Battle of Haliartus The Battle of Haliartus was fought in 395 BC between Sparta and Thebes . The Thebans defeated a Spartan force attempting to seize the town of Haliartus , killing the Spartan leader Lysander . The battle marked the start of the Corinthian War , which continued until 387 BC . Prelude . In 396 or 395 BC , an ambassador from the Persian satrap Pharnabazus , Timocrates of Rhodes , arrived in Greece . There , he promised Persian funding and support to leading states of Greece if they would declare war on Sparta . Since Sparta ' s aggressive and unilateral actions had angered many of its allies , the prospect of Persian support was enough to induce a number of states , and in particular Thebes , to make war on Sparta . Rather than undertake offensive operations immediately , the Thebans chose to precipitate a war indirectly . Accordingly , they persuaded the Locrians to raid Phocis , a Spartan ally . Thebes , as an ally of Locris , was obligated to assist in the conflict thus begun ; Phocis , meanwhile , appealed to its ally , Sparta . The Spartans , seeing a chance to chasten the increasingly restive Thebans , chose to launch a major campaign against Thebes . Meanwhile , the Thebans sent emissaries to Athens requesting aid ; a perpetual alliance was concluded between the Athenians and the Boeotians . The battle . The Spartan strategy for the campaign called for two armies , one under Pausanias composed of Spartan troops and Peloponnesian allies , and one under Lysander composed of Phocians and other allies from northwest Greece , to meet at the town of Haliartus for a coordinated attack . Pausanias , however , delayed for several days in the Peloponnese , and Lysander arrived at Haliartus with his force while Pausanias was still several days away . Unwilling to wait for Pausanias to arrive , Lysander marched his army up to the walls of Haliartus . When an attempt to take the city by subversion failed , he launched an assault on the walls . A sizable Theban force , however , was located nearby , perhaps unbeknownst to Lysander . This force hurried to the assistance of the city ' s defenders . In heated fighting under the walls of Haliartus , Lysander ' s force was routed and he himself was killed . The Thebans , however , pursued the defeated troops too far , and as they entered rough and steep terrain , the fleeing soldiers turned and drove the Thebans back with heavy losses . This reversal briefly disheartened the Thebans , but the following day Lysander ' s army disbanded , with each contingent returning to its home country . Aftermath . Several days after the battle , Pausanias reached Haliartus with his army . Wishing to recover the bodies of Lysander and the others killed in the battle , he asked for a truce , which the Thebans agreed to grant only on the condition that he depart from Boeotia . Pausanias agreed to this condition , collected the bodies of the dead , and returned to Sparta . Upon his return , Lysander ' s faction brought him to trial for arriving late and failing to attack when he did arrive , and Pausanias , recognizing that he would be convicted and executed , went into exile . Pausanias ' s exile , along with the death of Lysander , removed from the scene two of the three major actors on the Spartan political scene , leaving only Agesilaus , who would dictate Spartan policy for years to come . The battle of Haliartus launched the Corinthian War , which stretched from 395 to 387 . Fighting resumed in the next year when Thebes and Athens , now supported by Corinth and Argos , fought against Spartan armies at Nemea and Coronea , and continued in the Aegean Sea and around the Isthmus of Corinth until the end of the war . This war produced little of lasting value for any state except Persia , which had instigated it ; by raising trouble in Greece , the Persians were able to force Agesilaus to withdraw with his army from Ionia , and by the end of the war were in a position to dictate the terms of the peace .