Editing Epaminondas (section)

====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}}