HELLAS:NET - History

The 'autonomy' provision of the King's Peace was of great advantage to Sparta. Now it was able to continue its aggressive foreign policy even after 386, as Sparta could use the peace treaty as an excuse to dismantle enemies whose organisation could be seen as a violation of the peace. After all, Sparta was the guarantor guardian of the Peace of Antalcidas. This 'autonomy' clause proved to be very effective against two feared enemies of Sparta: Thebes had to stop her dominance over the Boeotian League, while Athens was forced to abandon her hopes of reviving the Athenian empire.

The King's Peace also gave Sparta space to expand its actions. In 383 Sparta attacked Olynthus, but when her army passed by Thebes it was invited into the city by a group of pro-Spartan citizens. The Spartan commander Phoebidas immediately seized the Cadmeia, the citadel of Thebes. This action created a violent antipathy to Sparta in the Greek world at large. Finally the citadel was liberated again in 379, with the help of Athens.

Aversion against the Spartan oppressor.

One of the reasons of the founding of the second Athenian Naval Confederacy in 378 might have been the fear for Spartan revenge after the Athenian support during the liberation of the Theban citadel, but it seems more likely that Athens simply used the anti-Sparta attitude in the hope to restore her once formidable empire. The goal was a democratic freedom-fight against the Spartan oppressor, with Athens and Thebes as joint leaders. However, the democratic coalition seemed to have lost all its justification when Thebes reclaimed its leadership over Boeotia by reviving the Boeotian League. Those who hesitated were bullied, and sometimes even destroyed.

Thebes ambitions did not stop in Boeotia. A war between Sparta and Thebes followed from 378 till 371. During the battle of Leuctra in 371 Thebes surprised the whole known world by defeating the Spartan army which was till then, with the exception of the debacle at Phylos, seen as invincible. The Theban victory was mostly thanks to the tactical renewal of the phalanx by Epaminondas. The problem of the phalanx had always been that it tended to curl to the right, as the hoplites instinctively moved to the right to gain more protection from the shield of the hoplite beside them. The 'sloping phalanx', as introduced by the Thebans, was deeper at the left wing. The result was a classic encirclement, after the much stronger left wing had defeated the right wing of the enemy.

The hegemony of Thebes had started with the battle of Leuctra. In the years to come Thebes acted as the leader of Hellas, and she undertook several offensive actions in the Peloponesse. This resulted in the founding of an Arcadian League, with the new found city Megalopolis as the center.

Sparta had been military defeated at the battle of Leuctra, but what was of more importance for the sudden disappearance of Sparta was a political action of Thebes. Messenia was refounded as an independent state in 369 after many centuries of helotage. Sparta sank to second-class rank among the Greek Poleis when it lost its helots.

The Supremacy of Thebes formed the final end of Spartan invincibility on the battlefield.

Sparta's disappereance.

The political vacuum left by the disappearance of Sparta gave both Thebes and Athens hope to achieve more power. Thessaly and Macedon, which was not a big power at that moment thanks to dynastic disputes, were the first places where Thebes attempted to expand its territory. However, the Theban interests clashed with the Athenian ones as she hoped to regain control over her colony Amphipolis and the Chersonese. Both sides attempted to achieve its ideals in the north, but if these could not be realised then everything was done to prevent the other party from establishing her power there. Another area of Theban expansion was the Aegean, where Athens was once again the enemy. The only significant result of rivalry between Thebes and Athens was that the eventual task of Phillip II became much easier.

Sparta's last hope to restore its power ended with the great battle of Mantinea in 362. Thebes had once again managed to defeat the Spartan phalanx, but now it had costed her leader Epaminondas. Nevertheless it became more and more evident that none of the cities could gain leadership again: Sparta was broken, feelings against Athens was running strong again inside her own confederacy for reasons which we will discuss later on, and Thebes was unloved in general.

What also became clear was that the principal of a collection of independent cities had to be replaced by other forms of government. After all, it seemed as if the history of Hellas was about to repeat itself: Poleis attacking eachother over and over again in an attempt to become the most powerful city. The result was that several times confederations were formed by cities who were felt threatened. These attempts were interesting, but nevertheless always without much success.

In the early fifties Thebes had an argument with the neighbouring city of Phocis. Thebes used its majority in the Delphic amphictyony to declare Sacred War on Phocis, but the small city hit back hard. Phocis seized the Delphic temple treasures, hired mercenaries and fought for its life. The war was only ended by the intervention of Philip II of Macedon in 346. The disintegration of the Boeotian League, which had started after the death of its leader Epaminondas, increased and the hegemony of Thebes was over.