Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/208

 196 GREECE Pausanias was obliged to retreat. An alliance was formed against Sparta between Athens, Corinth, Argos, and Thebes, and many other states soon joined it. A meeting was held in 894 at Corinth, and in this alarming state of affairs Agesilaus was recalled from Asia. The battle of Corinth, in which the Lacedaemonians gained tho victory, was fought in July, 394, nearly at the same time with the battle of Cni- dus. Agesilaus received the news at Amphi- polis, on his way from Asia; and on the fron- tiers of Phocis and Bceotia he heard of the de- feat and death of Pisander at Cnidus. Pressing forward, he met the confederate army at Coro- nea, where a terrible conflict took place, end- ing in a victory, though not a decisive one, for Agesilaus. The defeat of Cnidus cost the Spar- tans the maritime supremacy they had acquired at ^Egospotami. The Spartan harmosts (gov- ernors) were expelled from the islands. In 393 the coast of Laconia was ravaged by Conon and Pharnabazus ; the long walls of Athens and the fortifications of Piraeus were rebuilt, and Athens had regained something of her former power, by laying again the foundations of mari- time supremacy. The war continued during the following year, in the neighborhood of Corinth, the Spartans making their headquar- ters at Sicyon, and ravaging the Corinthian plain, besides gaining the advantage in several skirmishes. The triumphant career of the Spar- tans was interrupted by the victories of Iphi- orates, an Athenian commander of a body of mercenaries. Agesilaus returned stealthily to Sparta, and many places in the Corinthian ter- ritory were retaken by his aid. The Lacedae- monians sent Antalcidas to negotiate with the Persians, in the hope of regaining their good will ; and Tiribazus secretly furnished the Spar- tans with money, and treacherously seized Conon, who now disappears from history. In 389 a fleet of 40 triremes was despatched from Athens to Asia Minor, under Thrasybulus ; but after reestablishing the Athenian supremacy in several places on the Hellespont, he was sur- prised and slain at Aspendus. Anaxibius was sent from Sparta to succeed Dercyllidas as governor of Abydos, and Iphicrates was de- spatched from Athens. He attacked Anaxibius among the passes of Ida, defeated his army, and slew him with 12 other harmosts, thus giving the Athenians again the mastery of the Helles- pont. But the ^Eginetans began to infest the trade of Athens, and the Lacedaemonians, under Teleutias, took Piraeus by surprise, and car- ried off a considerable amount of booty. In 387 the treaty of Antalcidas was concluded, on terms that were denounced by the Athenian writers a few years later as most disgraceful, but the deputies from the states felt obliged to yield their assent. In substance it provided that the cities of Asia and the islands of Clazo- mena> and Cyprus should belong to Persia, and, with the exception of Lemnos, Imbros, and Scy- rps, which were to remain to Athens, all the cities should be independent. Sparta now com- menced a series of aggressions in Boeotia. Pla- taa was rebuilt for a Spartan outpost. Manti- nea, against which Sparta owed a grudge, was reduced, dismantled, and placed under an oli- garchy. In 383 the affairs of Olynthus, the cen- tre of a powerful confederacy at the head of the Toronaic gulf, attracted the attention of Sparta ; and Eudamidas was despatched to the defence of Acanthus and Apollonia, but his army was not sufficiently strong to take the field at once against the Olynthians. Another force was collected by Phcebidas, the brother of Eudamidas, and marched to Thebes, where they treacherously got possession of the Cad- mea or citadel. The indignation which this act excited induced the Lacedaemonians to disa- vow it, and to dismiss Phcebidas; but they con- tinued to occupy the citadel with a garrison, and Thebes was enrolled as a member of the Lacedaemonian confederacy. The war with Olynthus was closed in 379, with the capitula- tion of the city, and the dissolution of the league of which she was the head ; a great misfortune, as the event proved, to Greece. In 379 a rev- olution was brought about at Thebes, chiefly by the young Pelopidas, who was living in ex- ile at Athens, and who arranged a conspiracy with some of the leaders of the patriotic party at Thebes, which was carried into successful execution. The garrison capitulated, the exiles returned, and the revolution shook the influence of Sparta throughout Greece. Athens set vig- orously to work to organize a new confederacy, and Thebes enrolled herself as one of the earliest members. A congress was held in Athens, and a large army and fleet voted. The war with Sparta was zealously prepared for. At Thebes the famous "sacred band" was formed, and Pelopidas and Epaminondas were actively en- gaged in organizing the war. Agesilaus march- ed from Sparta into the Bcootian territory, and laid waste the country, to the gates of Thebes; in the following year he conducted a second expedition, in which he received an injury that withdrew him from active service. The next expedition was accordingly conducted by Cle- ombrotus ; he was forced to retreat by the Thebans, who had seized the passes of Cithaaron. In 376 a Lacedaemonian fleet under Pollio was defeated by Chabrias the Athenian near Nax- os ; and Timotheus, another Athenian, son of Conon, sailed to the west of Greece, and gained over to Athens Cephallenia, Corcyra, and many of the Epirotes and Acarnanians. Dissatisfac- tion and jealousy sprung up among the con- federates of Athens. Thebes was extending her dominion over the neighboring states, and in 375 Pelopidas gained a victory over the Lace- daemonians at Tegyra. In 374 the Thebans had completely expelled the Lacedaemonians from Bceotia, and menaced Phocis. The Athenians made with Sparta a peace which was imme- diately broken, and the successes of the Athe- nian army on the western coast of Greece so alarmed the Spartans that in 372 Antalcidas was again despatched to solicit the aid of Per-