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| Ancient Thessaly |
Thessaly During the Hegemony of Lakedaimon [Sparta] to the End of the Korinthian War
In 404 BCE at about the time of a solar eclipse on September 3rd [1], the Pheraian tyrant Lykophron—who wished to rule all of Thessaly—defeated the Larisaians and others in battle and slew many of them. (Xenophon Hellēnika 2.3.4)
Roughly ten years later in 395 BCE, war broke out between the Lakedaimonians [Spartans] and the Thebans. The Thebans formed an alliance with the major states of Athens, Korinth, and Argos. Significantly, these Greek allies received Persian financial backing. The Persians aided the Greek allies in hopes of forcing the withdrawal of the Lakedaimonian king Agesilaos from Asia. A synedrion (council) of the allies met in Korinth after which the war was called the Korinthian War (395–387 BCE). This war did not often involve Thessaly or at least not of which we know. Nonetheless, the following includes mention of the major battles and events that took place in order to better explain the events that did involve Thessaly and also to explain the rise of Thebes.
In the first conflict of the Korinthian War, the celebrated Lakedaimonian commander Lysander was slain in the Theban victory at Haliartos in Boiotia in 395 BCE. (Xenophon Hellēnika 3.5.17–25; Diodoros 14.81.1–3)
In the same year (395 BCE), Medeios of Larisa was at war with Lykophron, the tyrant of Pherai. In late 395 BCE or early 394 BCE, Medeios requested aid from the synedrion (council) of Thebes, Athens, Korinth, and Argos. The synedrion of these allies dispatched 2,000 soldiers to aid Medeios against Lykophron as well as against the Lakedaimonians, who were apparently his allies. With their assistance, Medeios captured Pharsalos in which there was a Lakedaimonian garrison. Medeios sold his captives as booty. A few weeks or months later, Polykharmos—a hipparch from liberated Pharsalos—figured prominently amongst the Thessalian forces opposing the invasion of the Lakedaimonian king Agesilaos (see below). After the capture of Pharsalos, a group of Boiotians and Argives parted from Medeios and seized Herakleia in Trakhinia at night. They cut the throats of the captured Lakedaimonians, but allowed the other Peloponnesians to depart. These Boiotians and Argives were evidently the 2,000 soldiers who had been sent to aid Medeios. (Diodoros 14.82.5–7)
In the spring of 394 BCE, the Lakedaimonians [Spartans] recalled their king Agesilaos, who was campaigning in Asia against the Persians. Agesilaos crossed the Hellespont from Asia into Europe and more or less followed the route that had been taken nearly a century earlier by the Persian king Xerxes. Agesilaos is supposed to have commented that myrios (ten thousand, but also countless) Persian archers had driven him from Asia. The Persian coin called a daric was stamped with the image of an archer. The Persian financial backing of the Greek allies had obviously had the desired effect. (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.2.1–8; Plutarch Agesilaos 15 wrote 10,000 archers; Plutarch. Artaxerxes 20.4 wrote 30,000 archers!)
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| A Gold Daric. An example of one of the ten thousand Persian archers that drove the Lakedaimonian [Spartan] king Agesilaos from Asia. |
The year 394 BCE involved several, important battles in the Korinthian War. First of all, the Lakedaimonians [Spartans] under Aristodemos defeated an allied army in the district of Nemea near Korinth. Aristodemos was the prodikos (guardian) of the boy king Agesipolis I (reigned ca. 395/394–380 BCE), the son of king Pausanias. For failing to prevent the defeat and death of Lysander at Haliartos, Pausanias had recently been exiled. The allies included the Thebans and other Boiotians (except for the Orkhomenians), Athenians, Argives, Korinthians, Euboians, eastern and western Lokrians, Akarnanians, and Malians. Apparently, Malis was independent of the Thessalians at this time and was free to make its own foreign policy undoubtedly due to the internal warfare in Thessaly. (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.2.9–23; Pausanias 3.5.7; Diodoros 14.83.2)
On his overland, homebound journey from Asia, the Lakedaimonian [Spartan] king Agesilaos learned of the Lakedaimonian victory at Nemea when he reached Amphipolis in Thrace. He continued his march through Macedonia and then into Thessaly. Agesilaos was harassed on his march through Thessaly by the Larisaians, Krannonians, Skotoussaians, and Pharsalians—who were allies of the Boiotians—as well as “by all of the Thessalians except for those who happened to be exiles”. Taken at face value, Xenophon’s statement indicates that the Pheraians had joined the other Thessalians in attacking Agesilaos. However, this inference is far from certain. Lykophron may well have still been tyrant of Pherai, but in too weak a position to intervene in any appreciable manner and/or too insignificant in Xenophon’s opinion to be mentioned. It would not be surprising if Lykophron was pro-Lakedaimonian at this time as years later Jason of Pherai claimed that his father—apparently Lykophron—had been a friend of Lakedaimon. Additionally, the old maxim “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” would have applied to the Lakedaimonians and Lykophron as both were enemies of the Larisaians and the other Thessalians. (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.3.1–3, 6.4.24)
Be those matters as they may, as Agesilaos marched through Thessaly, he led his army in a hollow rectangle with half of his cavalry at the front and half at the rear. As the Thessalians impeded his advance by charging his rearguard, Agesilaos sent the cavalry from the front of his line to join his rearguard. When they were drawn up for battle along with the rearguard hoplites of Agesilaos, the Thessalians realized that it was not wise to fight from horseback against this mixed force and turned about to fall back. The Lakedaimonian forces cautiously followed. Thereupon, Agesilaos sent his personal elite cavalry troop to order a swift pursuit. Caught by surprise, some of the Thessalians fled and some turned about to fight. Of the Thessalian hipparchs, Polykharmos of Pharsalos faced about and died fighting. There followed a headlong flight by the Thessalians in which some were killed and some were captured. The rest did not stop their flight until they arrived at Mount Narthakion. On that day, Agesilaos raised a battle trophy between Pras and Narthakion (sites unknown). Xenophon remarked that Agesilaos was exceedingly proud that he had defeated the famous Thessalian cavalry with a cavalry force that he had personally recruited and trained. (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.3.4–9; Plutarch Agesilaos 16.5)
Xenophon wrote that the next day, Agesilaos crossed the Akhaian mountain of Phthia (the Othrys massif) into friendly territory. This indicates that both Pras and Narthakion were located on the north side of Mount Othrys probably somewhere near Melitaia in western Akhaia Phthiotis. Secondly, Xenophon implied that Malis was on friendly terms with the Lakedaimonians at this time. Either Xenophon is wrong about Agesilaos marching into friendly territory once south of the Othrys massif or Malis had switched sides and had joined the Lakedaimonians after the battle of Nemea. In any event, not long afterwards the Malians were not present in the army of either side at the battle of Koroneia. (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.3.9)
Sad to say, Xenophon failed to describe the political situation in Thessaly at the time of Agesilaos’ invasion in 394 BCE. Xenophon did not even mention either Lykophron of Pherai nor Medeios of Larisa, who had successfully ousted the Lakedaimonians from Pharsalos apparently just prior to the arrival of Agesilaos. Even more regrettably, Xenophon did not recount the rise of Jason of Pherai in the following decades. Xenophon chose instead to describe in detail the minor encounter near Pras and Narthakion that glorified his hero and mentor Agesilaos!
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| Dichalkon (small bronze coin) of Pelinna, Thessaly. Late 4th to early 3rd Century BCE. Thessalian cavalryman wearing a Boiotian helmet or a variation with a longer front visor and a cloak. He wields a long lance. |
Shortly afterwards, the Lakedaimonian [Spartan] fleet was defeated at Knidos off the coast of southern Karia in Asia by the Persian satrap Pharnabazos and the Athenian admiral Konon—who had managed to escape the disaster at Aigospotamoi ten years earlier. The Lakedaimonian admiral Peisandros—the brother of Agesilaos’ wife—was slain in the battle. (Xenophon Hellēnika 3.4.29, 4.3.10–12)
Agesilaos learned of the naval disaster at Knidos just as he arrived in Boiotia, but told his troops that the battle had been a Lakedaimonian victory. Despite their defeat weeks earlier at Nemea, the Greek allies massed a large army at Koroneia in Boiotia to oppose Agesilaos. The allies included the Thebans and the other Boiotians (except for the Orkhomenians), Athenians, Argives, Korinthians, Euboians, eastern and western Lokrians, and Ainianes. Like the Malians earlier at the battle of Nemea, the Ainianes were apparently independent of the Thessalians and were pursuing their own foreign policy. The Lakedaimonian forces put to flight all of their opponents with the noteworthy exception of the Thebans. For their part, the Thebans defeated the Orkhomenians, who were posted directly opposite themselves, and then turned about and fought their way back through the heart of the Lakedaimonian army to safety. In this later phase of the battle, Agesilaos was seriously wounded, but survived. Despite their two land victories, the Lakedaimonians were unable to break up the alliance of Greek states. Thereafter, the war on land centred around Korinth and Sikyon with skirmishes, raids, factional strife, blockades, and sieges. (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.3.13–21, 4.4.1)
Amyntas III, the king of Makedonia, was expelled from his kingdom at the beginning of his reign in ca. 393 BCE by the Illyrians. He was later restored by Thessalians and ruled Makedonia for the next 24 years. (Diodoros 14.92.3)
In 391 BCE, the Athenian general Iphikrates—imploying javelin armed peltasts—slaughtered half of a Lakedaimonian [Spartan] mora (battalion) near the Korinthian port of Lekhaion. The survivors of the mora scrambled ignominiously to rescue themselves as best they could. Some even jumped into the sea to escape. In order to swim, they must have discarded their shields, which was considered a most shameful act for a Lakedaimonian! (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.5.11–18)
The Korinthian War finally came to an end in 387 BCE in a manner that forever has been to the shame of the Lakedaimonians [Spartans]. The Lakedaimonian admiral and diplomat Antalkidas negotiated a peace treaty with the Persian king Artaxerxes II. This peace treaty was known as the King’s Peace as well as the Peace of Antalkidas. The Persian satrap Tiribazos presented the treaty to the Greeks, who accepted the terms. The treaty read as follows:
King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities of Asia should belong to him, as well as Klazomenai and Cyprus among the islands, and that the other Greek cities, both small and great, should be left independent, except Lemnos, Imbros, and Skyros; and these should belong, as of old, to the Athenians. But whichever of the two parties does not accept this peace, upon them I will make war in company with those who desire this arrangement, both by land and by sea, with ships and money.In other words, the Lakedaimonians [Spartans] shamefully abandoned the Greeks of Asia to the Persians! In mainland Greece, the Boiotian League was effectively dissolved as each of its cities were to be independent. This provision of the treaty was clearly designed to break the power of Thebes. As for the Lakedaimonians, they still maintained their dominion over all of their territories. None of their dependencies were to be independent! With the treaty so much in their favour, it is not at all surprising that the Lakedaimonians chose to act as the enforcers of the peace imposed upon the Greeks by the king of Persia! So much for the promise of the Lakedaimonian king Agesilaos to return to Asia following the conclusion of the Korinthian War to free the Greeks from Persian rule! What effect the King’s Peace had in Thessaly is unknown. (Xenophon Hellēnika 4.2.3, 5.1.25, 5.1.30–36)
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