The Middle East: 393–382 BCE

Evagoras of Salamis and Persian Conflict

Evagoras, ruler of Salamis in Cyprus, initially maintains amicable relations with the Persian Empire under Artaxerxes II, notably securing Persian support for Athens in its conflict against Sparta. His significant contributions to the pivotal Battle of Cnidus (394 BCE)—where the Spartan fleet suffers a decisive defeat due to his substantial resources and efforts—earn him recognition from Athens, including a prestigious statue placed alongside that of the Athenian admiral Conon in the Ceramicus.

However, from 391 BCE onward, relations deteriorate, and Cyprus enters into a state of near-continuous conflict with the Achaemenid Empire. Allied with Athens and King Hakor (Achoris) of Egypt, Evagoras expands his influence significantly. He consolidates control over most of Cyprus, launches successful incursions into Asia Minor, captures key Phoenician cities such as Tyre, and encourages revolts in Cilicia against Persian authority.

The situation changes dramatically with the Peace of Antalcidas (387 BCE), under which Athens officially recognizes Persian sovereignty over Cyprus, effectively withdrawing its support from Evagoras. Left largely isolated—apart from intermittent Egyptian assistance—Evagoras continues his resistance against Persia. In 385 BCE, Persian generals Tiribazus and Orontes invade Cyprus with a substantial military force. Demonstrating strategic acumen, Evagoras cuts off the Persians from essential supplies, prompting starvation and leading to rebellion among Persian troops, thus temporarily alleviating the siege on his territories.

Near East (393–382 BCE): Egyptian Revolt and Persian Reassertion

Between 393 and 382 BCE, the Near East witnesses renewed tensions and geopolitical maneuvering, particularly centered around Egypt’s resistance against Persian dominion. Egyptian king Hakor boldly revolts against Persian King Artaxerxes II in 390 BCE. To support his rebellion, Hakor forms a strategic tripartite alliance with Evagoras, king of Cyprus, and with the city-state of Athens.

This alliance profoundly impacts the broader geopolitical landscape. Persia, responding strategically, begins to support Sparta in the ongoing Corinthian War in Greece, a move designed to counterbalance Athenian support for Egypt. This Persian intervention eventually leads to the Peace of Antalcidas in 387/6 BCE, by which Artaxerxes II asserts Persian authority over the Greek cities of Asia Minor and Cyprus, granting autonomy to the Greek city-states of mainland Greece provided they abstain from aggression against Persia.

With the Greek front stabilized, Persia redirects its military attention fully toward Egypt. Despite repeated assaults from 385 to 383 BCE, Persian forces, countered by the capable defense led by Hakor and the strategic assistance of the Athenian general Chabrias, fail to subdue Egypt decisively. The resilience of Hakor’s Egypt in this conflict highlights the persistent determination for regional autonomy, illustrating the ongoing struggle between local independence and Persian imperial ambitions.

Ephesus had shared in a general revolt of 412 BCE against Athens, siding with Sparta in the Second Peloponnesian War, and had remained an effective ally of Sparta down to the end of the war.

Threatened by Persia after 403, Ephesus had served in 396 as the headquarters of King Agesilaus of Sparta.

The Ephesians in 394 had deserted to Conon’s anti-Spartan maritime league, but by 387 the city is again in Spartan hands and is handed by Antalcidas to Persia, inaugurating the pro-Persian tyranny of Syrphax and his family.

Artaxerxes secures the King's Peace (also called the Peace of Antalcidas) in 387, which asserts Persia's ancestral claim to Ionia and specifies that Asia, including Clazomenae, is included because Athens had interfered there and because its status—whether it is an island or part of the mainland—is unclear. (It is in fact a peninsular site.)

Erythrae, following a period of party strife, becomes subject to Achaemenidian Persia in 387 BCE.

All of Caria is rejoined under the King's Peace to Persia's Achaemenian Empire as a separate satrapy under the rule of the native Hecatomnid dynasty.

The other Greek cities great and small, including the other islands, are to be autonomous.

Athens is forced to dissolve its alliances in the Aegean, but is allowed to keep three long-standing cleruchies: Lemnos, …

…Imbros, and …

…Scyros.

The Athenians in the years immediately following 392 BCE had made such nuisances of themselves in Anatolia under Thrasybulus, who had revived a number of fifth-century Athenian imperial institutions, that Persia—which is anxious to end rebellions not just in Egypt but also in Cyprus—eventually realizes where its true interest lies.

As a consequence, it changes its support to Sparta.

The Spartans under Antalcidas now blockade the Hellespont with help from Persia and Dionysius of Syracuse; Athens, now nearly bankrupt, is once again starved into surrender and forced to sue for peace.