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The battle of Leuctra in 371 was the first major defeat suffered by the
main Spartan hoplite army, and played a major part in the collapse of Spartan
power after their triumph in the
Peloponnesian
War. In 379 Epaminondas helped lead a
revolt that expelled a Spartan garrison from Thebes (Theban-Spartan War,
379-371). A series of Spartan invasions of Boeotia failed, although Spartan
armies did get close to Thebes in 378 and 377. The campaign of 376 failed to
even reach Boeotia, and in the same year the Spartan fleet was defeated at
Naxos. In 375 the Spartans suffered another naval defeat at Alyzeia, and an
embarrassing defeat on land at Tegyra, with a force of 1,000 Spartan hoplites
was defeated by a Theban force half its size. These defeats were followed by a
short period of peace, but by 373 the fighting had resumed. A Spartan attempt
to seize Corcyra failed after the besieging army was defeated in battle between
the city and its camp. The Thebans took advantage of the resumption of the war
to attack their enemies in Boeotia. Plataea was captured and the city
destroyed, and the walls of Thespiae were pulled down. This angered Thebe's
Athenian allies, and peace negotiations began once again. These negotiations
involved Sparta, Athens, Thebes and their allies. They produced a fairly
typical agreement for the period, in which each side agreed to remove their
governors and garrisons from other cities and allow every Greek polis to enjoy
autonomy. This last clause caused the partial failure of the negotiations.
According to Xenophon, on the day after the treaty was agreed the Thebans
wanted it changed so that they could sign on behalf of the Boeotian
Confederacy. King Agesilaus II of Sparta
refused to agree to this, and struck Thebes's name off the treaty. The Spartans
then demanded that Thebes allow the cities of the Boeotian Confederacy their
autonomy (conveniently ignoring their own dominance of the Peloponnesian
League). Thebes refused to accept this new demand, and as a result the second
Spartan king, Cleombrotus, was ordered
to invade Boeotia from the west, using troops already available in Phocis.
Cleombrotus invaded Boeotia at the head of 10,000 Spartan and allied hoplites
and 1,000 cavalry.
The Thebans blocked most of the routes into Boeotia, but Cleombrotus found
a way across Mt Helicon (in the south-western part of Boeotia). After crossing
the mountain he defeated the Theban force defending Helicon, then turned south
to capture the port of Creusis. From there he moved inland to Leuctra,
south-east of Thespiae, and took up a position on a ridge. The Thebans had a
smaller army, of around 6,000 hoplites and an unknown amount of cavalry. The
Spartan infantry had a fearsome reputation at this point, having never yet lost
a major open battle. The Thebans were also outnumbered, and some of their
leaders appear to have wanted to avoid a battle. The pro-battle faction was
lead by Epaminondas, who was then serving as one of the Boeotarchs, and
Pelopidas, the leader of
the Theban Sacred Band. They were able to convince the army to risk a battle.
Epaminondas decided to attempt a novel tactic during the battle. The standard
formation for a Greek hoplite army was a fairly even line, with the command on
the right. Often both right wings would win their fight, and the battle would
be decided by who reacted best after that. Epaminondas decided to try and knock
out the Spartan right. He posted his best men on his left instead of on the
right, and formed them into a 50 deep formation. On the morning of the battle
some of the Boeotians left their camp. This may have been non-combatants,
leaving before the battle, or as later accounts suggest, the more reluctant
soldiers, given permission to leave by Epaminondas. In either case Cleombrotus
sent some of his cavalry and peltasts to attack these men, forcing them back
into the main Boeotian camp. Both armies spent the night before the battle in
camps on ridges on opposite sides of a valley. On the morning of the battle
both armies advanced into the plains. Cleombrotus posted his 2,000
Lacedaemonians on his right, with the allied troops in the centre and on the
left. The Thebans posted their Sacred Band on their left. Both sides posted
their cavalry in front of their main lines, with the Spartans probably doing
this first and the Thebans reacting to it. The battle began with a cavalry
clash, in which the Thebans were victorious. The retreating Spartan army
disrupted the main Spartan line just as the fast moving fifty deep Theban left
attacked. The Thebans headed straight for King Cleombrotus, who was mortally
wounded. He was taken alive from the battlefield, and the Spartan right may
have held on for a little longer after this, but their leaders continued to be
killed. Amongst the dead were Deinon, one of the Polemarchs, Sphodrias, one of
Cleombrotus's close companions, and Cleonymus, son of Sphodrias. The Spartan
right eventually broke and began to retreat towards their camp. This inevitably
led to a similar collapse on the left, where the sight of the invincible
Spartans retreating in disarray must have been very alarming
There doesn't appear to have been any combat on this flank of the battle,
with the fighting restricted to the Spartan right/ Theban left. Epaminondas is
said to have deployed his right wing in echelon, so that they were further away
from the straight Spartan line than the powerful Theban left. Plutarch gives a
slightly different account, in which Pelopidas moved his 50 deep column further
to the left, in order to pull the Spartans away from their allies. The Spartans
attempted to use their superior numbers to surround the Thebans, but were hit
by the Theban Sacred Band while they were in the middle of a change of
formation. The exact role of the Sacred Band is unclear. They were posted on
the Theban left, where they may have formed the first five or six ranks of the
fifty deep column, six full 50-man columns, been posted further to the left in
the normal twelve deep formation, or even been in reserve ready for the right
moment to attack. The retreating Spartans managed to regain the safety of their
camp, but they admitted their defeat by asking for a burial truce to retrieve
the bodies of the slain. Xenophon gives casualty figures of 1,000 dead,
including 400 of the 700 full Spartiates. The two sides watched each other for
a few days from their camps. The Thebans received reinforcements under Prince
Jason of Pherae, who was able to negotiate a Spartan withdrawal. Just outside
Boeotia the retreating Spartans found their own reinforcements, a levy of just
about every fighting man left in Sparta, under the command of
Archidamus, the son of
Agesilaus II. Having successfully rescued the survivors of the battle,
Archidamus decided not to risk another invasion of Boeotia, disbanded his army
and returned to Sparta. The battle of Leuctra ended the period of Spartan
dominance in Greece. In the aftermath the Boeotian League was strengthened,
more states joined the
Second Athenian
League, while the Peloponnesian League collapsed. Epaminondas led a series
of campaigns in the Peloponnese that greatly weakened Spartan power, freeing
many of their captive communities. The Theban hegemony didn't last for long -
Epaminondas was killed in battle in 362 and with him gone, Theban power
collapsed.
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