous long and disastrous war against Sparta, and the willingness of the Persians to switch support from one side to the other, to be overly encouraged. Only the Boeotians seemed confident of ultimate victory.
" were next to the Spartans, the Asian Greeks were next to them, then came the Phocians, and the Orchomenians held the extreme left flank. The Thebans faced the Orchomenians and the Argives faced the Spartans. Both armies advanced in total silence. At about 200 metres (656.2 ft), the Thebans shouted their war cry and charged at the run. At about 100 metres (328.1 ft), the veterans of the "Ten Thousand" (under the Spartiate Herippidas) and the Asian Greeks charged the troops opposite them at the run. The veterans and the Asians quickly routed the troops opposite them. The Argives panicked before the Spartans under Agesilaus could even make contact and fled to Mount Helicon.
The mercenaries near Agesilaus assumed the battle was over and offered him a garland to commemorate his victory. Just then news came that on the other flank, the Thebans had broken through the Orchomenians and were already at the baggage train, ransacking the loot taken from Asia. Agesilaus immediately wheeled his phalanx
around and headed for the Thebans. At that moment, the Thebans noticed that their allies had fled to Mount Helicon. They formed up with the desperate design of breaking through Agesilaus's lines to rejoin the rest of their army.
Agesilaus decided to oppose them by putting his phalanx directly in their path instead of taking them in the rear or flank, a decision that may have been influenced by his longstanding animosity towards Thebes. What followed was evidently one of the worst blood baths in the history of hoplite battles. As Xenophon
described it, “So shield pressed upon shield they struggled, killed and were killed in turn.” In the end, a few Thebans broke through to Mount Helicon but, in the words of Xenophon, “many others were killed on their way there.”
Gylis
to put the army in battle formation and gave out awards for valour, received a delegation from the Thebans and allowed them to collect their dead. The army then retired to Phocis
and invaded Locris
where the polemarch Gylis was killed.
According to Diodorus Siculus
, more than 600 of the Boeotians and their allies fell, and the Spartans lost 350 men.
Corinthian War
The Corinthian War was an ancient Greek conflict lasting from 395 BC until 387 BC, pitting Sparta against a coalition of four allied states; Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos; which were initially backed by Persia. The immediate cause of the war was a local conflict in northwest Greece in which...
, in which the Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
ns and their allies under King Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II, or Agesilaos II was a king of Sparta, of the Eurypontid dynasty, ruling from approximately 400 BC to 360 BC, during most of which time he was, in Plutarch's words, "as good as thought commander and king of all Greece," and was for the whole of it greatly identified with his...
defeated a force of Thebans and Argives
Argos
Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...
that was attempting to block their march back into the Peloponnese
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...
.
Prelude
The Corinthian War began in 395 BC when Thebes, Argos, CorinthCorinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
, and Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, with Persian support and funding, united to oppose Spartan intervention in Locris
Locris
Locris was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of three distinct districts.-Locrian tribe:...
and Phocis
Phocis
Phocis is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardousia on the west, upon the Gulf of Corinth...
. At the start of the war, Agesilaus was in Ionia
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
, campaigning against the Persians. When hostilities opened, he was recalled with his forces, and began an overland march through Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
and central Greece back to the Peloponnese. Entering Boeotia
Boeotia
Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...
, he was opposed by a force composed primarily of Thebans, allied Boeotians, and Argives.
Agesilaus's forces were composed of a regiment and a half of Spartiate
Spartiate
The Spartiates or Homoioi were the males of Sparta known to the Spartans as "peers" or "men of equal status". From a young age, male Spartiates were trained for battle and put through grueling challenges intended to craft them into fearless warriors...
s, augmented by a force of freed helots
Helots
The helots: / Heílôtes) were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia . Their exact status was already disputed in antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially slaves" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and...
, and a sizable force of allied troops from the Peloponnese and Ionia. Facing him on the plain, near the foot of Mount Helicon, was an army made up of Boeotians, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, Euboea
Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
ns, and Locrians. In all, the allies probably had 20,000 hoplite
Hoplite
A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...
s. To oppose these, Agesilaus had 15,000 hoplites. The cavalry forces of the two sides were roughly equal, but Agesilaus had substantially more peltast
Peltast
A peltast was a type of light infantry in Ancient Thrace who often served as skirmishers.-Description:Peltasts carried a crescent-shaped wicker shield called pelte as their main protection, hence their name. According to Aristotle the pelte was rimless and covered in goat or sheep skin...
s.
Prior to the battle some of Agesilaus's army were disturbed by an omen witnessed some days before, when the sun had appeared crescent shaped. To reassure his men, Agesilaus first reminded them of the recent Spartan victory at Nemea
Battle of Nemea
The Battle of Nemea was a battle in the Corinthian War, between Sparta and the allied cities of Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Thebes. The battle was fought in Corinthian territory, at the dry bed of the Nemea River...
. He then told them that the Spartan navarch
Navarch
Navarch is a Greek word meaning "leader of the ships", which in some states became the title of an office equivalent to that of a modern admiral.- Historical usage :...
Peisander
Peisander (general)
Peisander was a Spartan general during the Corinthian War. In 395 BC, he was placed in command of the Spartan fleet in the Aegean by his half-brother, the king Agesilaus II. Peisander was a relatively inexperienced general, and in the first action his fleet saw, at the Battle of Cnidus, the...
had been killed in a victory over the Persian fleet. In fact, as Agesilaus knew, Peisander had been killed while suffering a crushing defeat at Cnidus
Battle of Cnidus
The Battle of Cnidus , was a joint Athenian and Persian operation against the Spartan naval fleet in the Corinthian War. A combined Athenian-Persian fleet, led by the former Greek admiral Conon, destroyed the Spartan fleet led by the inexperienced Peisander, ending Sparta's brief bid for naval...
. These reassurances, however, buoyed his army's morale going into the battle.
The defeat at Nemea weighed heavily on the Argives and Corinthians. The Athenians were too familiar with the ups and downs of their previous long and disastrous war against Sparta, and the willingness of the Persians to switch support from one side to the other, to be overly encouraged. Only the Boeotians seemed confident of ultimate victory.
The battle
As the two armies approached each other, Agesilaus himself commanded the Spartans on the extreme right flank of his army, the veterans of the "Ten ThousandTen Thousand (Greek)
The Ten Thousand were a group of mercenary units, mainly Greek, drawn up by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II...
" were next to the Spartans, the Asian Greeks were next to them, then came the Phocians, and the Orchomenians held the extreme left flank. The Thebans faced the Orchomenians and the Argives faced the Spartans. Both armies advanced in total silence. At about 200 metres (656.2 ft), the Thebans shouted their war cry and charged at the run. At about 100 metres (328.1 ft), the veterans of the "Ten Thousand" (under the Spartiate Herippidas) and the Asian Greeks charged the troops opposite them at the run. The veterans and the Asians quickly routed the troops opposite them. The Argives panicked before the Spartans under Agesilaus could even make contact and fled to Mount Helicon.
The mercenaries near Agesilaus assumed the battle was over and offered him a garland to commemorate his victory. Just then news came that on the other flank, the Thebans had broken through the Orchomenians and were already at the baggage train, ransacking the loot taken from Asia. Agesilaus immediately wheeled his phalanx
Phalanx formation
The phalanx is a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar weapons...
around and headed for the Thebans. At that moment, the Thebans noticed that their allies had fled to Mount Helicon. They formed up with the desperate design of breaking through Agesilaus's lines to rejoin the rest of their army.
Agesilaus decided to oppose them by putting his phalanx directly in their path instead of taking them in the rear or flank, a decision that may have been influenced by his longstanding animosity towards Thebes. What followed was evidently one of the worst blood baths in the history of hoplite battles. As Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
described it, “So shield pressed upon shield they struggled, killed and were killed in turn.” In the end, a few Thebans broke through to Mount Helicon but, in the words of Xenophon, “many others were killed on their way there.”
Aftermath
Agesilaus had himself been wounded in the battle and had to be carried back to the phalanx. There some cavalry rode up, informing him that about 80 of the enemy had taken refuge in a nearby temple. Agesilaus ordered that they be spared and allowed to go wherever they wished. The next morning, Agesilaus ordered the polemarchPolemarch
A polemarch was a senior military title in various ancient Greek city states . The title is composed out of the polemos and archon and translates as "warleader" or "warlord", one of the nine archontes appointed annually in Athens...
Gylis
Gylis
Gylis was a Spartan polemarch under Agesilaus II at the Battle of Coronea in the Corinthian War....
to put the army in battle formation and gave out awards for valour, received a delegation from the Thebans and allowed them to collect their dead. The army then retired to Phocis
Phocis
Phocis is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardousia on the west, upon the Gulf of Corinth...
and invaded Locris
Locris
Locris was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of three distinct districts.-Locrian tribe:...
where the polemarch Gylis was killed.
According to Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
, more than 600 of the Boeotians and their allies fell, and the Spartans lost 350 men.