Battle of Coronea (394 BC)

- At the Battle of Coronea (394 BC), Spartan forces under Agesilaus II defeated the Thebans during the Corinthian War, avenging the Spartan defeat at Haliartus, where Lysander had been killed.

Prelude

Agesilaus had with him one and a half mora of Spartans, about 900 men, the Neodamodeis 2000 strong, the remainder of the 'Ten Thousand' ,lets say 6,000 strong plus the Aeolians, Ionians and Hellespontines from Asia Minor all told about 3,000 hoplites and 2,000? from Phocis and 1,000? Orchemenian hoplites. acing him on the plain, near the foot of mount Helicon, was an army made up of Boeotians, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, Euboeans, Aenianones, and Locrians. Xenophon, our main source for this battle, offers no estimates of any of these forces. He does, however, mention that, although the forces were roughly equal in cavalry, Agesilaus had a clear and "very great superiority in peltasts". We can assume, because they were on their own territory, that the Boeotians were in greater strength than at the Nemea, probably 6,000 hoplites, of Athenians there would have been 6,000 with 3,000 Euboeans, the Argives and Corinthians would have been in less numbers that at the Nemea considering their losses there, in all the allies probably had 20,000 hoplites. To oppose these Agesilaus had 15,000 hoplites, many more peltasts but the same number of cavalry.

Many of Agesilaus troops were Asian in outlook and were deeply disturbed when they were at Amphipolis the sun appeared in the shape of a crescent. To overcome their misgivings Agesilaus announced two pieces of news. The first was the victory at Nemea. The second was the news that the Spartan admiral Peisander had died in battle. While the troops had learned of Peisander's death, they did not know its circumstances. Agesilaus concealed the news of the defeat of the Spartan fleet and deceived them into believing that Peisander had died victorious over the Persian/Greek fleet under Pharnabazus and Conon, near Cnidus. The morale of his men, now certain of the gods' favour, was at its highest.

The defeat at Nemea weighed heavily on the Argives and Corinthians. The Athenians were too familiar with the ups and downs of their previous long and disastrous war against Sparta, and the willingness of the Persians to switch support from one side to the other, to be overly encouraged. Only the Boeotians seemed confident, they seemed to view it as a sure sign that the gods would give them the ultimate victory.

The Battle

As the two armies approached each other, Agesilaus himself commanded the Spartans on the extreme right flank of his army, the veterans of the ‘Ten Thousand’ were next to the Spartans, the Asian Greeks were next to them, then came the Phocians, with the Orchomenians on the extreme left flank. The Thebans faced the Orchomenians and the Argives faced the Spartans. Both armies advanced in total silence. At about 200 yards, the Thebans shouted their war cry and charged at the run. At about 100 yards, the veterans of the ‘Ten Thousand’ (under the Spartiate Herippidas) and the Asian Greeks charged the troops opposite them at the run. The veterans and the Asians quickly routed the troops opposite them. The Argives routed, before the Spartans under Agesilaus could even make contact, and fled to Mount Helicon.

The mercenaries near Agesilaus assumed the battle was over and offered him a garland to commemorate his victory. Just then news came that on the other flank, the Thebans had broken through the Orchomenians and were now trying to raid the baggage where the loot of Asia was. Agesilaus immediately wheeled his phalanx around and headed for the Thebans. At that moment, the Thebans noticed that their allies had fled to Mount Helicon. They formed up with the desperate design of breaking through Agesilaus lines to rejoin the rest of their army.

He decided to oppose their desperate attempt to break through by putting his phalanx directly in their path instead of taking them in the rear of flank. The probable reason probably can be put down to his hatred of the Thebans and he saw a chance of an annihilating victory. What followed was evidently one of the worst blood baths in the history of Hoplite battles. As Xenophon described it, "So shield pressed upon shield they struggled, killed and were killed in turn". In the end a few Thebans broke through to Mount Helicon but, in the words of Xenophon, "many others were killed on their way there.".

Aftermath

Agesilaus had himself been wounded in the battle and had to be carried back to the phalanx. There some cavalry rode up, informing him that about 80 of the enemy had taken refuge in a nearby temple. Agesilaus ordered that they be spared and allowed to go wherever they wished. The long day finally and mercifully drew to a close. The next morning, Agesilaus ordered the polemarch Gylis to put the army in battle formation and gave out awards for valour, received a delegation from the Thebans and allowed them to collect their dead. The army then retired to Phocis and to invaded Locris where the polemarch Gylis was killed.

According to Diodorus more than 600 of the Boeotians and their allies fell with 350 on the Spartan side.