Abstract: The naval politics of Sparta in the period between the Corinthian and Boeotian Wars is a problem that barely features in modern studies on classical Greek history. The article tries to partially fill this gap, through analysis of the scant sources. The author argues that Sparta did not withdraw completely from maintaining its own presence in the Aegean Sea after conclusion of the King's Peace. From the few testimonies, especially of Xenophon and Polyaenus, we can conclude that Sparta even kept a fleet (albeit small) in this period. This means that some kind of influence on insular poleis could have been exerted. Possible examples of Spartan actions, like on Thasos, are also disputed. However, all bridgeheads in the Aegean that Sparta probably had were lost in the first phase of the Boeotian War. This puts into question the quality of Lacedaemonian leadership, in terms of both political and military command. The article was prepared as a part of grant: The Aegean Islands 8th-4th c. BC – 4th c. AD. Centre or Periphery of the Greek World. Project ID: 2012/07/B/HS3/03455.
Key words: Athens, Sparta, Aegean Sea, islands, fl eet, Second Athenian League, King's Peace, Corinthian War, Boeotian War.
The years between the Corinthian War and the Boeotian War (387–378) were a time of relative quiet in Greece, so rare in the 4th century. After the Peace of Antalcidas (387/6), Sparta managed to maintain the status of the most powerful polis. It had the land forces of the Peloponnesian League at its disposal, which gave it an unquestionable advantage over potential opponents. The campaigns of the 380s against Mantinea, Phlius, and Olynthus, as well as the occupation of Thebes, meant that the Spartan arche seemed to be very well established in the Greek world.2 All of this went to waste as a result of the next conflict, during which the famous Battle of Leuctra was fought, usually regarded as the symbolic end of the Spartan hegemony. However, a considerable number of earlier battles took place in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, where Sparta's opponent was Athens, which was actively expanding the Second Athenian Confederacy at that time.