Hellas cheered when the Thebans miraculously defeated the Spartans during the battle at Leuctra. Every city was happy, except Athens. The power of Sparta, the traditional competitor of Athens for hegemony of Hellas, might have been broken and its forces were no longer invincible, but the result of the battle was a very strong Thebes. The Spartan hegemony was over, but the Theban hegemony had only just started while the Athenians firmly believed that their city was the only city that could rightfully claim hegemony over Hellas.

The abuse of the temple fundings of Olympia was in 363 the reason for a conflict between two cities in Arcadia: Mantinea and Tegeia. Mantinea choose the side of Sparta, while Tegeia asked Thebes for support. This resulted in yet another conflict, an ideological one this time, between oligarchic and democratic sympathies. The choice of Athens to openly support oligarchic Sparta shows us how determined the Athenians were to gain control over Hellas again.

Epaminondas hoped to ambush the Athenian forces on the Isthmos when they would march towards Sparta, but Athens decided to transport her forces over the sea. Epaminondas had gathered his army from Boeotia and other northern areas in Hellas, and he had chosen Tegeia as his headquarters. This position was very well chosen as Tegeia had citywalls and more than enough provision to support all the forces. On top of that was it situated between Sparta and Mantinea.

The commanders.

Thebes was still lead by her greatest leader: Epaminondas. The Coalition on the other hand was lead by a man who was at least as capable as Epaminondas: one of the two Spartan kings called Agesilaos. This man was the successor of the great man of Sparta: Lysander. Lysander wanted to use Agesilaos in his political games, but soon Agesilaos had more power than Lysander and he became the most important leader of Sparta. Lysander had sold the freedom of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor to the high king of Persia in return for support in his struggle against Athens, but Agesilaos did the opposite: he invaded the Persian empire and conquered the same cities. He did not stop there, but entered Asia Minor even further and conquered the area which once had been the old kingdom of Lydia. When he heard that Thebes formed a threat in Hellas he marched back in 30 days, using exactly the same road as Xerxes had used more than a century before him, and defeated the Thebans during the battle of Coronea at 394. Agesilaos was not like any other Spartan king had been before him. His methods were very unconventional for a Spartan king, and he had enormous faith in the power of cavalry.

Phase one: preparations for the battle.

The Battle at Leuctra, 371 B.C.
Coalition	Thebes
Hoplits
20000	26000
Peltasts
1000	4000
Cavalry
2000	3000

Epaminondas did not try to force a battle when Agesilaos, one of the two Spartan kings, moved northwards with his army via Pelele in Laconia. Instead he moved his army around the advancing forces, right towards Sparta which was extremely vulnerable without walls and an army to defend it. Unfortunately for him was Agesilaos informed by a deserter, and he had managed to arrive in Sparta just in time. Epaminondas had lost his element of surprise and decided not to attack the city. He turned his army around and now suddenly picked Mantinea as a target.

Lady Luck was also this time not at the side of Epaminondas as the spearhead of his army was suddenly spotted by Athenian cavalry. He had lost his element of surprise again, but what was even worse was that the Athenians managed to stop the spearhead of his army, which consisted of Theban and Thessalian cavalry. This gave Agesilaos time enough to place his army in on the road to Mantinea, just in front of Mantinea. Here the plains were only a mile wide because there were mountains at both sides of the road. Epaminondas had no choice: he had to defeat this army in order to attack Mantinea.

Phase two: the battle.

The Thebans realised that they had no choice and marched towards the waiting army. They entered the plans, and Epaminondas placed his army in the characteristic sloped phalanx with enforced left wing. After this was done he suddenly moved his army a little bit to the west, until he reached the foothills. Once they were on the foothills he gave his troops the order to lay down their weapons. The Spartans were convinced that Epaminondas did not want to fight that day as both parties were tired after marching long distances, and why else would he choose a defensive position in the foothills and lay down his weapons?

Agesilaos commanded his troops to take ease and made himself comfortable. He did not expect that this was exactly what Epaminondas had been hoping for. All of a sudden the Thebans grabbed their weapons and stormed forwards. The irony was that Epaminondas had used exactly the same trick as the Spartans had used during the battle of Aigospotamoi against Athens in 405 BC.

The Thebans used the same strategy as during the battle of Leuctra, and the Spartans had obviously learned nothing of this last battle. The Theban cavalry and peltasts moved forwards at both sides of the phalanx and attacked the cavalry and peltasts of the Coalition. The Theban cavalry and peltasts outnumbered the enemy on the flanks and after a while the Theban cavalry managed to defeat the peltasts and cavalry on the right wing of the enemy. They did not pursue the fleeing peltasts but attacked the right wing of the Coalitions phalanx in the side while the massive Theban left wing crashed into it at the same time.

The Coalition did not expect this manoeuvre and was not able to hold the formation together. Again the massive Theban left wing pushed the enemy back, just like during Leuctra, and the formation of the Coalition collapsed under this force and the continuous attacks of the Theban cavalry. Unfortunately got Epaminondas injured during this last phase of the battle. He died, but not before he had told the other Thebans that they should make peace with the other Poleis. The Thebans were shocked by his sudden death and did not attack the fleeing enemy anymore.

The results of the battle.

Thebes had defeated the enemy again, but the victory was turned into a defeat with the death of the great leader Epaminondas. From that moment on the political power, aspirations at sea, and the political power of Thebes disappeared in no time. For a strong, and consequent policy, a Polis needed a strong leader who could stand the envy of his fellow citizens. Only a few men were capable of this in ancient Greece: men like Pericles in Athens, Lysander and Agesilaos in Sparta, and Epaminondas in Thebes.