Chapter 19
Introduction
Few who are not ancient military historians know about the Battle of the Nemea River, even though it was possibly the largest clash of Greek hoplite armies in the Classical period. Fought during the unglamorous Corinthian War (395-387 BCE), the battle saw a coalition of Sparta’s enemies led by Thebes humiliated by the Spartan phalanx on the coastal plain near Corinth. Despite the many novel tactics and unconventional arms, including light troops, that were employed during the Peloponnesian War, which had ended less than a decade earlier, the Battle of the Nemea River was a contest between hoplites. It was, however, far from a straight-ahead shoving match. The Thebans tried – unsuccessfully – to gain an advantage by stacking their phalanx very deep, just as they had at Delium in 424, while the Spartans outflanked their opponents before demonstrating unparalleled skill and discipline as they wheeled around in the midst of battle to roll up the enemy line. This battle demonstrated that the Spartans were still the masters of infantry battle – for now.
Directions to the Site
The battle site is easily reached from Korinthos, or ‘new’ Corinth, by following the old Corinth-Patras road west along the coast for just under 10km to the vicinity of Assos. Corinth itself is just over an hour from Athens, across the Isthmus of Corinth and the stunning Corinth Canal dug in the nineteenth century. We recommend, however, beginning a tour of the battlefield at the site of Ancient Nemea, which is south-west of Corinth, just off the National Highway (E65) heading south towards Kalamata. Follow the brown Ministry of Culture signs for Ancient Nemea. To reach the battlefield along the route taken by the anti-Spartan alliance, drive along the Nemea River valley on the road that runs due north from Ancient Nemea. You will pass through the village of Soulinari before entering the plain. The territory of the Corinthia, in which this battle took place, possesses great beauty and a host of archaeological sites well worth seeing, including Ancient Corinth itself. Also nearby is the Argolid, home of Mycenae and other important sites, as well as the tourist-friendly town of Nafplio, full of hotels, restaurants and shops.
Historical Outline of the Battle
Less than a decade after defeating the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta’s attempt at assuming leadership over all of Greece had failed. In 404 BCE, when Athens surrendered, most of Sparta’s allies, including Corinth and Thebes, advocated that Athens should be destroyed and its population killed or enslaved, to dole out to the Athenians the same treatment they had inflicted on others. The Spartan commander, Lysander, refused to destroy so great a city, one that had heroically stood against the Persians. In a remarkable change of heart – unfortunately all too characteristic of the Greek poleis during the Classical period – these allies of Sparta quickly came to resent Sparta’s ham-fisted efforts at Aegean domination. As a result, they joined together in an anti-Spartan alliance along with several other states, including Argos and, believe it or not, Athens. The Greek world was once again at war with itself, and much of the conflict took place in and around Corinth, prompting scholars to dub this war the Corinthian War.
Ironically, this Greek coalition had formed against Sparta just as the Spartan King Agesilaus was trying to realize his vision of Panhellenic unity. Fighting his way through Asia Minor, he took on the mantle of a new Agamemnon to join the Greeks together against the common Persian foe. But instead of liberating the Greeks of Asia from the Persian Empire and ushering in a new Panhellenic world, Agesilaus was recalled to Greece. Xenophon, who was with Agesilaus in Asia, says that many of the soldiers were in tears when they learned they had to return home. The Persians, not at all pleased with Agesilaus’ campaigns in their territory, had bribed the powerful states of the Greek mainland to make war on Sparta, thus keeping all the Greeks weak and divided, just as the Persians had sought to do by playing both sides in the Peloponnesian War. If Persian soldiers couldn’t defeat the Spartans and halt the ambitions of Agesilaus, Persian money certainly could. Panhellenic unity and the humbling of Persia in Persian territory would have to wait for Alexander the Great.
Agesilaus and his army did not make it back in time for the first major battle of the war, indeed the largest land battle yet fought between Greek poleis. The honours would go to one Aristodemus, the guardian of the other Spartan king, Agesipolis, who had not yet come of age. As the Spartans were preparing to take the field, the anti-Spartan coalition gathered to discuss their options. Timolaus of Corinth, a leading politician in what had once been Sparta’s most important ally, suggested the bold stroke of invading Spartan territory itself, a fertile and mountain-ringed part of Greece that hadn’t seen an enemy army in centuries. Timolaus said that the Spartans, like rivers, were likely to be weakest at their source. Likewise, wasps are most easily killed by setting their nest on fire, rather than waiting for them to swarm out to defend themselves. A full-scale invasion of Spartan territory would be undertaken by Epameinondas and the Thebans twenty-five years later, but many scholars question whether such a daring strategy would really have been proposed in 394. No matter: the Spartans mobilized and entered the territory of Sikyon, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, while the coalition forces were still at Nemea, a few kilometres inland from the coast. The coalition had little choice but to face the Spartans in the field before any invasion of Spartan lands could happen.
The numbers of the respective sides were extraordinary. Xenophon tells us that the Spartan army consisted of 6,000 from Sparta and the surrounding area and 7,500 from assorted Peloponnesian allies, for a total of 13,500 hoplites. There were also 600 horsemen and 700 light troops, including archers and slingers, but these forces are not mentioned during the course of the battle itself. The coalition forces included 6,000 from Athens, 7,000 from Argos, 5,000 Boeotians, 3,000 Corinthians and 3,000 from Euboea, making a total of 24,000 hoplites. Various members of the coalition also furnished some 1,550 horsemen and an undisclosed number of light troops. Many students of the battle have pointed out various problems with these numbers. First of all, though Xenophon says that the Spartans picked up troops from nearby Tegea and Mantinea as they marched north to Sikyon, these two states are not counted among the numbers present at the battle. Also, some have suspected that the 6,000 Spartans Xenophon lists must have included non-Spartan perioikoi and other residents of Laconia, though this is by no means certain. Finally, Diodorus’ numbers are far different, accounting for 15,000 hoplites in the coalition forces and a whopping 23,000 on the Spartan side. Perhaps, as has been suggested, Diodorus accidentally reversed the totals for the respective sides. Lazenby’s suggestion, that the Spartan total was closer to 18,000-19,000 with the forces from Tegea and Mantinea factored in, and that Xenophon’s numbers for the coalition are to be preferred to Diodorus’, is reasonable. At the Nemea River, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40,000 Greek hoplites clashed against one another.
From the vicinity of Sikyon, a polis lying at the western edge of the broad coastal plain stretching along the northern Peloponnese to Corinth, the Spartans marched east to threaten Corinthian territory, divided from Sikyonian lands by the Nemea River. The coalition army marched to meet the Spartan threat by following the valley of the Nemea River from Nemea itself to the plain. As the Spartans were making their way east, their enemies made good use of their light troops by occupying the high ground of the escarpment which skirts the entire southern limit of the plain. The Spartans suffered no small losses from the rain of missiles unleashed by the coalition slingers and archers. Once the Spartans descended to level ground, they began to lay waste to the Corinthians’ crops, encamping on the plain to the east of the Nemea River. The coalition soldiers withdrew to the far bank of the Rachiani River further to the east in the plain, closer to Corinth, and set up their own camp.
Nemea Map 1: Routes to the battle. Satellite image courtesy of the USGS.
The coalition army could not agree on which state should hold the supreme command, so they settled on a rotating command that alternated between various allies on a daily basis. Xenophon says that while the Thebans were stationed on the left wing, opposite the Spartan soldiers, they had no enthusiasm for battle, but when their day of command came and they were placed in the position of honour on the right wing, across from Sparta’s Achaean allies, they eagerly brought on a general engagement. Cawkwell argues that this story reflects no more than Xenophon’s anti-Theban prejudice, but in any case, on the day of the battle, the Thebans were on the coalition right wing. Next to them were the Corinthians, Argives, Euboeans and Athenians on the left wing. On the Spartan side, the Spartans themselves occupied the right wing, opposite the Athenians, and next to them were the Tegeans, Epidaurians and other allies, Mantineans, Eleans and Achaeans on the left. The various contingents in the coalition army had agreed to stack their hoplites no more than sixteen deep in order to avoid having a narrow front and being outflanked by the enemy, though sixteen ranks is still twice the depth of most ‘canonical’ hoplite phalanxes. The Thebans, however, thinking of their success at Delium in 424, arranged their own lines on the right wing to a considerably greater depth, perhaps twenty-five deep as at Delium. We are not told how deep the Spartans stacked their line, but Pritchett estimates that the front of both armies stretched for approximately 1,500 metres.
The battle itself is a showpiece for Spartan discipline and skill, and a lack of coordination and cooperation among their enemies. The Thebans, with their extraordinarily deep phalanx, moved steadily further to the right in an attempt to outflank their opponents. Seeing what was happening, the rest of the line, including the Athenians, had no choice but to move right as well, in order to avoid gaps forming in the line. The ground between the two armies was wooded and covered with various obstacles, so the Spartans at first did not even know that their enemy was bearing down on them. Eventually, the Spartans heard the enemy soldiers singing their paean – the battle song ritually sung by Greek armies marching into battle – and so readied themselves for the clash. The Spartans on the right found themselves extending far beyond the Athenians on the coalition left, a consequence of the Thebans’ own attempt at a flanking manoeuvre. Only six out of ten Athenian tribes found themselves facing Spartan troops, while the other four tribes were now arrayed against the Tegeans, to the Spartans’ left. The Spartans were not fazed by what was transpiring, but instead gave orders to those Spartans that extended beyond the enemy line to wheel about and strike their foe in the rear. Quite simply, the Athenians were doomed, and they probably knew it before the first spear met enemy shield.
Xenophon says laconically that all the Spartans’ allies were bested by their coalition foes, especially the Thebans who had outflanked the Achaeans. Only the soldiers of Spartan-allied Pellene, facing off against the Boeotian Thespians, stood their ground. The soldiers of Pellene and Thespiae died to a man, standing their ground against one another, the ultimate example of hoplite valour. The Spartan troops themselves, though, defeated those Athenians still arranged opposite them, and wheeled the extended part of their line around to the Athenians’ rear, killing great numbers. The Spartans then marched behind the enemy lines, in a direction perpendicular to the battle front, past the four tribes of Athenians who had faced and beaten back the Tegeans. When the victorious contingents of the coalition army began making their way back across the field after driving off the Spartan allies, the Spartans initially let many of them past, and then slammed into the unprotected right side of first the Argives, and then the Corinthians and Thebans, killing a great many. The coalition troops that managed to get past the vicious Spartan flank attack ran to Corinth, where they found the gates shut against them. They had no choice but to retire back in the direction of the battlefield, and hunker down in their original camp on the east bank of the Rachiani River. The Spartans erected a trophy on the spot where they had begun to defeat their enemy and withdrew in satisfaction at having suffered hardly any Spartan casualties.
Nemea Map 2: First phase of the battle. Satellite image courtesy of the USGS.
Diodorus says that 1,100 men died on the Spartan side, mostly from the allies. Xenophon’s report states that only eight actual Spartans fell. The coalition fared much worse, losing 2,800 men. Plutarch says that when Agesilaus heard news of the Spartan victory as he made his way back to Greece from Asia, far from being overjoyed at the victory and the loss of so few Spartan soldiers, he lamented that so many Greeks had died in battle against each other. Together, Agesilaus complained, these Greeks could have taken on the entire Persian Empire. The Persian plan to keep the Greeks at each other’s throats was paying off beautifully. Nemea was only the first of several clashes in the Corinthian War, and was the last unambiguous victory for Sparta in a great battle. It would not be the Spartans who would unite the Greeks and challenge the Persians.
The Battle Site Today
The best way to approach the battle site is to start at Ancient Nemea (N37° 48.449"; E022° 42.666"), from where the anti-Spartan coalition marched to the plain. The road up the Nemea River valley, the marching route of the soldiers in 394, heads north directly beside the ancient site, and in fact skirts the site’s fence. Follow this road all the way to the plain, through some of the most scenic and pleasant wine country in Greece. After 10km, you will pass through the small village of Soulinari, and 5km further you will reach the modern National Highway running between Corinth and Patras. Once passing under the National Highway, the Nemea River enters the plain (N37° 56.095"; E022° 46.909").
Nemea Map 3: Second phase of the battle. Satellite image courtesy of the USGS.
Fig. 19.1: The Nemea River valley. Authors’ photo.
The battle was fought in the plain to the east, between the Nemea River and another river, now called the Rachiani (N37° 55.701"; E022° 49.835"), 4-5km towards Corinth. The main action likely took place closer to the Rachiani than to the Nemea. The village of Assos provides a good approximation for where the centre of the battle lines was. The Spartans camped just to the east of the Nemea, while their enemies were probably situated just to the east of the Rachiani, and thus had to cross the river before bringing on the battle.
The best view of the entire plain can be found on the escarpment to the north of the highway, which borders the coastal plain for the entire distance between Corinth and Sikyon. The Spartans entered the plain at Sikyon, some 15km from Corinth and 10km from the battle site, but as they marched eastward, they were harassed by the light-armed troops of the enemy, themselves positioned along the escarpment and taking advantage of the high ground. A position near the outlet of the Rachiani into the plain (N37° 54.563"; E022° 49.496") affords splendid views of the battle area and the imposing mountain of the Acrocorinth to the east. Rising some 5km away, the Acrocorinth reveals the distance that the defeated coalition soldiers had to retreat after the battle, only to find the gates of Corinth initially shut against them.
Fig. 19.2: The battlefield, looking east towards ancient Corinth. Authors’ photo.
Further Reading
Ancient Sources
–Xenophon Hellenica 4.2-3
Xenophon, an experienced military commander, heard of the battle secondhand from the Spartans announcing the victory to the Spartan King Agesilaus in central Greece, with whom Xenophon was campaigning. Xenophon gives a detailed description of the dispositions before the battle, and the course of the battle itself, but his account suffers from a few problems, including questions about the numbers he gives to the respective sides.
–Diodorus 14.83
This first-century BC universal historian offers a brief account of the battle that puts the Spartan numbers at several thousand more than Xenophon’s figures. In general, Xenophon, a contemporary of the battle, is to be preferred to Diodorus.
–Plutarch Agesilaus 16.
The brief mention of the battle given by this first- and second-century CE biographer is valuable primarily in the Panhellenic sentiments put in the mouth of Agesilaus, who laments that so many Greeks died fighting each other instead of a common enemy, like the Persians.
Modern Sources
Books
–Anderson, J.K., Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon (Berkeley, 1970).
This landmark book offers a full description of the battle, though Anderson places the battle on the banks of the Nemea River itself, which is probably the wrong location.
–Lazenby, J.F., The Spartan Army (Warminster, 1985).
A good discussion of the battle from a leading military historian, following the topographical conclusions of Pritchett.
–Pritchett, W.K., Studies in Ancient Greek Topography Part II (Berkeley, 1969).
Based on an in-person investigation of the topography, Pritchett places the battle between the Nemea and Rachiani rivers, with the coalition camp being on the east bank of the Rachiani, closer to Corinth.
–Xenophon, A History of My Times, translated by R. Warner with an introduction by G. Cawkwell (London, 1979).
The Penguin edition of Xenophon’s Hellenica includes a lengthy introduction and several in-text notes by leading fourth-century historian George Cawkwell. Sharply critical of Xenophon’s historiographical method, Cawkwell points out several of the major challenges facing modern students of the battle.