Event #2678: Solar eclipse, Spartan defeat at the Battle of Cnidus

When he¹ was at the entrance to Boeotia, the sun seemed to appear crescent-shaped, and word was brought to him that the Lacedaemonians had been defeated in the naval battle and the admiral, Peisander, had been killed.

Agesilaüs now marched through the pass of Thermopylae, traversed Phocis, which was friendly to Sparta, entered Boeotia, and encamped near Chaeroneia. Here a partial eclipse of the sun occurred, and at the same time news came to him of the death of Peisander, who was defeated in a naval battle off Cnidus by Pharnabazus and Conon

This eclipse is recorded as partial both by the contemporary writer Xenophon and by Plutarch. When the eclipse occurred, the army of King Agesilaus II of Sparta was on its way to engage in battle with the Thebans near Chaeroneia, having marched southwards through Thrace. Xenophon accompanied Agesilaus on his campaign and thus probably witnessed the eclipse himself.

At the time of the eclipse, Agesilaus learnt of the Spartan defeat at the Battle of Cnidus, a joint Athenian and Persian operation against the Spartan naval fleet, which marked the end of the naval hegemony of Sparta.