After the Peloponnesian War began, you fought you and I fought mine. In most cases, Sparta dominated the land battle, and Athens dominated the naval battle. Even if Athens suffered a crushing defeat in Sicily, Sparta would still be the leader. Because of the inferiority of the navy, Athens could not be forced to surrender. To defeat Athens, you must first completely defeat the Athenian navy, but whether it is modern or ancient, the navy is a technical arm, which consumes money and resources. Compete with Athens, even if it solicits donations from the Peloponnesian League.
So, Sparta finally made a decision and turned to Persia, the old rival of the Greeks, for help. Of course Persia, who had been beaten by Athens at sea, could not ask for it, so the two sides reached an agreement. With the help of Persian massive resources, Sparta quickly established a huge number of navies, and only then did the Spartan general Lysander In the Battle of Yanghe, the Athenian navy was completely wiped out, and Athens was finally forced to surrender.
Nearly 30 years of war has affected most of the Greek city-states, the economy has been stagnant, and the people have been displaced. At the same time, thousands of Greek soldiers who had become accustomed to fighting and were reluctant to switch to peaceful professions, such as Clearchus being a typical example, were dismissed from service by Sparta.
At this time, the King of Persia was seriously ill. As his second son, Cyrus, who was also the commander of western Persia, had been in charge of Sparta's cooperation and had good relations with many Greek generals. He understood the strength of the Greek infantry, and out of ambition to compete for the throne in the future, he gifted some familiar Greek generals a lot of money, implying that they would hire these soldiers and maintain the ranks until he needed their help.
Three years later, in 401 BC, the king of Persia died, and Cyrus the Younger began to act. He summoned these Greek mercenary leaders to lead the troops to join his army, and deceived the Greeks into saying that they were going to attack a rebel force in Asia Minor. In fact, he was going to force the enthroned brother who had just stepped down from the Persian throne (many leaders of the Greek mercenaries knew the truth). It was not until the whole army entered the hinterland of Persia that he informed the Greek soldiers of the truth. At this time, the Greeks had already helped. His chariot had to follow him to continue marching towards Babylon.
And the story of this book begins here...