The Laconian War of 195 BC was fought between the Greek city-state of Sparta and a coalition composed of Rome, the Achaean League, Pergamum, Rhodes, and Macedon.

During the Second Macedonian War (200–196 BC), Macedon had given Sparta control over Argos, an important city on the Aegean coast of Peloponnese.

The anti-Spartan coalition laid siege to Argos, captured the Spartan naval base at Gythium, and soon invested and besieged Sparta itself.

Soon after, Sparta was forcibly made a member of its former rival, the Achaean League, ending several centuries of fierce political independence.

Philip of Macedon offered him the polis of Argos in exchange for Sparta defecting from the Roman coalition and joining the Macedonian alliance.

[3][10] After increasing his territory and wealth by the aforementioned method, Nabis started to turn the port of Gythium into a major naval arsenal and fortified the city of Sparta.

However, the extension of the naval capacities at Gythium greatly displeased the abutting states of the Aegean Sea and the Roman Republic.

This led to a serious decline in Sparta's military power, and the aim of Nabis reforms was to reestablish a class of loyal subjects capable of serving as well-equipped phalangites (operating in a close and deep formation, with a longer spear than the hoplites').

His freed helots received land from him and were wedded to wealthy wives of the exiled Spartan demos (all former full citizens) and widows of the rich elite, whose husbands had been killed at his orders.

[5] The Achaean League was upset that one of its members had remained under Spartan occupation and persuaded the Romans to revisit their decision to leave Sparta's territorial gains intact.

[1] In 195 BC, Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the Roman commander in Greece, called a council of the Greek states at Corinth to discuss whether or not to declare war on Nabis.

[19] All the states represented favored war, except for the Aetolian League and Thessaly, both of which wanted the Romans to leave Greece immediately.

[21] Flamininus first sent an envoy to Sparta, demanding that Nabis either surrender Argos to the Achaean League or face war with Rome and her Greek allies.

[23] As the Romans and the Achaean League were advancing towards the city, a young Argive named Damocles attempted to stir up a revolution against the Spartan garrison.

Nabis's Cretan allies, who profited from the naval bases on his territory, dispatched 1,000 specially selected warriors to augment the 1,000 they had already sent to Sparta's aid.

[26] Nabis, fearing that the Roman approach might encourage his subjects to revolt, decided to terrorize them by ordering the execution of eighty prominent citizens.

[27] The sudden surprise attack briefly threw the allies into a state of confusion, but the Spartans retreated back to the city when the main body of legionary cohorts arrived.

Appius Claudius, commander of the rearguard, rallied his troops and forced the mercenaries to retreat behind the city's walls, inflicting heavy casualties on them in the process.

[26] The Romans renewed their assault and Gorgopas was forced to surrender, though he did secure the condition that he and his garrison could leave unharmed and return to Sparta.

[26] When Nabis discovered that Gythium had surrendered he decided to send an envoy to Flamininus to open negotiations on the terms of a peace.

[29] Flamininus replied to Nabis by proposing his own terms, under which Sparta and Rome would conclude a six-month truce if Nabis would surrender Argos with all his garrisons from the Argolid; give the coastal Laconian cities autonomy and give them his fleet; pay a war indemnity over the next eight years and not enter into alliances with any Cretan cities.

[2] The Spartans initially held out against the allies, but their resistance was hampered by the fact that the Romans' large shields made missile attacks futile.

[29] The Romans launched an assault on Sparta and took the walls, but their advance was initially impeded by the narrowness of the roads in the city's outskirts.

[29] Nabis, seeing his defenses collapsing, tried to flee, but Pythagoras rallied the soldiers and ordered them to set fire to the buildings closest to the walls.

[29] When the attack was renewed later, the Spartans managed to hold off the Roman assaults for three days before Nabis, seeing that the situation was hopeless, decided to send Pythagoras with an offer of surrender.

[2] Nabis also had to withdraw his garrisons from Cretan cities and revoke several social and economic reforms that had strengthened Sparta's military capabilities.

The dominant powers in the region at this time were the kingdom of Macedon, which had recently lost a war against Rome, the Aetolians, the strengthened Achaean League and a reduced Sparta.

Plans for capturing Sparta itself had been laid by the time the Roman envoy Flamininus arrived and convinced the Achaean strategus Philopoemen to spare it.

[37] In 189 BC, the hostages taken by Rome, excluding Nabis's son, who fell ill and died, were allowed to return to Sparta.