The Battle of Coronea in 394 BC, also Battle of Coroneia, was a battle in the Corinthian War, in which the Spartans and their allies under King Agesilaus II defeated a force of Thebans and Argives that was attempting to block their march back into the Peloponnese. It ranks among the deadliest of the Hoplite battles, despite its comparative obscurity, when matched up against more famous battles like the Battle of Delium in 424, and the Battle of Mantinea in 362. Prelude The Corinthian War began in 395 BC when Thebes, Argos, Corinth, and Athens, with Persian support and funding, united to oppose Spartan intervention in Locris and Phocis. At the start of the war, Agesilaus was in Ionia, campaigning against the Persians. When hostilities opened, he was recalled with his forces, and began an overland march through Thrace and central Greece back to the Peloponnese. Entering Boeotia, he was opposed by a force composed primarily of Thebans, allied Boeotians, and Argives. Agesilaus's forces were composed of a regiment and a half of Spartiates, augmented by a force of freed helots, and a sizable force of allied troops from the Peloponnese and Ionia. Facing him on the plain, near the foot of Mount Helicon, was an army made up of Boeotians, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, Euboeans, and Locrians. In all, the allies probably had 20,000 hoplites. To oppose these, Agesilaus had 15,000 hoplites. The cavalry forces of the two sides were roughly equal, but Agesilaus had substantially more peltasts. Prior to the battle some of Agesilaus's army were disturbed by an omen witnessed some days before, when the sun had appeared crescent shaped. To reassure his men, Agesilaus first reminded them of the recent Spartan victory at Nemea. He then told them that the Spartan navarch Peisander had been killed in a victory over the Persian fleet. In fact, as Agesilaus knew, Peisander had been killed while suffering a crushing defeat at Cnidus. These reassurances, however, buoyed his army's morale going into the battle. The defeat at Nemea weighed heavily on the Argives and Corinthians. The Athenians were too familiar with the ups and downs of their previous long and disastrous war against Sparta, and the willingness of the Persians to switch support from one side to the other, to be overly encouraged. Only the Boeotians seemed confident of ultimate victory. The battle As the two armies approached each other, Agesilaus