Editing Plataea (section)

== Peace of Antalcidas (The King's Peace) ==
The exiled Plataeans continued to live at Athens until the imposition [[Peace of Antalcidas]] by the Great King of Persia (387 BC), which guaranteed the autonomy of all Greek cities. The Spartans, who were now anxious to humble the power of Thebes, took advantage of it to restore the Plataeans to their native city.<ref>Pausasias, ix.1.4; Isocrates, ''Plataicus'', §13ff.</ref> 

But the Plataeans did not long retain possession of their city. With Thebes ever a threat to their independence, Sparta kept a garrison there to protect it, and at the Boeotian cities of [[Thespiae]] and [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]] as well.  In the 370s, Athens and Thebes went to war against Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians used Thespiae and Plataea as staging areas for a series of incursions into Boeotia to ravage the Theban countryside. After several years of this, the Thebans, sometimes with Athenian help, began to get the upper hand in these encounters. In 375 BC Sparta was too busy with other campaigns to send forces to the area and Thebes took the opportunity to compel these cities back into the [[Boeotian Federation]].  Though not under assault, the Plataeans had lost their independence once more.

Over the next couple of years, the Plataeans increasingly resented Thebes' heavy hand. At some point – the year is reported variously as 373, 372, and 371 BC by ancient sources – they reached out to Athens in an attempt to restore the long-standing alliance between the two cities. This, of course, incensed the Thebans and they attacked the Plataea before Athens could respond. 

Unlike the attack in 427 BC, this time the Thebans expelled the Plataeans rather than killing them - sending them once again to Athens, after which they razed the city. They next did the same to neighboring Thespiae. (The wrongs done to the Plataeans by Thebes were set forth in a speech of Isocrates, entitled ''Plataicus'', which was probably delivered at this time by a Plataean speaker before the Assembly at Athens. At any rate, it was later published and preserved among Isocrates works.) As a result of these actions, Athens backed out of its alliance with Thebes and sought peace with Sparta.<ref>Xenophon, ''The Histories'', vi.3.1; Diodorus, xv.46.4; Pausanias, ix.1.4-8, Isocrates, ''Plataicus''.</ref>

In 371 BC, Sparta lost a major battle to Thebes at [[Battle of Leuctra|Leuktra]], in Boeotia.<ref>Xenophon, vi.4.3-15.</ref>  For the next two decades Thebes reigned supreme in Greece, until the rise of [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedon]] and the campaign of [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip II]] to extend its hegemony throughout the region. During this time, the Plataeans remained in exile at Athens.