The Corinthian War began in 395 BC when Thebes, Argos, Corinth, and Athens, with Persian support and funding, united to oppose Spartan intervention in Locris and Phocis.

Facing him on the plain, near the foot of Mount Helicon, was an army made up of Boeotians, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, Euboeans, and Locrians.

Prior to the battle some of Agesilaus's army were disturbed by an omen witnessed some days before, when the sun had appeared crescent shaped.

The Athenians were too familiar with the ups and downs of their previous long and disastrous war against Sparta, and the willingness of the Persians to switch support from one side to the other, to be overly encouraged.

At about 100 metres (330 ft), the veterans of the "Ten Thousand" (under the Spartiate Herippidas) and the Asian Greeks charged the troops opposite them at the run.

Agesilaus decided to oppose them by putting his phalanx directly in their path instead of taking them in the rear or flank, a decision that may have been influenced by his longstanding animosity towards Thebes.

The next morning, Agesilaus ordered the polemarch Gylis to put the army in battle formation and gave out awards for valour, received a delegation from the Thebans and allowed them to collect their dead.