SOURCE: Cartledge, Paul. “The Spartan Empire, 404-394.” In Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta, pp. 347-59. London: Duckworth, 1987.

In the following essay, Cartledge recounts the historical events associated with the pinnacle of Spartan imperialism between the defeat of Athens (404) and the outbreak of the Corinthian War (395).

The period from 404 to 360 … has been characterized generally as ‘The decline of the Greek Polis-world’ (Bengtson 1977, 253-91) and in specifically Spartan terms as ‘The policy of the Strong Hand and End’ (Berve 1966, 173-207).¹ Decline, power-politics, finis: few would cavil at this choice of categories to encapsulate Sparta's experience during this half-century. But the paradox it embodies is worth underlining. Sparta's most comprehensive military victory engendered or precipitated the downfall of what had long been accounted the model Greek military state.

So too the extent of Sparta's fall from grace and power should be emphasized. In 400, Xenophon would later nostalgically recall, the word...