CLAS/HIST3001 Spartan Leadership and Spartan Failure

Spartan Imperialism ● Revolution in Athens not well-handled ● Elsewhere, installation of ● harmosts,local Spartan potentates ● Dekarchies, panels of 10 men ● A model not unlike the Thirty in Athens ● C250: Spartans were like barmaids: “the allowed the Greeks a sip of sweetest freedom and then poured in the vinegar” ● Based on Persian wealth

Spartan Relations With Persia ● Based in personal friendships: ● Most important was that between Lysandros and Cyrus, the second son of the King Darius ● Darius dies in 405 BC ● Cyrus decides to rebel against his big brother, and now king, Artaxerexes II ● Believes he can do so by exploiting the friendships he has made with Greeks, esp. Spartans

The Battle of Cunaxa, 401 BC

Xenophon the Historian ● Picks up his narrative where Thucydides left off ● Writes “After this...” at the beginning of his text ● Like Thucydides: ● He is a contemporary of the times he relates ● He has a personal stake in these matters ● Unlike Thucydides: ● Not as analytical, though he has a supporter in Leo Strauss.

Xenophon's Coy Self-Reference? ● “The story of that campaign – of how Kyros collected together an army and led it up-country against his brother, of how the battle took place in which he was killed, and of how afterwards the Greeks made their way safely back to the sea – has been recorded by Themistogenes the Syracusan.” Xenophon C252.

Sparta on the Defence ● Sparta squanders its advantage: ● Loses credit with Greek cities ● Loses support of Persia ● However, Greek cities of Asia, having also helped the Persian pretender, want Spartans to rule them ● New Spartan, Agesilaos, general pursues war in Asia well in 397 ● However he shows the same worrying tendency to self-aggrandizement

Persian Response ● Persia's military might extends as far as it can ship its gold ● C254: Two sources dispute an important fact, what is it? ● If Athens accepted the gold ● Hellenica Oxyrhyncia says yes ● In any case, they did later on C256 to rebuild walls and fortifications: ● “You will undo for them the achievement for which they laboured most” ● Not only Athens, former enemies, Corinth and Thebes, join against Sparta in 'Corinthian War'

Athens Resurgent ● Major naval victory of Athenians and Persians over Spartans at Cnidos (395 BC) ensures supply of grain, etc., to the city ● Uses this to usurp role of protector-city for Asian Greeks ● E.g. C262B: The Erythraeans thank the Athenians for saving them from the barbaroi, and will not act with respect to 'those in the acropolis' without the say-so of Athens ● Whom will this annoy?

The 'Common' or 'King's' Peace 386 BC ● Athens needles Persia too much: ● Supports rebels in Egypt (as in 450's) and in Cyprus ● Terms: ● Poleis of Asia are the Kings', along with Cyprus ● Other Greek cities are to be autonomous ● King will make war on anyone who does not agree ● Effectively makes Sparta Persia's enforcer of 'Greek freedom'

The Last Chance for Sparta ● Can Sparta fulfill this role? ● Militarily: ● Spartan hoplites vulnerable to new tactics and equipment: C257 ● Fewness of men C267 – Due to unequal wealth C265? ● Morally: ● What lessons does it have to teach about Greek autonomy?

The Boiotian War ● Sparta argues that confederation(!) of states around Thebes is in contravention of the terms of the King's Peace ● Thebes under Epameinondas begins new battle formations for hoplites, combining with light troops ● Agesilaos asked him whether he thought i 'just and equal' for Boiotia to be independent; Epameinondas' reply, immediate and bold, was to ask whether Agesilaos for his part considered it 'just' for Lakonia to be indepentent of Sparta C272

The End of Sparta, and the Hoplite ● Defeat at Tegyra is preface to resounding victory over Sparta at Leuctra in 371 BC (C273) ● Leads to invasion and liberation of Lakonia and Messenia (C274) ● Nevertheless, Thebes' role as leader of Greeks is brief, even a second Athenian Naval Empire will not last 10 years

Thoughts and Comparisons ● How does the extension of might alter the effective idea of a political unit? ● Is democracy promulgated through Empire and effective and stable system? ● What motivates states, then and now, to adopt democracy?