SOURCE: Hamilton, Charles D. “The Final Years.” In Agesilaus and the Failure of Spartan Hegemony, pp. 252-57. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Hamilton comments on the last portion of Agesilaos's reign in the 360s and the final collapse of the Spartan empire.

Sparta's position after the Battle of Mantineia [362] was even worse than it had been before. Exhausted by some fifteen years of war, the various Greek states decided once again to make peace. As the sources show, this was to be a Common Peace, and there is some evidence that the Great King of Persia had a hand in it.¹ There was to be an end to hostilities, with each state keeping the territories it then possessed, disbandment of armed forces, and the recognition of the principle of autonomy for all poleis. Sparta refused to recognize the existence of Messene, and as...