Battle of Nemea

Coordinates: 37°48′32″N 22°42′37″E / 37.8089°N 22.7103°E / 37.8089; 22.7103
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Battle of Nemea
Part of the Corinthian War

The Athenian cavalryman Dexileos fighting an hoplite.[1] Dexileos was killed in action near Corinth in the summer of 394 BC during the Corinthian War. Dexileos probably died in the Battle of Nemea itself,[1] or in a proximate engagement.[2] Grave Stele of Dexileos, early 4th century BC.
Date394 BC
Location
Nemea, Peloponnese, present-day Greece
37°48′32″N 22°42′37″E / 37.8089°N 22.7103°E / 37.8089; 22.7103
Result Spartan victory
Belligerents
Sparta
Peloponnesian League
Commanders and leaders
Aristodemus Unknown
Strength
18,000 hoplites 24,000 hoplites
600 cavalrymen[3]
Casualties and losses
1,100 dead or wounded 2,800 dead or wounded
Nemea is located in Greece
Nemea
Nemea
Location of the Battle of Nemea

The Battle of Nemea (394 BC), also known in ancient Athens as the Battle of Corinth,

Thebes. The battle was fought in Corinthian territory, at the dry bed of the Nemea River. The battle was a decisive Spartan victory, which, coupled with the Battle of Coronea
later in the same year, gave Sparta the advantage in the early fighting on the Greek mainland.

Prelude

Hostilities in the Corinthian War began in 395 BC with raiding in northwestern Greece, eventually leading to a clash between Sparta and Thebes at the Battle of Haliartus, a Theban victory. In the wake of this battle, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos joined together to form an anti-Spartan alliance, with its forces commanded by a council at Corinth.[5]

In 394 BC, the council gathered together its forces at Corinth. A Spartan army under Aristodemus, the guardian of the boy king Agesipolis, was sent north from Sparta to challenge the allies. The allied army, meanwhile, waited at Corinth, while the council debated over who should command it. Before a decision was reached, the Spartan army entered Corinthian territory, burning and plundering along the way. The allies marched out to meet the Spartans, and the two armies met each other near the dry bed of the Nemea river.[6]

The battle

The Spartan army was composed of some 18,000–19,000

Cretan archers, and at least 400 Marganian, Letrinian, and Amphidolian
slingers.

Opposing the Spartans, the allied side consisted of about 24,000 hoplites, with associated light troops.

The Spartans and their allies lined up for battle with the Spartans on the right and the allies on the left. The opposing coalition was divided over how to arrange themselves; the Athenians wanted to line up on the right, but ultimately had acceded to the demand of the Boeotians that they take the left, while the Boeotians took the right. This meant that the Athenians were opposite the Spartans, while the Boeotians and other allies faced the Spartans' allies.

As the two

phalanxes
closed for battle, both shifted to the right (this was a common occurrence in hoplite battles—hoplites carried their shield on their left arm, so men would shift to the right to gain the protection of their neighbor's shield as well as their own). This shift meant that, by the time the armies met, both of them extended past their opponents' left flank. Consequently, the right flanks of both armies were victorious, while the left flanks of both were defeated.

The Spartans then turned from their defeat of the Athenians to face the soldiers from the allied right wing who had rashly pursued the Spartans' allies. The Spartan phalanx took first the Argives, then the Corinthians, and then the Boeotians in the side, inflicting heavy losses on all three.[8] According to Diodoros of Sicily, Sparta and its allies had inflicted 2,800 casualties, while suffering only 1,100.[9] Xenophon tells that the Spartans only lost 8 men.[10][11]

The main source of the battle is the pro-Spartan historian Xenophon, who put most of the blame of the allies' defeat on the arrogance and indiscipline of the Thebans.[12]

Aftermath

Although the Spartans held the field at the end of the battle, they were unable to force their way past Corinth and enter central Greece. Accordingly, they returned home. The allied army, after several months of inactivity, saw action in a second major battle at Coronea later in the same year. These two battles marked the only traditional large-scale land fighting that would take place in the war, which lasted until 386 BC.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ "IGII2 6217 Epitaph of Dexileos, cavalryman killed in Corinthian war (394 BC)". www.atticinscriptions.com.
  3. ^ Dyer, Thomas Henry (1873). Ancient Athens: Its History, Topography, and Remains. Bell and Daldy. p. 496.
  4. .
  5. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Library 14.82.1–3
  6. ^ Xenophon, Hellenica 4.2.9–15
  7. ^ Xenophon: A History of My Times (Hellenica) 4.2.17 197–198
  8. ^ Xenophon, Hellenica 4.2.16–23
  9. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Library 14.83.1–2
  10. ^ Xenophon, Hellenica iv.3 § 1
  11. ^ Pritchett, Studies in Ancient Greek Topography: Battlefields, p. 83.
  12. ^ Robin Seager, "The Corinthian War", in D. M. Lewis et al., Cambridge Ancient History, vol. VI, p. 102.
  13. ^ Fine, The Ancient Greeks, 549-50

Bibliography