Battle of Nemea | |||||||
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Part of the Corinthian War | |||||||
The Athenian cavalryman Dexileos fighting an hoplite. [1] Dexileos was killed in action near Corinth in the summer of 394 BC during the Corinthian War. Dexileos probably died in the Battle of Nemea itself, [1] or in a proximate engagement. [2] Grave Stele of Dexileos, early 4th century BC. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Sparta Peloponnesian League | Thebes Argos Athens Corinth | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Aristodemus | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
18,000 hoplites | 24,000 hoplites 600 cavalrymen [3] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,100 dead or wounded | 2,800 dead or wounded | ||||||
The Battle of Nemea (394 BC), also known in ancient Athens as the Battle of Corinth, [4] was a battle in the Corinthian War, between Sparta and the coalition of Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Thebes. The battle was fought in Corinthian territory, at the dry bed of the Nemea River. The battle was a decisive Spartan victory, which, coupled with the Battle of Coronea later in the same year, gave Sparta the advantage in the early fighting on the Greek mainland.
Hostilities in the Corinthian War began in 395 BC with raiding in northwestern Greece, eventually leading to a clash between Sparta and Thebes at the Battle of Haliartus, a Theban victory. In the wake of this battle, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos joined together to form an anti-Spartan alliance, with its forces commanded by a council at Corinth. [5]
In 394 BC, the council gathered together its forces at Corinth. A Spartan army under Aristodemus, the guardian of the boy king Agesipolis, was sent north from Sparta to challenge the allies. The allied army, meanwhile, waited at Corinth, while the council debated over who should command it. Before a decision was reached, the Spartan army entered Corinthian territory, burning and plundering along the way. The allies marched out to meet the Spartans, and the two armies met each other near the dry bed of the Nemea river. [6]
The Spartan army was composed of some 18,000–19,000 hoplites, with associated light troops. Of the hoplites, 6,000 were Spartan, with the remainder coming from the other states of the Peloponnesian League: 3,000 from the Eleans, Triphylians, Acrorians, and Lasionians; 1,500 from Sicyon; and at least 3,000 from Epidaurus, Troezen, Hermione, and Halieis. There was also a cavalry force of about 600, about 300 Cretan archers, and at least 400 Marganian, Letrinian, and Amphidolian slingers.
Opposing the Spartans, the allied side consisted of about 24,000 hoplites, with associated light troops. Thebes, Athens, and Argos each provided about one quarter of the allied hoplites: 6,000 hoplites from Athens, about 7,000 from Argos, 5,000 from the Boeotians, 3,000 from Corinth, and 3,000 from Euboea. Of the allied cavalry, 800 were Boeotian, 600 were Athenian, about 100 from Chalcis in Euboea, and about 50 from the Ozolian Locrians. [7]
The Spartans and their allies lined up for battle with the Spartans on the right and the allies on the left. The opposing coalition was divided over how to arrange themselves; the Athenians wanted to line up on the right, but ultimately had acceded to the demand of the Boeotians that they take the left, while the Boeotians took the right. This meant that the Athenians were opposite the Spartans, while the Boeotians and other allies faced the Spartans' allies.
As the two phalanxes closed for battle, both shifted to the right (this was a common occurrence in hoplite battles—hoplites carried their shield on their left arm, so men would shift to the right to gain the protection of their neighbor's shield as well as their own). This shift meant that, by the time the armies met, both of them extended past their opponents' left flank. Consequently, the right flanks of both armies were victorious, while the left flanks of both were defeated.
The Spartans then turned from their defeat of the Athenians to face the soldiers from the allied right wing who had rashly pursued the Spartans' allies. The Spartan phalanx took first the Argives, then the Corinthians, and then the Boeotians in the side, inflicting heavy losses on all three. [8] According to Diodoros of Sicily, Sparta and its allies had inflicted 2,800 casualties, while suffering only 1,100. [9] Xenophon tells that the Spartans only lost 8 men. [10] [11]
The main source of the battle is the pro-Spartan historian Xenophon, who put most of the blame of the allies' defeat on the arrogance and indiscipline of the Thebans. [12]
Although the Spartans held the field at the end of the battle, they were unable to force their way past Corinth and enter central Greece. Accordingly, they returned home. The allied army, after several months of inactivity, saw action in a second major battle at Coronea later in the same year. These two battles marked the only traditional large-scale land fighting that would take place in the war, which lasted until 386 BC. [13]
Agesilaus II was king of Sparta from c. 400 to c. 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponnesian War. Although brave in combat, Agesilaus lacked the diplomatic skills to preserve Sparta's position, especially against the rising power of Thebes, which reduced Sparta to a secondary power after its victory at Leuctra in 371 BC.
The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time, until the decisive intervention of the Persian Empire in support of Sparta. Led by Lysander, the Spartan fleet, built with Persian subsidies, finally defeated Athens and started a period of Spartan hegemony over Greece.
The Peloponnesian League was an alliance of ancient Greek city-states, dominated by Sparta and centred on the Peloponnese, which lasted from c.550 to 366 BC. It is known mainly for being one of the two rivals in the Peloponnesian War, against the Delian League, which was dominated by Athens.
This article concerns the period 459 BC – 450 BC.
This article concerns the period 399 BC – 390 BC.
Epaminondas was a Greek general and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a pre-eminent position in Greek politics called the Theban Hegemony. In the process, he broke Spartan military power with his victory at Leuctra and liberated the Messenian helots, a group of Peloponnesian Greeks who had been enslaved under Spartan rule for some 230 years following their defeat in the Third Messenian War ending in 600 BC. Epaminondas reshaped the political map of Greece, fragmented old alliances, created new ones, and supervised the construction of entire cities. He was also militarily influential and invented and implemented several important battlefield tactics.
The Battle of Leuctra was fought on 6 July 371 BC between the Boeotians led by the Thebans, and the Spartans along with their allies amidst the post–Corinthian War conflict. The battle took place in the vicinity of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae. The Theban victory shattered Sparta's immense influence over the Greek peninsula, which Sparta had gained with its victory in the Peloponnesian War a generation earlier.
The Sacred Band of Thebes was a troop of select soldiers. According to some ancient Greek claims, 150 pairs of male lovers formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC, ending Spartan domination. Its predominance began with its crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. It was annihilated by Philip II of Macedon in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.
The Battle of Sybota took place in 433 BC between Corcyra and Corinth. It was one of the immediate catalysts for the Peloponnesian War.
The Corinthian War was a conflict in ancient Greece which pitted Sparta against a coalition of city-states comprising Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos, backed by the Achaemenid Empire. The war was caused by dissatisfaction with Spartan imperialism in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, both from Athens, the defeated side in that conflict, and from Sparta's former allies, Corinth and Thebes, who had not been properly rewarded. Taking advantage of the fact that the Spartan king Agesilaus II was away campaigning in Asia against the Achaemenid Empire, Thebes, Athens, Corinth and Argos forged an alliance in 395 BC with the goal of ending Spartan hegemony over Greece; the allies' war council was located in Corinth, which gave its name to the war. By the end of the conflict, the allies had failed to end Spartan hegemony over Greece, although Sparta was durably weakened by the war.
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The (second) Battle of Mantinea or Mantineia was fought on 4 July 362 B.C. between the Thebans, led by Epaminondas and supported by the Arcadians, Argives, Messenians, Thessalians, and the Boeotian league against the Spartans, led by King Agesilaus II and supported by the Eleans, Athenians, Euboeans, and Mantineans. The battle was to determine which of the two alliances would dominate Greece. However, the death of Epaminondas and his intended successors would cost Thebes the military leadership and initiative to maintain Theban supremacy in the region. Similarly, the Spartans were weakened by yet another defeat and loss of troops. Epaminondas' death coupled with the impact on the Spartans of yet another defeat weakened both alliances, and paved the way for Macedonian conquest led by Philip II of Macedon.
Thespiae was an ancient Greek city (polis) in Boeotia. It stood on level ground commanded by the low range of hills which run eastward from the foot of Mount Helicon to Thebes, near modern Thespies.
Hellenica simply means writings on Greek (Hellenic) subjects. Several histories of 4th-century Greece, written in the mould of Thucydides or straying from it, have borne the conventional Latin title Hellenica. The surviving Hellenica is an important work of the Ancient Greek writer Xenophon and one of the principal sources for the last seven years of the Peloponnesian War not covered by Thucydides, as well as the war's aftermath.
The Battle of Haliartus was fought in 395 BC between Sparta and Thebes. The Thebans defeated a Spartan force attempting to seize the town of Haliartus, killing the Spartan leader Lysander. The battle marked the start of the Corinthian War, which continued until 387 BC.
The Battle of Lechaeum was fought between the Athenians and the Spartans during the Corinthian War; it ended in an Athenian victory. During the battle, the Athenian general Iphicrates took advantage of the situation when a Spartan hoplite regiment operating near Corinth was marching through open terrain without the protection of any missile throwing troops. He decided to ambush it with his force of javelin throwers, or peltasts. By launching repeated hit-and-run attacks against the Spartan formation, Iphicrates and his men were able to wear the Spartans down, eventually routing them and killing just under half. This marked one of the first occasions in Greek military history on which a force of peltasts had defeated a force of hoplite heavy infantry.
The First Peloponnesian War was fought between Sparta as the leaders of the Peloponnesian League and Sparta's other allies, most notably Thebes, and the Delian League led by Athens with support from Argos. This war consisted of a series of conflicts and minor wars, such as the Second Sacred War. There were several causes for the war including the building of the Athenian long walls, Megara's defection and the envy and concern felt by Sparta at the growth of the Athenian Empire.
The Second Athenian League was a maritime confederation of Greek city-states that existed from 378 to 355 BC under the leadership (hegemony) of Athens. The alliance represented a partial revival of the Delian League, which had been disbanded in 404 BC following the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War. The new League was centered in the Aegean and included over 60 states, among which were Kos, Mytilene, Rhodes, and Byzantium. It was primarily formed as a defensive alliance against Sparta and secondly the Persian Empire. The new League's main objective was to preserve peace in Greece and counterbalance Sparta's growing hegemony and aggression. The League largely revived Athenian influence in the Greek world, reestablishing it as the strongest naval power in the eastern Mediterranean. This time, Athens made conscious efforts to avoid the strict terms that had eventually rendered the previous Delian League unpopular. The alliance lasted until 355 BC, when most of the allied cities became independent following the Social War that broke out in 357 BC.
Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Ancient Greece, marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture gaining increased autonomy from the Persian Empire; the peak flourishing of democratic Athens; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars; the Spartan and then Theban hegemonies; and the expansion of Macedonia under Philip II. Much of the early defining mathematics, science, artistic thought, theatre, literature, philosophy, and politics of Western civilization derives from this period of Greek history, which had a powerful influence on the later Roman Empire. Part of the broader era of classical antiquity, the classical Greek era ended after Philip II's unification of most of the Greek world against the common enemy of the Persian Empire, which was conquered within 13 years during the wars of Alexander the Great, Philip's son.
The Theban–Spartan War of 378–362 BC was a series of military conflicts fought between Sparta and Thebes for hegemony over Greece. Sparta had emerged victorious from the Peloponnesian War against Athens, and occupied an hegemonic position over Greece. However, the Spartans' violent interventionism upset their former allies, especially Thebes and Corinth. The resulting Corinthian War ended with a difficult Spartan victory, but the Boeotian League headed by Thebes was also disbanded.