Editing Epaminondas (section)

===Theban hegemony===
{{Main|Theban hegemony}}
In the immediate aftermath of Leuctra, the Thebans considered following up their victory by taking their vengeance on Sparta; they also invited Athens to join them in doing so. However, their Thessalian allies under [[Jason of Pherae]] dissuaded them from shattering what remained of the Spartan army.{{sfn|Hornblower|2006|p=224}} Instead, Epaminondas occupied himself with consolidating the Boeotian confederacy, compelling the previously Spartan-aligned polis of [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]] to join the league.{{sfn|Roy|2000|p=188}}

The following year the Thebans invaded the Peloponnesus, aiming to break Spartan power for good.{{sfn|Liddell Hart|1954|p=35}} It is not clear exactly when the Thebans started to think not just of ending the Spartan hegemony, but of replacing it with [[Theban hegemony|one of their own]], but it is clear that eventually this became their aim. Hans Beck asserts that, unlike Sparta in the Peloponnesian League and Athens in the [[Delian League]], Thebes made no effort either to create an empire or to bind its allies in any sort of permanent and stable organization. Indeed, after Leuctra, Thebes devoted its attention to diplomatic efforts in Central Greece rather than schemes of domination further afield.{{sfn|Beck|2008|p=133}} By late 370 Thebes' network of alliances in central Greece made her secure in the area—as she had not been before Leuctra—and offered scope for further expansion of Theban influence.{{refn|1=A series of states formed alliances with Thebes: Aetolians, Acarnanians, Aenianians, West and East Locrians, Phocians, Heracleots, Malians, and Euboeans. The Euboeans defected from the Athenian Confederacy to join Thebes.{{sfn|Beck|2008|p=134}}{{sfn|Roy|2000|pp=188{{ndash}}189}}|group=note}}

====First Invasion of the Peloponnese (370&nbsp;BC)====
When, in the immediate aftermath of Leuctra, the Thebans had sent a herald to Athens with news of their victory, the messenger was met with stony silence. The Athenians then decided to take advantage of the Spartan discomfiture, holding a conference in Athens, in which the peace terms proposed earlier in 371 BC were ratified by all cities (except [[Elis (city)|Elis]]); and this time, the treaty explicitly made the Peloponnesian cities, formerly under Spartan dominance, independent.{{sfn|Tritle|1997|p=24}} Taking advantage of this, the Mantineans decided to unify their settlements into a single city, and to fortify it; a decision which greatly angered Agesilaus. Furthermore, [[Tegea]], supported by Mantinea, instigated the formation of an [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]]n alliance. This led to the Spartans declaring war on Mantinea, whereupon the majority of Arcadian cities grouped together to oppose the Spartans (thus forming the confederation that the Spartans were trying to prevent), and requested assistance from the Thebans. The Theban force arrived late in 370&nbsp;BC, and it was led by Epaminondas and Pelopidas, both at this time Boeotarchs.{{sfn|Roy|2000|pp=189{{ndash}}190}}{{sfn|Tritle|1997|p=24}} As they journeyed into Arcadia, the Thebans were joined by armed contingents from many of Sparta's former allies, swelling their forces to some 50–70,000 men.{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|p=428}} In Arcadia Epaminondas encouraged the Arcadians to form their proposed league, and to build the new city of [[Megalopolis, Greece|Megalopolis]] (as a center of power opposed to Sparta).{{sfn|Ober|1985|p=41}}

[[File:Messenia.jpg|thumb|[[Messenia]] in the classical period]]
Epaminondas, supported by Pelopidas and the Arcadians, then persuaded the other Boeotarchs to invade Laconia. Moving south, they crossed the [[Evrotas River]], the frontier of Sparta, which no hostile army had breached in memory. The Spartans, unwilling to engage the massive army in battle, simply defended their city, which the Thebans did not attempt to capture. The Thebans and their allies ravaged Laconia, down to the port of [[Gythium]], freeing some of the Lacedaemonian [[perioeci]] from their allegiance to Sparta.{{sfn|Ober|1985|p=41}} Epaminondas briefly returned to Arcadia, before marching south again, this time to [[Messenia]], a region which the Spartans had conquered some 200 years before. Epaminondas freed the helots of Messenia, and rebuilt the ancient city of [[Messene]] on Mount [[Ithome]], with fortifications that were among the strongest in Greece. He then issued a call to Messenian exiles all over Greece to return and rebuild their homeland.{{sfn|Luraghi|2008|p=4}}{{sfn|Ober|1985|p=41}} The loss of Messenia was particularly damaging to the Spartans, since the territory comprised one-third of Sparta's territory and contained half of their [[helots|helot]] population. It had been the helots' labor which had allowed the Spartans to become a "full-time" army.{{sfn|Holland|2006|p=120}}{{sfn|Ober|1985|p=41}}

Epaminondas' campaign of 370/369 BC has been described as an example of "the grand strategy of indirect approach", which was aimed at severing "the economic roots of her [Sparta's] military supremacy."{{sfn|Liddell Hart|1954|p=35}} In mere months, Epaminondas had created two new enemy states that opposed Sparta, shaken the foundations of Sparta's economy, and all but devastated Sparta's prestige.  This accomplished, he led his army back home, victorious.{{better|date=January 2022}}

====Trial====
In order to accomplish all that he wished in the Peloponnesus, Epaminondas had persuaded his fellow Boeotarchs to remain in the field for several months after their term of office had expired. Upon his return home, Epaminondas was therefore greeted not with a hero's welcome but with a trial arranged by his political enemies. According to Cornelius Nepos, in his defense Epaminondas merely requested that, if he be executed, the inscription regarding the verdict read:{{sfn|Nepos|1790|p=146}} <blockquote> Epaminondas was punished by the Thebans with death, because he obliged them to overthrow the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, whom, before he was general, none of the Boeotians durst look upon in the field, and because he not only, by one battle, rescued Thebes from destruction, but also secured liberty for all Greece, and brought the power of both people to such a condition, that the Thebans attacked Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians were content if they could save their lives; nor did he cease to prosecute the war, till, after settling Messene, he shut up Sparta with a close siege.</blockquote> The jury broke into laughter, the charges were dropped, and Epaminondas was re-elected as Boeotarch for the next year.{{refn|1=Certain modern scholars do not believe that an actual trial took place.{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|pp=469{{ndash}}470}}|group=note}}

====Second invasion of the Peloponnesus (369 BC)====
In 369&nbsp;BC the Argives, Eleans and the Arcadians, eager to continue their war against Sparta, once more called on Thebes to support them. Epaminondas, at the height of his prestige, again commanded an allied invasion force. Arriving at the isthmus of Corinth, the Thebans found it heavily guarded by both Spartans and Athenians (along with the Corinthians, [[Megara]]ns and [[Pellene|Pellenians]]). Epaminondas decided to attack the weakest spot, guarded by the Spartans; in a dawn attack he forced his way through their position, and joined his Peloponnesian allies. The Thebans thus won an easy victory and crossed the isthmus. Diodorus stresses that this was "a feat no whit inferior to his former mighty deeds".{{sfn|Tritle|1997|p=88}}

However, the rest of the expedition achieved little: Sicyon and Pellene became allied to Thebes, and the countryside of [[Troezen]] and [[Epidaurus]] was ravaged, but the cities could not be taken. After an abortive attack on Corinth and the arrival of a relief force sent by [[Dionysius I of Syracuse|Dionysius of Syracuse]] to aid Sparta, the Thebans decided to march home.{{sfn|Cawkwell|1972|p=267}}{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|p=452}}{{sfn|Tritle|1997|pp=88{{ndash}}89}}

====Thessaly (368 BC)====
When Epaminondas returned to Thebes, he continued to be dogged by his political enemies who prosecuted him for the second time. They actually succeeded in excluding him from the office of Boeotarch for the year 368&nbsp;BC. This was the only time from the Battle of Leuctra until his death that he did not serve as Boeotarch. In 368, the Theban army marched into Thessaly to rescue Pelopidas and Ismenias, who had been imprisoned by [[Alexander of Pherae]] while serving as ambassadors. The Theban force not only failed to overcome Alexander and his allies, but got into serious difficulties, when it tried to withdraw; Epaminondas, serving as a private soldier, succeeded in extricating it. In early 367, Epaminondas led a second Theban expedition to free Pelopidas, and Ismenias. He finally outmanoeuvred the Thessalians, and secured the release of the two Theban ambassadors without a fight.{{sfn|Roy|2000|p=195}}

====Third invasion of the Peloponnesus (367&nbsp;BC)====
In the spring of 367&nbsp;BC, Epaminondas again invaded the Peloponnesus. This time an Argive army captured part of the Isthmus on Epaminondas's request, allowing the Theban army to enter the Peloponnesus unhindered. On this occasion, Epaminondas marched to [[Achaea (ancient region)|Achaea]], seeking to secure their allegiance to Thebes. No army dared to challenge him in the field, and the Achaean oligarchies therefore acquiesced to the request that they be allied to Thebes. Epaminondas' acceptance of the Achaean oligarchies roused protests by both the Arcadians and his political rivals, and his settlement was thus shortly reversed: democracies were set up, and the oligarchs exiled. These democratic governments were short-lived, since the pro-Spartan aristocrats from all the cities banded together and attacked each city in turn, re-establishing the oligarchies. According to G.L. Cawkwell, "the sequel perhaps showed the good sense of Epaminondas. When these exiles recovered the cities, they 'no longer took a middle course'." In the light of their treatment by Thebes, they abandoned their previously neutral stance, and thereafter "fought zealously in support of the Lacedaemonians".{{sfn|Cawkwell|1972|p=269}}{{sfn|Roy|2000|pp=197{{ndash}}198}}

====Resistance to Thebes====
[[File:Theban hegemony 362 BC.svg|thumb|right|300px|The Theban hegemony; power-blocks in Greece in the decade up to 362&nbsp;BC]]
In 366/365&nbsp;BC an attempt was made to make a common peace, with the Persian King [[Artaxerxes II]] as arbiter and guarantor. Thebes organized a conference to have the terms of the peace accepted, but their diplomatic initiative failed: the negotiations could not resolve the hostility between Thebes and other states that resented its influence (such as the Arcadian leader Lycomedes who challenged the right of the Thebans to hold the congress in Thebes); the peace was never fully accepted, and fighting soon resumed.{{sfn|Cawkwell|1972|p=269}}{{sfn|Roy|2000|p=197}} believes that Thebes had concrete gains from the congress: "The peace of 366/5 set the seal on Epaminondas' Peloponnesian policy. Under it the remaining members of the Peloponnesian league finally abandoned Sparta, and recognized the independence of Messenia and, presumably, the unification of Boeotia."<ref>{{Cite web |title=XIV Epaminondas and Thebes |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/5669/chapter-abstract/148737562?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=10 May 2023 |website=academic.oup.com}}</ref>

Throughout the decade after the Battle of Leuctra, numerous former allies of Thebes defected to the Spartan alliance or even to alliances with other hostile states. By the middle of the next decade, even some Arcadians (whose league Epaminondas had helped establish in 369 BC) had turned against them. At the same time, however, Epaminondas managed through a series of diplomatic efforts to dismantle the Peloponnesian league: the remaining members of the league finally abandoned Sparta (in 365 Corinth, Epidaurus, and [[Phlius]] made peace with Thebes and Argos),{{refn|1=Although Corinth refused to join in an alliance with Thebes, mading it plain that it wanted only peace{{sfn|Roy|2000|p=200}}|group=note}} and Messenia remained independent and firmly loyal to Thebes.{{sfn|Cawkwell|1972|p=269}}{{sfn|Roy|2000|p=200}}

Boeotian armies campaigned across Greece as opponents rose up on all sides; Epaminondas even led his state in a challenge to Athens at sea. The Theban demos voted him a fleet of a hundred triremes to win over [[Rhodes]], [[Chios]], and [[Byzantium]]. The fleet finally sailed in 364, but modern scholars believe that Epaminondas achieved no lasting gains for Thebes on this voyage.{{sfn|Beck|2008|p=174}}{{sfn|Roy|2000|pp=201{{ndash}}202}} In that same year, Pelopidas was killed while campaigning against Alexander of Pherae in Thessaly. His loss deprived Epaminondas of his greatest Theban political ally.{{sfn|Hanson|1999<!-- |p= -->}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{sfn|Roy|2000|p=202}}

====Fourth invasion of the Peloponnesus (362&nbsp;BC)====
{{Main|Battle of Mantinea (362 BC)}}
In the face of this increasing opposition to Theban dominance, Epaminondas launched his final expedition into the Peloponnese in 362&nbsp;BC. The immediate goal of the expedition was to subdue Mantinea, which had been opposing Theban influence in the region. Epaminondas brought an army drawn from Boeotia, Thessaly and Euboea. He was joined by Tegea, which was the center of local opposition to Mantinea, Argos, Messenia, and some of the Arcadians. Mantinea, on the other hand, had requested assistance from Sparta, Athens, Achaea and the rest of Arcadia, so that almost all of Greece was represented on one side or the other.{{sfn|Tritle|1997|pp=26{{ndash}}27}}

This time the mere presence of the Theban army was not enough to cow the opposition. Since time was passing and the Mantinean alliance showed no signs of capsizing, Epaminondas decided that he would have to break the stalemate. Hearing that a large Lacedaemonian force was marching to Mantinea, and that Sparta was practically undefended, he planned an audacious night-time march on Sparta itself. However, the Spartan king [[Archidamus III|Archidamus]] was alerted to this move by an informant, probably a Cretan runner, and Epaminondas arrived to find the city well-defended.{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|pp=508{{ndash}}510}} Although he did attack the city, he seems to have drawn off relatively quickly on discovering that he had not, after all, surprised the Spartans. Furthermore, the Lacedaemonian and Mantinean troops which had been stationed at Mantinea had marched to Sparta during the course of the day, and dissuaded Epaminondas from attacking again. Now hoping that his adversaries had left Mantinea defenseless in their haste to protect Sparta, Epaminondas counter marched his troops back to his base at Tegea, and then dispatched his cavalry to Mantinea. However, a clash outside the walls of Mantinea with Athenian cavalry foiled this strategy as well.{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|pp=510{{ndash}}512}} Realising that the time allotted for the campaign was drawing to a close, and reasoning that if he departed without defeating the enemies of Tegea, Theban influence in the Peloponnesus would be destroyed, he decided to stake everything on a pitched battle.

What followed on the plain in front of Mantinea was the largest hoplite battle in Greek history. Epaminondas had the larger army, 30,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, whilst his opponents numbered 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry.{{sfn|Tritle|1997|pp=93{{ndash}}94}}Xenophon says that, having decided to fight, Epaminondas arranged the army into battle order, and then marched it in a column ''parallel'' to the Mantinean lines, so that it appeared that the army was marching elsewhere, and would not fight that day. Having reached a certain point in the march, he then had the army down arms, so it appeared they were getting ready to camp. Xenophon suggests that "by so doing he caused among most of the enemy a relaxation of their mental readiness for fighting, and likewise a relaxation of their readiness as regards their array for battle".{{sfn|Xenophon|1921|p=221}} The whole column, which had been marching right-to-left past the front of the Mantinean army then 'right-faced', so that they were now in a battle line, facing the Mantineans. Epaminondas, who had been at the head of the column (now the left wing), brought some companies of infantry from the extreme right wing, behind the battle line, to reinforce the left wing. By this, he recreated the strengthened left-wing that Thebes had fielded at Leuctra (this time probably made up by all the Boeotians, and not just the Thebans as at Leuctra). On the wings he placed strong forces of cavalry strengthened by light-infantry.{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|pp=514{{ndash}}516}}

Epaminondas then gave the order to advance, catching the enemy off guard, and causing a furious scramble in the Mantinean camp to prepare for battle. The battle unfolded as Epaminondas had planned.{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|pp=516{{ndash}}518}} The cavalry forces on the wings drove back the Athenian and Mantinean cavalry opposite them. Diodorus says that the Athenian cavalry on the Mantinean right wing, although not inferior in quality, could not withstand the missiles from the light-troops that Epaminondas had placed among the Theban cavalry. Meanwhile, the Theban infantry advanced. Xenophon evocatively describes Epaminondas's thinking: "[he] led forward his army prow on, like a trireme, believing that if he could strike and cut through anywhere, he would destroy the entire army of his adversaries. As at Leuctra, the weakened right wing was ordered to hold back and avoid fighting. In the clash of infantry, the issue briefly hung in the balance, but then the Theban left-wing broke through the Spartan line, and the entire enemy phalanx was put to flight. However, at the height of the battle, Epaminondas was mortally wounded by a Spartan, and died shortly thereafter. Following his death, the Thebes and allies made no effort to pursue the fleeing enemy; a testament to Epaminondas's centrality to the war effort.{{sfn|Hanson|1993|p=146}}{{sfn|Tritle|1997|p=94}}{{sfn|Stylianou|1998|pp= 518{{ndash}}519}}