| |
The battle of Apollonia (381) saw Sparta's
ally Derdas of Elimia defeat an Olynthian cavalry raid that had entered the
territory of Apollonia. In 382 the Spartans had received two embassies asking
for help against Olynthus, a rising power in Chalcidice, and had decided to
send an army north to aid Amyntas III of Macedon and the Chalcidian cities of
Acanthus and Apollonia. Their first army was sent in two waves, of which only
the first reached Thrace, where it soon bogged down. The second wave ended up
seizing power in Thebes. The Spartans responded by sending a second army to
Thrace, this time commanded by Teleutias, the half brother of King
Agesilaus II. On his way north Teleutias took
care to gather allies, amongst them the Thracian king Derdas of Elimia. Soon
after arriving in the area Teleutias led his army to Olynthus, where he was
saved from defeat by Derdas (battle of Olynthus, in 382. Although Teleutias claimed
this had been a victory, over the winter of 382-381 the Olynthians carried out
a series of raids into the territory of Sparta's allies in the area. In the
spring of 381 the Olynthians sent a force of six hundred cavalry to raid
Apollonia, north of Olynthus. By noon on the day of the raid the Olynthian
cavalry was quite widely spread, plundering the local area. Unluckily for the
Olynthians, on the same day Derdas had arrived in Apollonia with his cavalry.
Derdas waited until the raiders were approaching the city walls of Apollonia
before he unleashed his own cavalry. This caught the Olynthians by surprise,
disorganised, and probably separated into smaller groups in the suburbs of
Apollonia. In contrast Derdas's men were well concentrated, and they quickly
forced the raiders to flee. The Olynthians were pursued all the way back to
their city walls, losing eighty dead during the fighting. This was the high
point for Teleutias. Later in 381 he launched another raid into Olynthian
territory, but he was caught by the Olynthian cavalry, which had clearly not
been too badly damaged at Apollonia, defeated, and killed (battle of
Olynthus, 381). This didn't end the bad
news for Sparta - a fresh army, commanded by King Agesipolis, was sent north,
but didn't achieve much before the king died of a fever in the summer of 380.
|
|
| |
Sparta at War, Scott M. Rusch. A study of the rise, dominance
and fall of Sparta, the most famous military power in the Classical Greek
world. Sparta dominated land warfare for two centuries, before suffering a
series of defeats that broke its power. The author examines the reasons for
that success, and for Sparta's failure to bounce back from defeat.
The Spartan Supremacy 412-371 BC, Mike Roberts and Bob Bennett. . Looks
at the short spell between the end of the Great Peloponnesian War and the
battle of Leuctra where Sparta's political power matched her military
reputation. The authors look at how Sparta proved to be politically unequal to
her new position, and how this period of supremacy ended with Sparta's military
reputation in tatters and her political power fatally wounded. [
|
|
