Corinthian War

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In the Corinthian War (395–387 BC) Argos , Athens , Thebes and Corinth fought unsuccessfully against Sparta . The reason for the war was the disappointment of the Spartan allies Thebes and Corinth that their interests were not taken into account after the end of the Peloponnesian War . Together with their former opponents Athens and Argos, they stood in the way of Sparta, which endeavored to inherit the Athenian hegemony in the Aegean . At the same time there was fighting between Sparta and the Persian Achaemenid Empire ( Spartan-Persian War ) in Asia Minor , since the Spartans now refused to cede the Greek cities there to Persia, as was the case in the treaty of 412/11 BC. Was intended.

First the Thebans succeeded in defeating the Spartans in 395 BC. To prevent the occupation of the city of Haliartus in Boeotia ( Battle of Haliartus ). The Spartan war hero and general Lysander was killed in this attack . On the other hand, the advance of the opposing coalition on the Peloponnesian Peninsula was stopped by Sparta in 394 BC. Stopped in the battle of Nemea . In addition, Sparta succeeded under its king Agesilaos II in the same year a victory at Koroneia am Helikon . Agesilaus was seriously wounded and had to return to Sparta. The Athenians, meanwhile, were weakened by the rivalry between their generals Konon and Thrasybulus. Various smaller campaigns followed, especially in the area of ​​the city of Corinth by the Spartans, who u. a. led to the battle of Corinth until the city in 390 BC. By an Athenian relief army under Iphikrates , who defeated the Spartans in the battle of Lechaion . The war ended with the intervention of Persia, which, now allied with Sparta, imposed a sea blockade on the Athens port of Piraeus, so that Athens, as at the end of the Peloponnesian War, had to accept the peace conditions dictated by Persia this time.

Ultimately, Persia benefited from the general weakening of the warring factions. It operated a clever swing policy and ensured that in the King's Peace (also Antalkidas Peace), which finally ended the war in 387 BC. BC ended, especially his own interests were taken into account. While the status quo ante was essentially established in motherland Greece, the Greeks had to grant the Persians, who acted as the guarantor of peace, sovereignty over the Greek cities of Asia Minor.

literature

  • Charles D. Hamilton: Sparta's bitter victories. Politics and diplomacy in the Corinthian. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY 1979, ISBN 0-8014-1158-0 .
  • Simon Hornblower: The Greek World. 479-323 BC. 3rd edition Routledge, London 2002, ISBN 0-415-15344-1 (Routledge History of the ancient world), p. 210 ff.
  • Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Greek history. From the beginnings to the beginning of Hellenism. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77306-7 , pp. 337ff.