One of the salient characteristics of political development during the fourth century in Greece is the steady eclipse of the polis - the city-state - which is traditionally portrayed as the quintessentially Greek way to organize a community, so much so that Aristotle could famously write "man is a political animal," by which he meant, to render it more exactly if less elegantly, that human beings are animals whom nature has designed to live in a polis. Even if many city-states did survive into later times (for example, most prominently Sparta and Athens), in the fourth century, when Aristotle was writing those words, the polis was becoming outmoded.
Although the Lacedaemonians fought tooth and nail against them, league-states steadily came to dominate the political landscape in Greece as the fourth century wore on. Not only were old Leagues revived, but new ones came into being. For the (new) Chalcidian and the (old) Boeotian Leagues, see in the text. In 370 to 369, with assistance from the Boeotians, the Arcadian League was also revived (Diod. XV 59 and 62; cf. Xen. Hell. VII 1,22-24 - though many now view this league as a new structure). The Thessalian League always remained in existence, yet its most important office, that of the tagos (an elective king), had long since fallen into abeyance when Jason, the Tyrant of Pherae, revived it circa 375 (Xen. Hell. VI 1 and 4,20-32). The Achaian League clearly still existed in the fourth century when it made a treaty with Corone (SEG XIV 375), but it had disintegrated by 280 when four cities re-formed it (Pol. II 41,12-13). The other original eight cities rejoined the League soon enough, and in the course of time it would encompass almost the entire Peloponnese (see chaps. 21-23). The Phocian League rose to prominence in the fourth century as well (see chap. 18), and the Aetolian League would do so in the third.
Unfortunately, a quirk of Greek usage can make it difficult to notice the rise of the leagues in this period. Most major texts were written by polis-dwellers for whom it came naturally to call any state by its chief city. Thus Demosthenes (II 6) speaks of a proposed alliance between the Athenians and the "Olynthians" after Olynthus, the Chalcidian League's largest city. The treaty between the League and Philip of Macedon survives (Harding, Nr. 67), and the text says what Demosthenes ought to have said: the "Chalcidians." Xenophon plays the same trick in the Hellenica, almost always saying the "Olynthians" or the "Thebans" rather than the constitutionally correct the "Chalcidians" or the "Boeotians."
Lacedaemonians next undertook a naval campaign. They collected enough triremes from their allies to attempt to prevent transport ships with grain from reaching the Peiraeus. The Athenians in response manned some 83 triremes and defeated the Lacedaemonian fleet of 65 in the sound between the islands of Paros and Naxos (Diod. XV 34; Xen. Hell. V 4,60-61). During this year the Thebans - possibly one should already say “Boeotians” - could have made considerable progress with the rebuilding of the Boeotian League.
In his account of the year 375, when the Lacedaemonians again did not invade Boeotia, Xenophon remarks that the Thebans “went to war against the cities of Boeotia and once more gained control over them” (Hell. V 4,63). Diodorus (XV 37) does record an attack on Orchomenus around this time, but Xenophon (Hell. VI 4,10) probably implies that Orchomenus was still fighting against the Boeotians’ forces in the late 370s. The Boeotians, moreover, did not take Plataea until late 373 (Paus. IX 1). Xenophon (Hell. VI 3,1) implies that Thespiae was still outside of the Boeotian League just before the Battle of Leuctra in 371, and according to Pausanias (IX 14) the Boeotians did not conquer it until after the battle. The reconstruction of the Boeotian League proceeded, then, in stages down to just after Leuctra in 371. Despite Xenophon’s statement, it cannot all have taken place in 375.
In 375, however, the Athenian commander Timotheus did circumnavigate the Peloponnese. He persuaded the Corcyraeans, Acarnanians, and Cephalle-nians to join the Second Athenian League (Harding, Nr. 41 and 42) and defeated another Lacedaemonian fleet off Alyzeia near Leucas (Xen. Hell. V 4,63-66). Since the dissolution of the King’s Peace in the aftermath of Spho-drias’ raid, the Lacedaemonians had fared badly in the fighting. In the summer of the next year, 374, the Persians, possibly at the Lacedaemonians’ request, brokered a renewal of the King’s Peace (Philochorus, BNJ 328, Fr. 151; Diod. XV 38; cf. Xen. Hell. VI 2,1 who, however, speaks of a Peace limited to Athens and Sparta). The Boeotian League - insofar as it had been rebuilt - remained outside of the Peace though the Boeotian city of Plataea, which stood outside of the League, did swear it (Isoc. XIV 5).
The new Peace, however, fell apart almost immediately, as fighting began again in the west on Zacynthos and Corcyra. In 373, one Lacedaemonian attack on Zacynthos and two on Corcyra failed miserably (Diod. XV 45-47; cf. Xen. Hell. VI 2,2-39). The Boeotians, meanwhile, captured Plataea and razed it (Diod. XV 46; for the date: Paus. IX 1; cf. Xen. Hell. VI 3,1). Once again, the war was going badly for the Lacedaeomonians, who again turned to diplomacy in an attempt to restore the situation. In 371 they participated in a second Persian-brokered renewal of the King’s Peace (Diod. XV 50 [see also Dion. Hal. Lys. 12]; cf. Xen. Hell. VI 3,18-20). This time they accepted at least part of the Athenians’ practical working definition of autonomy, namely the withdrawal of all governors and garrisons. Once again the only major state to remain outside of the Peace was the Boeotian League.
In 371 the Lacedaemonians marched against the Boeotians for the first time since the spring of 376, and the Boeotians faced them alone. The two armies met at Leuctra. The Lacedaemonians’ troops outnumbered the Boeotians’ (see Diod. XV 53 and 56 - probably exaggerating, however), so the issue ought to have been a foregone conclusion. Commanding the Boeotians, however, was Epaminondas, the most brilliant military innovator of the period (whom Xenophon contrives to delete from his account of the battle). The Lacedaemonians under King Cleombrotus drew up their ranks and files in the traditional order, with files twelve men deep and the king on the right wing. Epaminondas thinned out most of his line in order to put a wedge fifty men deep opposite the place where Cleombrotus stood (Xen. Hell. VI 4,12; cf. Diod. XV 55). Xenophon argues that the troops around Cleombrotus initially had the better of it in the fighting, but even he cannot deny that all the Lacedaemonian troops in that section of the battlefield were soon hurled back under the weight of the Boeotian files, fifty men deep, and that the entire Lacedaemonian left wing gave way as well as it saw the right being destroyed. Of 700 Spartiates present, 400 (including Cleombrotus) had fallen, as well as 600 others (Xen. Hell. VI 4,15; Diod. XV 56 exaggerates and says 4,000). The loss of 400 Spartiates meant that there now were fewer than a thousand of them left (Arist. Pol. 1270a).
Leuctra destroyed Sparta as a major power in Greece even as it raised the Boeotian League to pre-eminence. Shortly after Leuctra, surely, whichever Boeotian towns had not yet rejoined the League (Thespiae is the only one known), were forced to do so.
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