Greek and Persian Wars | Strange Bedfellows (Lecture 18)

Lecture 18: When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand finally reached the Greek mainland, they found that Agesilaus had assumed the Spartan kingship and was pursuing a war against Persian power in Asia Minor. In 394 B.C., Artaxerxes II assigned Pharnabazus and Conon, an Athenian naval commander, to lead an expedition to keep Spartan expansion in check; the combined forces confronted and overwhelmed the Spartans at Cnidus in the same year. Afterward, Conon proceeded to liberate the Asiatic and Aegean Greeks from their Spartan harmosts. One of these Spartans was Dercyllidas, who still controlled the city of Abydos even though, according to the recent Spartan-Persian alliance, the city should have been part of Pharnabazus’s satrapy. Enraged, Pharnabazus took steps to help Conon restore Athens, reverse the outcome of the Peloponnesian War, and resurrect in Athens a Golden Age that the Athenians had believed they would never experience again.

Recommended Reading:
Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire.
Xenophon, A History of My Times.