Quick questions on Spartan hegemony and the King's Peace, 404-382 BC: HSC Ancient History

The dominant figure of Spartan policy for the next forty years was Agesilaus II (king c. 400-360 BC). His accession was itself contested: on the death of Agis II the throne was disputed with Leotychidas, rumoured to be the son not of Agis but of the Athenian Alcibiades, and there was an oracle warning against a "lame kingship" - Agesilaus was lame. Lysander threw his weight behind Agesilaus, who duly became king.

Sparta had inherited from the Peloponnesian War a claim to protect the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and after 404 BC it sent commanders - Thibron, then Dercylidas (399-397 BC) - to campaign against the Persian satraps. In 396 BC Agesilaus himself crossed to Asia with grander ambitions: a panhellenic war on Persia. He campaigned against the satraps Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus, ravaged Phrygia and Lydia, and in 395 BC won a notable victory near Sardis. He spoke of striking into the heart of the King's empire.

By the mid-380s Sparta was alarmed less by its Greek enemies than by the revival of Athens, whose fleet, rebuilt with Persian help, was again active in the Aegean. Sparta therefore turned to the King. The Spartan Antalcidas negotiated with Artaxerxes II, and Persia switched its patronage back to Sparta. The result was the King's Peace, also called the Peace of Antalcidas (387/386 BC) - the first "Common Peace" of Greek history, and the most humiliating.