Koroneia, battles of (battles of Coronea) (447 and 394 bc). Commanding the narrow neck between the foothills of Helicon and Lake Copais, Koroneia was the scene of important battles during the Peloponnesian and Greek city-state wars. In the first an Athenian army on its way back from recovering Chaeronea from Boeotian rebels, was defeated by an army of Boeotians, Locrians, and Euboeans, and in order to recover the prisoners, Athens was forced to withdraw from central Greece.
In the second, King Agesilaos of Sparta, returning from Asia Minor to face a growing crisis in Greece, found his way barred by a combined army of Boeotians and their allies. As so often happened in hoplite battles, both sides won on their right, but when Agesilaos was informed that the Thebans who had formed the enemy right were now in his rear, he countermarched his phalanx, and met them head-on as they tried to rejoin their defeated allies on the slopes of Helicon. Eventually the Thebans broke through, albeit with considerable losses. Strategically the battle represented a victory for Sparta, but the breaking of a Spartan phalanx by Thebans in close order was ominous for the future.
Bibliography
- Lazenby, J. F. The Spartan Army (Warminster, 1985).
- Xenophon, Hellenika, 4. 3. 15-20
— John Lazenby
