The anti-Macedonian faction in Athens, led by the stoic Chremonides, took power and proceeded to declare war on Macedon (possibly as early as the autumn of 268 BC). The first year of the conflict saw only minor confrontations, though they generally ended favorably for the anti-Macedonian coalition. After the indecisive campaign season of 266 BC, in which Athens was assisted by a Ptolemaic fleet under Patroclus, the war began to turn against the Greek city-states, and in 265 BC Antigonus was able to win a decisive and crushing victory outside Corinth in which the Spartan King Areus I fell.