Forced to withdraw from Phrygia with a great deal of booty because of his lack of cavalry, Agesilaus returned to Ephesus and set about forming a cavalry force during the winter, when campaigning usually stopped. The next year (395), he gave out that he was planning an attack on Lydia. Tissaphernes was afraid of another trap, and again collected his troops in Caria. Unfortunately, this time Agesilaus had been telling the truth. After marching from Caria, Tissaphernes was defeated by Agesilaus near Sardis, and then executed on the Persian king's orders.
It was at this point that Agesilaus was recalled by Sparta to take command in the war Pharnabazus had successfully stirred up. On his overland march through Greece from the Hellespont, he received orders to invade Boeotia. At Coronea he met the combined Boeotian-Argive army. Agesilaus was wounded in the battle that ensued, but the Spartans won. The historian Xenophon, who was there fighting under Agesilaus, says that there was no other battle of his day like it (Agesilaus II.9). After the battle some of the Theban forces sought sanctuary in a nearby temple of Athena. Although urged to do so, Agesilaus refused to violate sanctuary by attacking them and granted them safe conduct to leave.
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