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While affairs in Asia were handled as we have described, the Phocians went to war with the Boeotians because of certain grievances and persuaded the Lacedaemonians to join them against the Boeotians. At first they sent Lysander to them with a few soldiers, who, on entering Phocis, gathered an army; but later the king, Pausanias, was dispatched there with six thousand soldiers. [2] The Boeotians persuaded the Athenians to take part with them in the war, but at the time they took the field alone and found Haliartus under siege by Lysander and the Phocians. In the battle which followed Lysander fell together with many Lacedaemonians and their allies. The entire body of other Boeotians speedily turned back from the pursuit, but some two hundred Thebans advanced rather rashly into rugged terrain and were slain. [3] This was called the Boeotian War. Pausanias, the king of the Lacedaemonians, on learning of the defeat, concluded a truce1 with the Boeotians and led his army back to the Peloponnesus. [4]

Conon, the admiral of the Persians, put the Athenians Hieronymus and Nicodemus in charge of the fleet and himself set forth with intent to interview the King. He sailed along the coast of Cilicia, and when he had gone on to Thapsacus in Syria, he then took boat by the Euphrates river to Babylon. [5] Here he met the King and promised that he would destroy the Lacedaemonians' naval power if the King would furnish him with such money and other supplies as his plan required. [6] Artaxerxes approved Conon, honoured him with rich gifts, and appointed a paymaster who should supply funds in abundance as Conon might assign them. He also gave him authority to take as his associate leader for the war any Persian he might choose. Conon selected the satrap Pharnabazus and then returned to the sea, having arranged everything to suit his purpose.

1 In order to recover the body of Lysander (Plut. Lys. 29).

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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  • Cross-references to this page (5):
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), HALIARTUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ORCHO´MENUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), THEBAE
    • Smith's Bio, Conon
    • Smith's Bio, Lysander
  • Cross-references in notes from this page (1):
    • Plutarch, Lysander, 29
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (2):
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