Description of Greece

​And some god envied him, so that he did not bring his plans to completion. For when Artaxerxes learned of the battles which Agesilaus had won, and how he was always advancing with his army, subduing everything in his path, he punished Tissaphernes with death, although he had formerly been a benefactor, and sent down to the coast Tithraustes, a man of shrewd intellect and also possessing some ill-will toward the Lacedaemonians.

​When this man arrived at Sardis, he at once began to devise a means by which he might compel the Lacedaemonians to recall their army from Asia. He therefore sent Timocrates, a man of Rhodes, to Greece with money, instructing him to stir up war in Greece against the Lacedaemonians. Those who shared in the money are said to have been, among the Argives, Cylon and Sodamas; in Thebes, Androclides, Ismenias, and Amphithemis; while the Athenian Cephalus and Epicrates also took part, as well as those of the Corinthians who favored the cause of the Argives, namely Polyanthes and Timolaus.

​Those who gave the open pretext for the war were the Locrians of Amphissa. For there happened to be a disputed piece of land between the Locrians and the Phocians; incited by the Thebans of Ismenias’ party, the Locrians cut the ripening corn from this land and drove off cattle as plunder. Consequently, the Phocians also invaded Locris with their whole force and ravaged the country.

​The Locrians therefore brought in the Thebans as allies and plundered Phocis; and the Phocians, going to Lacedaemon, attacked the Thebans and explained what they had suffered at their hands. The Lacedaemonians decided to undertake war against the Thebans; and they brought other charges against them, including their insolent conduct at Aulis regarding the sacrifice of Agesilaus.

​The Athenians, having previously learned the intention of the Lacedaemonians, sent envoys to Sparta, begging them not to move arms against Thebes, but to settle their grievances by a judicial decision; but the Lacedaemonians dismissed the embassy in anger. The events following this, regarding the expedition of the Lacedaemonians and the death of Lysander, have been made clear by me in that part of my narrative which relates to Pausanias.

​And the war called the Corinthian War advanced further and further, having begun with the expedition of the Lacedaemonians into Boeotia. Under this necessity, indeed, Agesilaus led his army back from Asia. When he had crossed over by ship from Abydos to Sestos and, after passing through Thrace, arrived in Thessaly, the Thessalians there, out of favor toward the Thebans, tried to prevent Agesilaus from advancing further; for they also felt some ancient goodwill toward the city of the Athenians.

​But Agesilaus passed through Thessaly after putting their cavalry to flight, and once more marched through the Boeotians, defeating the Thebans and the rest of their allies at Coroneia. When the Boeotians fled, some of them took refuge in the temple of Athena surnamed Itonia. Agesilaus, though he had a wound from the battle, did not even so act unlawfully toward the suppliants.