ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 336 Corinth War

As the Spartan hero who defeated Athens, Lysander once established puppet regimes loyal to Sparta in Athens' maritime allies.Now that he came to Asia Minor, the authorities of these city-states rushed to visit him, followed him around, and made various demands of him, making it seem as if he was the real king and Agesilaus was just a lackey.

But soon Lysander got a taste of the power of Agesilaus. Any request he made to Agesilaus, even if it was reasonable, was rejected by the Spartan king, even Agesilaus. Silas also secretly sent people out to publicize that Lysander was just an ordinary member of Sparta's "30-man Military Council" and had no power.

As a result, Lysander's promise to these people was ultimately unable to be fulfilled, causing the authorities in these city-states to realize that the situation had changed and turned to curry favor with Agesilaus.

Agesilaus's alienation from Lysander made Lysander begin to feel uneasy. He finally realized that he had been blind at first. The new king was by no means a mediocre person who could be manipulated.

At this moment, Lysander is no longer the glorious Spartan hero a few years ago. The failure of plotting to overthrow the Spartan system and the wariness of other members of the Council of Elders have deprived him of the real power he held. In the end, he had to He took the initiative to propose to Agesilaus that he was willing to go to the Hellespont to win over the city-states that had previously relied on Persia.

Agesilaus granted his request.

After subduing the ambitious Lysander, Agesilaus began to demonstrate his military prowess.His use of troops was more flexible than that of Dekiridas. He moved back and forth between the jurisdictions of the two Persian governors, Tissaphnes and Fanabazus, which made the Persian army at a loss. In the First World War, Tissaphernes' army was severely damaged.

Due to this disastrous defeat, Palusatis, the mother of King Artaxerxes of Persia, finally seized the opportunity and asked her son to remove Tissaphernes from his position and eventually executed him, thereby avenging the death of his younger son Cyrus the Younger. hatred.

The news reached Agesilaus's army, and the mercenaries who had experienced the "retreat of ten thousand people" cheered. Xenophon also wrote a letter to Davos in Thurii to express his gratitude. The joy in his heart, and his admiration for Agesilaus, king of Sparta.

Agesilaus's military operations in Asia Minor put great pressure on Persia, and the Persian king had to mobilize troops from other areas to deal with Sparta's attack. This resulted in the defense of other areas being empty.In the Egyptian province farthest from the Persian mainland, the Egyptians who had been resisting Persian rule finally seized this opportunity. Under the leadership of Achilles, they rose up in rebellion, successfully drove away the Persians, achieved independence, and rebuilt Kingdom of Egypt, and Achilles also became the new pharaoh (this is the 29th dynasty in ancient Egyptian history).

In order to retake Egypt, Persia sent envoys to Agesilaus many times in 395 BC to propose peace, but Agesilaus rejected the Persians' peace proposal. The Persian king Artaxerxes saw that Spars Daren had no intention of withdrawing his troops from Asia Minor. On the contrary, Agesilaus's ultimate goal was himself. So he was angry, and on the advice of his ministers, he sent people to Greece and began to attack Thebes, Corinth, Argos and Sparta. The generals and councilors of the discordant city-states offered large amounts of money bribes, with the only condition being that they must go to war with the Spartans.

The answers from these city-states were very similar: Even without the money, they were eager to go to war because the Spartans were too overbearing and not only disrespected them, but also repeatedly harmed the interests of their city-states!
Under the instigation of the Persian envoys, these city-states began to quietly discuss forming an alliance. Among them, the Thebans were the most active in declaring war on Sparta. They began to instigate their ally Locris to rebel against Sparta's ally Phocis. Conflict, when the Phocians finally invaded Locris, the Thebans claimed that Phocians violated its allies, and in order to protect their allies, it declared war on Phocians.

As a result, Thebes summoned an army to invade the territory of Phocis, and the weak Phocis had to ask Sparta for help.Although Phocis is small, it is an important city-state in the area close to Delphi, which is conducive to the Spartans' involvement in Delphi's religious affairs. Moreover, the Spartans also despised Thebes and destroyed their plans before the expedition to Persia. The memory of the temple priest was still fresh, so he was very happy to find a reason to attack Thebes, and immediately decided to punish Thebes for being rude to Sparta.

As a result, the Spartan army divided into two groups and invaded Thebes.On the one hand, Pausanias, another Spartan king, led the army to advance northward. On the other hand, the Council of Elders sent Lysander, who had returned to Sparta, to Phocis to organize a local coalition to attack Thebes southward. Sri Lanka.Lysander quickly completed his task brilliantly and also instigated the rebellion of the Ocommenus in the Boeotian region.

Facing the powerful threat of Sparta, Thebes turned to its nearest powerful state, Athens, for help.

After the Athenians experienced a series of hardships such as the failure of the Peloponnesian War, the dark rule of the "Thirty Tyrants", and the restoration of the democrats, they lost their past arrogance and used a moderate system to reconcile the democrats at home. and differences between the nobles, and treated its former allies as equals externally. Under this steady and pragmatic policy, after nearly ten years, Athens' strength was rapidly recovering.With strength, Athens wanted to get rid of Sparta's control and gain real freedom in military and trade.

So after receiving the request for help from Thebes, Athens held a citizens' assembly.At the assembly, the vast majority of citizens voted in favor of forming an alliance with their former mortal enemy Thebes and going to war with Sparta.

Finally, Thrasibulos, the democratic leader who once led the rebels to fight hard and finally overthrew the rule of the "Thirty Tyrants" and reborn Athens, informed the Theban envoy of the Athenian resolution and said firmly: "... Although there is no city wall in Piraeus Port, we Athenians will bravely face the danger and face the brutal Spartans side by side with you Thebans!"

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

At this moment, the troops led by Lysander and Pausanias approached the Pioxia area from south to north, and they agreed to join forces near the city of Haliatus, an ally south of Thebes.

However, after Lysander arrived, Pausanias's army was still missing.Lysander tried to persuade the Hariatus to rebel against Thebes.

The Haliatus pretended to agree, secretly delaying the time.When the reinforcements from Thebes arrived, they suddenly went out of the city and flanked Lysander's troops back and forth with the Thebes army.

Lysander, the founder of Spartan hegemony, died unexpectedly in this sudden battle. However, in the ensuing war, the Thebes failed to completely defeat the remnant army that lost its leader. lost heavily.

The next day, Pausanias led his team to arrive.

When the Thebans saw that the Spartans were outnumbered and their troops were in good order, their morale suddenly dropped.

But Pausanias did not immediately lead his army to attack, but instead camped nearby.

On the third day, Athenian reinforcements also arrived.

The Thebans suddenly became more confident, and they formed a formation with the Athenians, preparing to face the Spartans.

However, Pausanias did not immediately lead his army to approach the coalition, nor did he accept the enemy's challenge. Instead, he summoned his officers to discuss: Should he start a war immediately or sign a truce?To facilitate their recovery of the bodies of Lysander and other fallen soldiers.

Eventually the Spartans decided to call a truce.

After negotiation between the two sides, the Spartan army evacuated Boiosia with the bodies of their comrades.

The ordinary citizens of Sparta were extremely sad when they saw Lysander's body. They recalled Lysander's great contribution to Sparta, and their grief turned into anger, accusing the Spartan king Pausanias of deliberately delaying the meeting. , killing Lysander, and his crime of retreating without fighting.

The elders of the Council of Elders did not fully defend the Spartan king, because the death of Lysander and the retreat of Sparta had a huge impact, which directly led to four important Greek city-states forming an anti-Spartan alliance. The League of Barda, they were: Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Argos.

As a result, Pausanias, the king of Sparta, was found guilty and exiled.

The Spartans realized that this anti-Spartan alliance was extremely harmful to Spartan hegemony, and quickly mobilized their troops in an attempt to eliminate this alliance.

The anti-Spartan alliance also quickly gathered its troops at the Isthmus of Corinth, hoping to withstand the Spartan attack, and then counterattack into Spartan territory and completely burn the "wasp's nest".

Thus, the two sides began a protracted battle on the Isthmus of Corinth...

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Also in this year, a war was taking place in Sicily.

The fighting between the armies of Syracuse and Carthage on the north coast of Sicily had been going on for more than half a year.

When the time entered 394 BC, the important countries and city-states in the Mediterranean were plunged into the quagmire of war, but Magna Graecia had enjoyed more than three years of peace.

Early in the morning, Lycasus came to the clinic and started cleaning and organizing things.As a physician apprentice, it is his job to prepare for the clinic every day. He firmly believes that hard work can win the trust of the teacher and learn real medical skills. Today, he is in a particularly good mood because he has to accompany the teacher out. Travel far away.

When the doctor Nicostratus came to the clinic slowly, Lycasus had already packed the package. Nicostratus, who never liked to worry about trivial matters, only asked: "Have you brought everything?"

After receiving Lycasus' affirmative answer, he nodded and said, "Let's go."

(End of this chapter)