After defeating the Spartan fleet off Cnidus, Pharnabazus and Conon sailed along the west coast of Asia Minor, driving out the Spartan harmosts and promising autonomy to the Greek cities. They ran into resistance at the Hellespont, where under the leadership of Dercylidas and strengthened by the support of many expelled harmosts, Abydos on the Asiatic side and Sestus on the European side remained faithful to Sparta.
In the spring of the following year Pharnabazus and Conon sailed through the Cyclades to Melos and occupied it as an advanced base. After ravaging the coasts of Laconia and Messenia they captured the island of Cythera, where they left a garrison and an Athenian governor. With the permission of Pharnabazus, who then returned to Asia, Conon sailed to Athens and ordered the crews of his eighty triremes to assist in the restoration of the fortifications of the Piraeus and the Long Walls, the completion of which Conon said would be a devastating blow to the Spartans. (With the help of her allies, Athens’ Long Walls were completed about 391 BC.)
Athens had made various attempts to strengthen her diplomatic position. In 394 BC an alliance on equal terms was made with Eretria; and in 393 BC honour was paid to Dionysius-I of Syracuse, to Evagoras of Salamis in Cyprus, and to Carpathos in the southeast Aegean. In 392 BC Athens, her confidence growing with her rebuilt walls and fleet, seized and established cleruchies on Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros.
The allies fortified and defended the Isthmus in order to confine the enemy to the Peloponnese. In 393 BC the Spartans established a base at Sicyon from which they inflicted considerable damage on the countryside of Corinth. The wealthier landowners began to exert pressure within Corinth for peace with Sparta. In 392 BC with the connivance of the allied states the democratic faction at Corinth murdered one hundred and twenty of their oligarchic opponents. After being given guarantees for their safety the surviving oligarchs returned to their homes. The democrats now merged their state with Argos, probably by an act of isopoliteia (‘equal citizenship’), whereby the citizens had reciprocal rights to each others state; but Argos became the dominant partner by virtue of her size
Corinth was connected to its port Lechaeum with a double wall about two miles (≈3.2 km) in length. Having no loyalty to the democracy, two oligarchs helped a Spartan force under the command of Praxitas capture Lechaeum, drive off a counterattack, breach the long walls, and then garrison Sidus and Crommyon in northeast Corinthia.
Hearing that the Athenians were rebuilding the Long Walls the Spartans sent Antalcidas (fl.392-c.367 BC) to open negotiations with Tithraustes’ successor Tiribazus for the conclusion of peace with Persia. Athens sent a delegation headed by Conon, and envoys were also sent from Boeotia, Corinth and Argos. Antalcidas stated that the Spartans made no claim against the King for the Greek cities in Asia, and were content for the Greek cities of the islands and countries outside Asia to be autonomous. The negotiations failed because the principle of autonomy would mean for Athens the loss of her three cleruchies, for Thebes the dissolution of the Boeotian League, and for Argos the break of her union with Corinth.
Tiribazus, convinced that Athens would now be a threat to Persia in the Aegean, imprisoned Conan and gave money secretly to Antalcidas with the idea that if the Spartans manned a fleet, the Athenians and her allies might be more ready to make peace. But this plan was not accepted by Artaxerxes, who sent the pro-Athenian Struthas to replace Tiribazus at Sardis. Conon escaped and died soon afterwards in Cyprus.
In the winter a second peace conference was held at Sparta when the Greek states independently of Persia tried to negotiate a general peace. But the proposals made there were again rejected by the allies, both because of the implications of the autonomy principle and because the Athenians the terms proposed included abandoning the Ionian Greeks to Persia.
In 391 BC Evagoras of Salamis (r.410-374 BC), having conquered most of Cyprus, revolted and blockaded the Asiatic coast in alliance with Hakor of Egypt (r.393-380 BC). In the same year Sparta resumed her policy of attacking Persia in Ionia. Using Ephesus as his base, Thibron, Sparta’s commander in Anatolia, with a force of eight thousand men began to plunder the King’s territory. His raids, however, tended to be poorly organised and in one of his attacks he and many of his men were killed in an ambush set by Struthas. Thibron was replaced by Diphridas, who rebuilt his army from the remnants of Thibron’s and raided Struthas’ territory successfully. Struthas was put out of action when Diphridas captured his wife and son-in-law. Diphridas then used the money to hire mercenaries to add to his force.
Corinth’s long walls were recaptured and rebuilt by the Athenians, but in 391 BC they were breached again by Agesilaus. He left a sizable force at Lechaeum to guard the port, and in 390 BC overran northwest Corinthia (the Peraea or Perachora Peninsula) and placed a garrison in Oenoe.
Peltast equipment was improved by the Athenian mercenary Iphicrates (c.415-c.353 BC), who lengthened the javelin and replaced the dagger with a short sword suited for hand-to-hand fighting. In 391 BC a mora of Spartan hoplites returning to Lechaeum ahead of its escorting cavalry force, was attacked by Iphicrates’ peltasts striking at their flanks, giving way before every charge, and hurling javelins until over two hundred hoplites lay dead. In 390 BC he retook Crommyon, Sidus and Oenoe, and although Lechaeum was still held Agesilaus abandoned his attempt to break through the Isthmus.
In the same year Iphicrates invaded the territory of Phlius in Argolis and set an ambush while he went plundering with a few troops. The men of the city came out to meet him and were killed in great numbers. Iphicrates and his men also made a number of invasions into Arcadia, carrying away plunder and launching attacks on walled towns.
Soon after the failure of the peace conferences the Spartans sent eight ships under Ecdicus to assist in an oligarchic revolution in Rhodes. However, when Ecdicus heard that the democrats in Rhodes were in full control, he spent the winter at Cnidus. In spring 390 BC Sparta sent Agesilaus’ brother the navarch Teleutias (d.381 BC) with a further twelve ships to help. After picking up more ships at Samos, Teleutias captured ten Athenian ships on their way to help Evagoras in Cyprus and then took command at Cnidus.
Athens sent Thrasybulus with forty ships and four hundred mercenaries to assist the democrats on Rhodes, but he chose to go north to secure the grain route. After expelling a Spartan garrison from Thasos, he reconciled the two Thracian chiefs, Amadocus-I (r.408-389 BC) and Seuthes II (r.c.405-391 BC), to one another and to Athens. He sailed to Byzantium, where he re-established the democracy, then crossed to Chalcedon, which became an Athenian ally. He established tolls on the Bosporus and restored Athenian authority in the area. He then moved south to Lesbos, where he defeated the local Spartan commander and gained more Athenian allies. But he had not dislodged Dercylidas from the Hellespont. Obtaining reinforcements from Mytilene and Chios, Thrasybulus raided as far as Aspendus beside the Eurymedon River. There, however, he was killed during reprisals for freebooting (389 BC).
In 390 BC the Spartans sent out a new commander, Anaxibius, to replace Dercylidas at Abydos. For a time, he enjoyed a number of successes against Pharnabazus, and seized a number of Athenian merchant ships. Concerned that Thrasybulus’ accomplishments were being undermined, the Athenians sent Iphicrates to the region to confront Anaxibius. Eventually Iphicrates ambushed and killed him and many others returning from a campaign against Antandrus.
In west Central Greece the town of Calydon was in the hands of the Achaeans, who, under attack by Acarnanians aided by Athenians and Boeotians, asked the Spartans for help. Teleutias had driven the Corinthians from the gulf, so Agesilaus in 389 BC was able to sail across to Acarnania. His strategy was to devastate and burn agricultural land and round up livestock. This failed to satisfy the Achaeans and although he did eventually attack some cities they believed that he had achieved nothing. The following spring, however, the Acarnanians made peace with Achaea and an alliance with Sparta.
The Spartans sent Eteonicus to set up a base in Aegina and to assist the Aeginians in attacks on the coasts of Attica. In response, the Athenians sent a force of hoplites under Pamphilus to occupy a fort on the island, while a squadron of ten galleys blockaded the coast. Teleutias, who was cruising nearby at the time, drove off the blockading squadron, though Pamphilus kept possession of the fort. Teleutias was superseded by the new Spartan navarch, Hierax, who sailed to Rhodes, leaving Gorgopas with twelve galleys at Aegina. The Athenians in the fort came under attack and in the fifth month after their arrival, a squadron was sent to take them home.
When the Aeginians renewed their attacks, the Athenians sent Eunomus with thirteen galleys to repress them. Meanwhile the Spartans had sent Antalcidas, escorted by Gorgopas, to Ephesus to resume negotiations with Tiribazus. On his arrival he sent Gorgopas with ten vessels back to Aegina. The remainder of the fleet he placed under the command of his second-in-command Nicolochus.
On his return Gorgopas ambushed the Athenian fleet near Athens, capturing four of their ships. Not long after, Chabrias (d.356 BC) on his way to assist Evagoras at Cyprus, landed his troops on Aegina and laid an ambush for the Aeginians and their Spartan allies, killing Gorgopas and more than two hundred troops. Nicolochus, who from Ephesus had sailed northwards with twenty-five galleys, was blockaded at Abydos by an Athenian squadron of thirty-two galleys, under the command of Diotimus and Iphicrates.
Eteonicus had remained in Aegina and on Gorgopas’ death assumed command but his troops refused to undertake further offensive operations due to lack of pay. Teleutias was recalled and after restoring discipline he took twelve ships to the Saronic Gulf from where he attacked Athenian ships and raided Piraeus (388 BC) and the coasts of Attica.
In the summer the ephors gave orders to Agesipolis (then in his early twenties) to invade Argolis. In the recent past their campaigns had been thwarted by the Argives endlessly celebrating a festival sacred to both themselves and the Spartans. Agesipolis procured the sanction of the oracles at Delphi and Olympia to disregard this subterfuge, but his invasion yielded nothing except plunder.
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