The History of Ancient Greece · Ryan Stitt

111 The Spartan Hegemony

February 28, 2024·2 hr 18 min·5 clips

Sparta claims the war brought Greek freedom. Xenophon closes his account with Athens' walls coming down to flute girls, and the scene reads as irony rather than victory, because Spartan power is replacing Athenian power instead of ending domination altogether. That contradiction sits at the center of the story. The gap between freedom in rhetoric and control in practice keeps resurfacing. Lysander stays important. He seems to back Agesilaus over Leotikaitis because Agesilaus would be easier to steer, though the episode says the whole story has the feel of rumor and propaganda. Agesilaus takes the throne. His accession in late 400 BC matters politically and damages Sparta personally, since he later comes across as one of its most pernicious and incompetent kings. His first move is against Leotikaitis. Agesilaus declares him a bastard and confiscates his estates, then uses half of that property to support impoverished relatives on his mother's side and build a loyal following of his own. He also works the institutions. Instead of picking a fight with the ephors and the gerousia, he flatters them, rises to greet them, answers invitations immediately, and sends gifts like cloaks and oxen when honor calls for it. The posture is deliberate. It helps him win cooperation from bodies that had often been at odds with the kings. The story then widens again to the Greek balance of power. By the beginning of 395 BC, a Spartan king is marching into Asia against Persia, an Athenian exile commands a Persian fleet, and the major Greek poleis are no longer standing apart. Athens joins Corinth, Thebes, and Argos in a mainland challenge to Spartan hegemony backed by Persian money, while long walls and a fleet are being rebuilt. The old settlement is over. The stage is set for the Corinthian War, which the next episode takes up.

As heard by us

Sparta's victory hardens into hegemony, and the cracks show early.

It follows Sparta from postwar winner to uneasy hegemon and keeps the irony plain: the force that claimed to free the Greeks is the one tightening its hold on them.

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Why you'd press play

When Sparta wins, you get the politics behind the next Greek war.

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