Battle of Leuktra 371 BC

[PMBardunias]

No, not a 'general consensus' treacherously traduced, just a public declaration - if we take Thucydides' portrayal - that the aim of the war declared by Sparta was to "liberate the Hellenes".

I have no problem with that narrow definition. Spartan realpolitik is something we both seem to understand- as long as we don't single them out for it. This was my point in bringing up Conon and the Athenians perfectly reasonable support of Persia against a fellow Greek polis. Their support for Persia, and the war against Sparta, was the ultimate cause of the casting aside of the Ionian greeks. But for their rebellion and support of a non-greek, Ionia would have been "free." Surely they knew this, did the calculation, and decided that being free of Sparta was worth forcing the spartans to lose control of Ionia in favor of Persia. Helping persian sea power to make support of Ionia impossible was their aim (as well as anything else that required access by sea). Poor Ionians should have remembered to "beware Greeks bearing treaties."

A situation that, by the time of the common peace with Thebes as prostatai was near a century out of date.

Greeks, especially Spartans, had a long memory for such things.