=220.= Agesilaus had been unwillingly recalled from his war against Persia, and now appeared in the north with a powerful army, in which were numbered Xenophon[55] and many of the Ten Thousand. On hearing of the victory of Corinth, the king exclaimed, “Alas for Greece! she has killed enough of her sons to have conquered all the barbarians.” Agesilaus advanced to Coronæa, where another battle was soon fought. The Thebans were at first successful, and, having routed the Orchomenians, pressed through to their camp in the rear. But while they were plundering this, Agesilaus had been victorious along the rest of the line, and had driven the allies to take refuge upon the slope of Mount Helicon. The Thebans, thus surrounded, had to sustain the whole weight of the Spartan attack, and no severer combat had ever been known in Grecian annals. They succeeded at last in rejoining their comrades, but the victory remained with Agesilaus. =221.= BATTLE OF CNIDUS. Their two successful battles of Corinth and Coronæa were far from compensating the Spartans for the disastrous defeat which befell them the same season at Cnidus. Conon, who had spent the seven years since his disgrace at Ægos-Potami, with Evagoras of Cyprus, now reappeared, in alliance with the ancient foe of Greece, against the bitter enemy and rival of Athens. Artaxerxes, perceiving the hatred which began to be felt against the growing power of Sparta, had sent envoys to the principal cities of Greece, to unite them in a league for resistance, while he dispatched a large sum of money to Conon, to equip a fleet among the Greeks and Phœnicians of the sea-board. In command of this fleet, Conon was blockaded at Caunus by the Spartan, Pharax; but a reinforcement arriving for the Persians, the blockading squadron withdrew to Rhodes. The people of that island had unwillingly endured so long the rule of the Spartans. They rose against Pharax, compelled him to depart, and placed themselves under the protection of Conon. This admiral immediately sailed to Rhodes and took possession of the island; then repaired to Babylon, where he obtained a still more liberal grant of money from Artaxerxes, for the active prosecution of the war.