The
Battle of Haliartus was fought in
395 BC-Persian Empire:* The Persian satrap Tissaphernes' enemy Parysatis, mother of Cyrus, succeeds in persuading Persian King Artaxerxes II to have him executed at Colossae, Phrygia...
between
SpartaSparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the River Eurotas in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From c. 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars...
and Thebes. The Thebans defeated a Spartan force attempting to seize the town of Haliartus, killing the Spartan leader
LysanderLysander was a Spartan general who commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405 BC...
. The battle marked the start of the
Corinthian WarThe 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...
, which continued until
387 BC-Greece:* Antalcidas, commander of the Spartan navy, actively assists Persia against Athens. After escaping from the Athenian blockade at Abydos, he attacks and defeats a small Athenian force, then joins his fleet with a supporting fleet sent from Syracuse...
.
In 396 or 395 BC, an ambassador from the Persian satrap
PharnabazusPharnabazus was a Persian soldier and statesman. He was the son of Pharnaces, son of Pharnabazus of Phrygia, son of Artabazus; his male ancestors had governed the satrapy of Phrygia on the Hellespont from its headquarters at Dascylium since 478 BC. According to a discovery by Theodor Nöldeke, he...
,
Timocrates of RhodesTimocrates of Rhodes was a Rhodian Greek sent by the Persian satrap Pharnabazus in 396 or 395 BC to distribute money to Greek city states and foment opposition to Sparta. He visited Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos...
, arrived in Greece. There, he promised Persian funding and support to leading states of Greece if they would declare war on Sparta.
The
Battle of Haliartus was fought in
395 BC-Persian Empire:* The Persian satrap Tissaphernes' enemy Parysatis, mother of Cyrus, succeeds in persuading Persian King Artaxerxes II to have him executed at Colossae, Phrygia...
between
SpartaSparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the River Eurotas in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From c. 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars...
and Thebes. The Thebans defeated a Spartan force attempting to seize the town of Haliartus, killing the Spartan leader
LysanderLysander was a Spartan general who commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405 BC...
. The battle marked the start of the
Corinthian WarThe 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...
, which continued until
387 BC-Greece:* Antalcidas, commander of the Spartan navy, actively assists Persia against Athens. After escaping from the Athenian blockade at Abydos, he attacks and defeats a small Athenian force, then joins his fleet with a supporting fleet sent from Syracuse...
.
Prelude
In 396 or 395 BC, an ambassador from the Persian satrap
PharnabazusPharnabazus was a Persian soldier and statesman. He was the son of Pharnaces, son of Pharnabazus of Phrygia, son of Artabazus; his male ancestors had governed the satrapy of Phrygia on the Hellespont from its headquarters at Dascylium since 478 BC. According to a discovery by Theodor Nöldeke, he...
,
Timocrates of RhodesTimocrates of Rhodes was a Rhodian Greek sent by the Persian satrap Pharnabazus in 396 or 395 BC to distribute money to Greek city states and foment opposition to Sparta. He visited Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos...
, arrived in Greece. There, he promised Persian funding and support to leading states of Greece if they would declare war on Sparta. Since Sparta's aggressive and unilateral actions had angered many of its allies, the prospect of Persian support was enough to induce a number of states, and in particular Thebes, to make war on Sparta.
Rather than undertake offensive operations immediately, the Thebans chose to precipitate a war indirectly. Accordingly, they persuaded the
LocriansLocris was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of two districts...
to raid
PhocisPhocis is an ancient district and a modern prefecture of Greece, located in Central Greece, stretching from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardousia on the west, upon the Gulf of Corinth.-Geography:Ancient Phocis was about 1,619 km² in area, bounded on...
, a Spartan ally. Thebes, as an ally of Locris, was obligated to assist in the conflict thus begun; Phocis, meanwhile, appealed to its ally, Sparta. The Spartans, seeing a chance to chasten the increasingly restive Thebans, chose to launch a major campaign against Thebes. Meanwhile, the Thebans sent emissaries to Athens requesting aid; a perpetual alliance was concluded between the Athenians and the Boeotians.
The battle
The Spartan strategy for the campaign called for two armies, one under
PausaniasPausanias King of Sparta from 409 BC. In 395, Pausanias failed to join forces with Lysander, and for this was condemned to death and replaced as king by his son Agesipolis I....
composed of Spartan troops and Peloponnesian allies, and one under
LysanderLysander was a Spartan general who commanded the Spartan fleet in the Hellespont which defeated the Athenians at Aegospotami in 405 BC...
composed of Phocians and other allies from northwest Greece, to meet at the town of Haliartus for a coordinated attack. Pausanias, however, delayed for several days in the Peloponnese, and Lysander arrived at Haliartus with his force while Pausanias was still several days away.
Unwilling to wait for Pausanias to arrive, Lysander marched his army up to the walls of Haliartus. When an attempt to take the city by subversion failed, he launched an assault on the walls. A sizable Theban force, however, was located nearby, perhaps unbeknownst to Lysander. This force hurried to the assistance of the city's defenders. In heated fighting under the walls of Haliartus, Lysander's force was routed and he himself was killed. The Thebans, however, pursued the defeated troops too far, and as they entered rough and steep terrain, the fleeing soldiers turned and drove the Thebans back with heavy losses. This reversal briefly disheartened the Thebans, but the following day Lysander's army disbanded, with each contingent returning to its home country.
Aftermath
Several days after the battle, Pausanias reached Haliartus with his army. Wishing to recover the bodies of Lysander and the others killed in the battle, he asked for a truce, which the Thebans agreed to grant only on the condition that he depart from Boeotia. Pausanias agreed to this condition, collected the bodies of the dead, and returned to Sparta. Upon his return, Lysander's faction brought him to trial for arriving late and failing to attack when he did arrive, and Pausanias, recognizing that he would be convicted and executed, went into exile. Pausanias's exile, along with the death of Lysander, removed from the scene two of the three major actors on the Spartan political scene, leaving only
AgesilausAgesilaus 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...
, who would dictate Spartan policy for years to come.
The battle of Haliartus launched the
Corinthian WarThe 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...
, which stretched from 395 to 387. Fighting resumed in the next year when Thebes and Athens, now supported by
CorinthCorinth, or Korinth Corinth, or Korinth Corinth, or Korinth (Greek Κόρινθος, Kórinthos is a city in Greece. In antiquity it was a city-state, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. To the west of the isthmus lies the Gulf of...
and
ArgosArgos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour .-Name:The region of Argos is known as the Argolis, Argolid, or Argeia...
, fought against Spartan armies at
NemeaThe 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...
and
CoroneaThe Battle of Coronea can refer to:*Battle of Coronea *Battle of Coronea...
, and continued in the
Aegean SeaThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
and around the
Isthmus of CorinthThe Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. To the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of...
until the end of the war. This war produced little of lasting value for any state except Persia, which had instigated it; by raising trouble in Greece, the Persians were able to force Agesilaus to withdraw with his army from Ionia, and by the end of the war were in a position to dictate the terms of the peace.
External links