Chapter 340
As the Sparta hero who defeated Athens, Lysander had once set up a puppet regime loyal to Sparta in Athens' sea allies. Now that he had come to Asia Minor, the authorities of these city-states fought to visit him, follow him around, and make various requests to him, as if he was the real king and Agesilaus was just a follower.
But soon, Lysander had a taste of Agesilaus's power. Any request he made to Agesilaus, even if it was reasonable, was rejected by the Sparta king. Agesilaus even secretly sent people out to spread the news that Lysander was just an ordinary member of Sparta's "30-man military council" and had no power.
As a result, Lysander's promises to these people were ultimately unable to be fulfilled, causing the authorities of these city-states to realize that the situation had changed, and they turned to please Agesilaus.
Agesilaus' distance from Lysander made Lysander feel uneasy. He finally realized that he had been blind in the beginning. This new king was definitely not a mediocre person who could be manipulated by others.
At that moment, Lysander was no longer the glorious Sparta hero from a few years ago. The failure of his plot to overthrow the Sparta system and the wariness of the other people in the Elder Council had caused him to be stripped of his real power. In the end, he had no choice but to take the initiative to propose to Agesilaus that he was willing to head to the Hellespont Strait and rope in the city-states that had previously been dependent on Persia.
Agesilaus agreed to his request.
After dealing with the ambitious Lysander, Agesilaus began to show his military talent. He was more flexible in using troops than Dekiridas. He moved back and forth between the territories of the two Persia governors, Tisaphnis and Fanabazos, causing the Persia army to be at a loss. In the Battle of Sardis in the spring of 395 BC, Tisaphnis's army suffered heavy losses.
Due to this fiasco, the mother of Artaxerxes of Persia, Palusadis, finally seized the opportunity to have her son remove Tisaphnis from his position and finally execute him, thus avenging the death of her youngest son, Cyrus the Younger.
When the news reached Agesilaus's army, the mercenaries who had experienced the "Great Retreat of 10,000" cheered thunderously. Xenophon even wrote a letter to the Devers in Turií to express his joy and admiration for Agesilaus, the King of Sparta.
Agesilaus's military campaign in Asia Minor put a lot of pressure on Persia. The King of Persia had to mobilize troops from other regions to deal with Sparta's attack. As a result, other regions were left defenseless. In the farthest province of Egypt from Persia, the Egyptians who had been resisting Persia's rule finally seized this opportunity. Under the leadership of Acoris, they successfully drove out the Persia, achieved independence, and rebuilt the Kingdom of Egypt. Acoris also became the new pharaoh (this was the 29th dynasty in ancient Egyptian history).
In order to recapture Egypt, Persia sent messengers to Agesilaus many times in 395 BC to propose peace talks, but Agesilaus rejected Persia's proposal. Artaxerxes, the King of Persia, could see that Sparta had no intention of withdrawing from Asia Minor. On the contrary, Agesilaus's ultimate target was himself. So, the angry Artaxerxes, under the suggestion of his ministers, sent messengers to Greece and began to bribe the generals and councilors of the city-states who had a bad relationship with Sparta, such as Thebes, Corinth, and Agos. The only condition was that they must go to war with Sparta.
The answers of these city-states were very similar. Even without the money, they were eager to go to war because Sparta was too overbearing. Not only did they not respect them, but they also repeatedly harmed the interests of their city-states!
Under the urging of Persia's messengers, these city-states began to quietly discuss forming an alliance. Among them, the Thebes were the most enthusiastic about declaring war on Sparta. They began to provoke their own ally, Rocles, into a conflict with Phocis, the ally of Sparta. When Phocis finally invaded Rocles, the Thebes declared that Phocis had invaded their ally, and in order to protect their ally, they declared war on Phocis.
Thus, the Thebes gathered an army to invade Phocis' territory. The weak Phocis had no choice but to ask for help from Sparta. Although Phocis was small, it was an important city-state in the region of Delphi, which was conducive to Sparta's involvement in the religious affairs of Delphi. Moreover, the Sparta still remembered the Thebes' contempt and destruction of their temple sacrifices before the expedition to Persia. Thus, they were very happy to find a reason to attack the Thebes, and immediately decided to punish the Thebes for their disrespect towards Sparta.
Thus, the Sparta army divided into two groups to invade the Thebes. One group was led by another Sparta king, Pausanias, to the north, while the other group was led by Lysander, who had already returned to Sparta, to Phocis to organize a local coalition army to attack the Thebes from the south. Lysander completed his task quickly and excellently, and even instigated the Okomenus in the region of Pioscia to rebel.
Faced with the powerful threat of Sparta, the Thebes turned to the nearest powerful state, Athens, for help.
After a series of hardships such as their defeat in the War of Peloponnesus, the dark rule of the "Thirty Tyrants", and the restoration of the democrats, the people of Athens shed their former arrogance. At home, they used a moderate system to reconcile the differences between the democrats and the nobles. Externally, they treated their former allies as equals. Under this steady and pragmatic policy, after nearly a decade, the power of Athens quickly recovered. The powerful Athens wanted to break away from the control of Sparta and gain true freedom in military and commerce.
Thus, after receiving the request for help from the Thebes, Athens held a citizens' assembly. At the assembly, the majority of the citizens voted in favor of an alliance with their former arch-enemy, the Thebes, and a war against Sparta.
In the end, the democratic leader, Thrasybulus, who once led the resistance in a difficult battle and finally overthrew the rule of the "Thirty Tyrants", and brought the rebirth of Athens, reported the decision of the people of Athens to the envoy of the Thebes, and said in a firm tone, "… Although the port of Piraeus has no walls yet, we, the people of Athens, will bravely face the danger and fight side by side with you, the people of Thebes, against the cruel Sparta!"
The people of Thebes were moved. The two city-states, who had been enemies for decades, quickly signed an alliance, declaring that the Thebes and Athens would form an eternal alliance.
At the same time, the troops led by Lysander and Pausanias approached the region of Pioscia from the south and north respectively. They agreed to meet near the city of Halyartus, an ally of the Thebes to the south.
However, when Lysander arrived, Pausanias's army was still nowhere to be seen. Lysander tried to persuade the people of Halyartus to betray the Thebes.
The people of Halyartus pretended to agree and secretly stalled for time. When the reinforcements of the Thebes arrived, they suddenly left the city and attacked Lysander's army from the front and back with the Thebes army.
As the founder of Sparta's hegemony, Lysander died unexpectedly in this sudden battle. However, in the following battle, the people of Thebes failed to completely defeat the remnants of the army that had lost its leader. Instead, they suffered heavy losses.
The next day, Pausanias arrived with his army.
When the people of Thebes saw that the people of Sparta had the advantage in numbers and the orderly formation of the army, their morale immediately dropped.
However, Pausanias did not immediately lead his army to attack. Instead, he set up camp nearby.
On the third day, the reinforcements from Athens also arrived.
The people of Thebes immediately gained confidence. They formed a formation with the people of Athens, ready to fight the people of Sparta.
However, Pausanias did not immediately lead his army to close in on this coalition army, nor did he accept the enemy's challenge. Instead, he summoned his team officers to discuss: Should we start the war immediately or sign a truce? This would make it easier for them to retrieve the bodies of Lysander and the other fallen soldiers.
In the end, the people of Sparta decided to call a truce.
After the two sides negotiated, the army of Sparta withdrew from Pioscia with the bodies of their comrades.
The ordinary people of Sparta were grieved when they saw Lysander's body. They recalled the great contributions that Lysander had made to Sparta and turned their grief into anger. They accused the king of Sparta, Pausanias, of deliberately delaying the meeting time, causing Lysander's death, and his crime of retreating without fighting.
The elders of the Council of Elders did not fully defend the king of Sparta because Lysander's death and Sparta's retreat had a huge impact. It directly led to the conclusion of the Anti- Sparta Alliance by four important Greek city-states: Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and Agos.
Thus, the king of Sparta, Pausanias, was convicted and exiled.
The people of Sparta realized that this Anti- Sparta Alliance was a great threat to Sparta's hegemony. They quickly gathered their troops in an attempt to destroy this alliance.
The Anti- Sparta Alliance also quickly gathered their troops in the Isthmus of Corinth, hoping to resist Sparta's attack, then counterattack into Sparta's territory and completely burn down the "Hornet's Nest".
Thus, the two sides began a long battle in the Isthmus of Corinth …
… …
In the same year, there was also a war in Sicily.
The armies of Syracuse and Carthage had been fighting on the northern coast of Sicily for more than half a year.
When the time came to 494 BC, the important countries and city-states of the Mediterranean were in a quagmire of war, but Greece had already enjoyed more than three years of peace.
Early in the morning, Lycassus came to the clinic and started cleaning and arranging things. As a physician's apprentice, he was responsible for the preparation work every day. He firmly believed that only hard work could win his teacher's trust and learn real medical skills. Today, he was in a particularly good mood because he was going to accompany his teacher on a long journey.
When Nicostratus, the physician, slowly came to the clinic, Lycassus had already packed the package. Nicostratus, who never liked to worry about trivial matters, only asked, "Did you bring everything?"
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