Thebes

The relatively small group of men who were responsible for the rise of Thebes, led by the anti-Spartan conspirators of 379, remained dominant after the battle of Leuktra (Buckler 1980: 34-45, 130-8). Of these men Pelopidas and Epameinondas were the most important. Both were of aristocratic families and superb soldiers; but where Pelopidas was wealthy, outgoing, and a family man, Epameinondas was poor, an austere student of Pythagoreanism, unmarried, and devoted to intellectual pursuit (Diodoros 15.39.2; 16.2.3). Both men were innovative military thinkers; Pelopidas was the first to deploy the elite Sacred Band as a tactical unit, instead of scattering its members in the regular hoplite ranks. Epameinondas made novel use of the already traditionally deeper than usual Theban line by placing the Thebans on the left at Leuktra to face the elite of the Spartan line. Perhaps more significantly he recognized that the key to destroying Sparta’s power was not simply to defeat her army but to damage Sparta’s infrastructure so badly that the system would collapse. This he achieved with his unprecedented invasions of Lakonia. These mark him as the true guiding hand of Theban preeminence.

Yet Epameinondas does not seem to have had the usual imperial ambitions for Thebes. While it was a top priority to secure Boiotia from foreign invasion, most notably Spartan, Epameinondas did not institute any of the practices typical of an imperial hegemon. There were no taxes or tribute collected, no oaths demanded, nor did he dictate an ally’s form of government. Epameinondas refrained from executing Greek captives or selling them into slavery, an exceedingly rare example of practical policy motivated by panhellenic spirit (Diodoros 15.57.1; Xenophon Hellenika 7.1.42; Pausanias 9.15.3). His moderate political stance may have stemmed in part from his personal asceticism. A number of anecdotes survive illustrating his Pythagorean self-restraint. He shunned wealth so much that he supposedly owned only one cloak and had to stay inside, naked, when it was being cleaned; he ate frugally; he treated women as equals; he was incorruptible by money, power, or sex (Ailianos Varia Historia 5.5; Plutarch Moralia 192d-4c). In fact, unlike the case for most other great figures of ancient Greece, no parallel historical tradition survives that is hostile to Epameinondas. The worst unfriendly writers such as the Athenians Xenophon and Isokrates can do is simply omit most of Epameinondas’ accomplishments from their works altogether (Diodoros 15.88; Buckler 1980: 263-77 on sources for Theban hegemony).

Not all Thebans shared Epameinondas’ highly unusual benevolence toward fellow Greeks. While he was away with the short-lived Boiotian fleet in 364 the Thebans destroyed Orchomenos, their long-time nemesis in Boiotia (Diodoros 15.79.3-6). In establishing their control over the Boiotian Confederacy the Thebans had also dealt harshly with rivals such as Plataiai and Thespiai (Diodoros 15.46.6). Yet the Theban decision not to construct a political apparatus, like Sparta’s Peloponnesian League or the Second Athenian Sea League, meant they lacked a crucial means for effective control of their allies. There was nothing like the Second Athenian League’s synhe-drion or council of allies, for example, through which Thebes’ allies could voice their opinions or, more importantly, settle internal disputes. That the lack of such a mechanism was a serious drawback became increasingly apparent as various Peloponnesian cities, newly released from Spartan control, leapt to settle old scores or to expand at the expense of their neighbors. Elis and Arkadia, for example, quarreled over possession of Triphylia, a dispute that would eventually split Thebes’ allies and lead to war (Buckler 2003: 299; 1980: 73-4, 220-7; Cartledge 1987: 310-11).

With the various Peloponnesian states suddenly enjoying much more control over their own destinies a more active and ambitious Theban presence might have maintained at least a semblance of the stability Sparta had imposed on the Peloponnese. But with the Thebans content to let the Peloponnesian cities to a large degree pursue their own courses there was more infighting and competition for prominence than ever. Some cities, such as Korinth, stayed loyal to Sparta. The Mantineians, whom Sparta had dispersed into villages in 385, refounded their city with stout walls and, along with the Tegeans, led a democratic movement to form an Arkadian League (Xenophon Hellenika 6.5.3-6). Sparta’s traditional Peloponnesian foe Argos supported the Arkadians as did Elis, which hoped to get back territories the Spartans had seized from it about 30 years earlier, most notably the above-mentioned Triphylia (Xenophon Hellenika 6.5.23). When King Agesilaos of Sparta mobilized to invade Arkadia, the Arkadians asked Athens for help but the Athenians stayed neutral. The

Arkadians then turned to Thebes. Although it was late in the year (probably 370), the Thebans agreed to help. A promise of ten talents from Elis to help finance the expedition was an added inducement (Xenophon Hellenika 6.5.19-20).

Epameinondas set out with about 7,000 Boiotian hoplites and perhaps another

10.000  troops from Euboia, Phokis, Lokris, and Akarnania. The troops already in Arkadia probably numbered about 20,000, giving Epameinondas a total of about

40.000  hoplites, with perhaps another 30,000 light-armed and auxiliary forces (Xenophon Hellenika 6.5.23; Plutarch Agesilaos 31; Diodoros 15.62; Hanson 1999: 79-82). In the meantime, Agesilaos had already ravaged portions of Arkadia (the Arkadians stayed within their walls awaiting the arrival of the Thebans) and returned to Lakonia, thinking it too late in the year for further campaigning (Xenophon Hellenika 6.5.21).

Epameinondas split his huge force and approached Lakonia from four directions. As expected, large numbers of Lakonian helots and periokoi joined the invaders. For the first time in 600 years Lakonia felt the fire and sword of an invader. Famed for disdaining defensive walls, the Spartans spread their thin manpower to defend key positions in the city (Plutarch Agesilaos 31.1-3). The flooded Eurotas river also helped protect the city itself; the rest of Lakonia, however, was thoroughly ravaged and looted. The physical damage inflicted in Lakonia, though extensive, was not permanent, nor was it as serious as the lasting blow to Spartan prestige and pride (Xenophon Hellenika 6.5.27-32; Diodoros 15.65.5; Buckler 1980: 75-82).

Epameinondas’ next step did cause lasting damage, however. Although much of his original force had probably been content to loot Lakonia and return home, Epameinondas led his Boiotians and remaining allies into Messenia and founded near Mt. Ithome a new capital city of Messene. He invited all former Messenians, their descendents, and anyone else interested to join the new community (Diodoros 15.66; Pausanias 4.22.3). He stayed for several months, long enough for walls to be built and the city to be secure from Spartan counter-attack, before leading his army back to Thebes (Plutarch Agesilaos 32.8, Pelopidas 24.1; Ailianos Varia Historia 13.42; Buckler 1980: 86-90).

The expedition had been enormously successful: an Arkadian League, democratic and friendly to Thebes, was securely in place as an obstacle to Sparta’s north; the loss of Messenia, which had for centuries supported materially the Spartan ruling class, crippled Sparta while at the same time the new Messenian state served as a hostile barrier to the west. Yet when he got back to Thebes, Epameinondas found himself on trial, charged with retaining his command illegally after his term as boiotarch had expired while he was still in the field. He was also criticized for not burning the city of Sparta. He responded that he would gladly suffer execution so long as the Thebans would inscribe in public an epitaph which noted how he had forced the Thebans to defeat the Spartans at Leuktra, freeing both Thebes and much of Greece, and that he had refounded Messene as a check on Sparta. The charges were dropped without a vote being taken (Nepos Epaminondas 8.3-5).

Over the next few years Epameinondas led several subsequent invasions of the Peloponnese with much less dramatic results. Although the Arkadian League would split and the Thebans eventually found themselves fighting former allies, the overall effect of Epameinondas’ policy of weakening Sparta was lasting. In 368 the Arkadians founded a new community based in the new walled city of Megalopolis to serve as the political headquarters of the League (Diodoros 15.72.4). The Thebans sent a force to protect the city as it was being built. Within a few years of Leuktra Sparta thus found herself surrounded by a ring of fortified cities: Messene, Megalopolis, and Mantineia. Though the Thebans did not seize direct political control of the Peloponnese, and despite the occasional unruliness of their allies there, Boiotia would never again be vulnerable to an invasion by Sparta.