Battle of Mantinea (362 BC)

The Battle of Mantinea was fought on 4 July 362 BC between the Thebans, led by Epaminondas and supported by the Arcadians, Argives, Messenians, Thessalians, Euboeans and the Boeotian league against the Spartans, Eleans, Athenians, and Mantineans.Mackil, Emily Maureen. Creating a common polity: Religion, economy, and politics in the making of the Greek Koinon. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2016. 82 Fn 49 The battle was to determine which of the two alliances would dominate Greece. However, the death of Epaminondas and his intended successors would cost Thebes the military leadership and initiative to maintain Theban supremacy in the region. Similarly, the Spartans were weakened by yet another defeat and loss of troops. Epaminondas's death coupled with the impact on the Spartans of yet another defeat weakened both alliances, and paved the way for Macedonian conquest led by Philip II of Macedon.

Background

During the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.), Thebes allied with the Spartans against Athens. After Sparta's victory against Athens, the Thebans were told that their forts were to be garrisoned by Spartan troops. This decision changed the relationship between Thebes and Sparta from one of allyship to one of occupation by the Spartans. Greek General and Statesman Epaminondas (in some sources spelt Epameinondas) headed a revolt against the garrison of Spartan troops in Boeotian territory in 378 B.C. A significant blow to Spartan hegemony occurred during the Battle of Leuctra in 371 B.C., where Epaminondas stacked his left flank 50 men deep with elite Theban Soldiers of the Sacred Band led by General Pelopidas in anticipation that the Spartans' strongest soldiers would traditionally be stacked on the right flank.G. S. Shrimpton (1971). "The Theban Supremacy in Fourth-Century Literature". Phoenix. Classical Association of Canada. 25 (4): 310–318. . . This strategy proved fruitful for Thebes as the battle cost the lives of many Spartans, including King Cleombrotus. The battle of Leuctra "led, undeniably, to a wholly different world, in which the Spartans were badly weakened and Thebans wildly emboldened."Mackil, Emily Maureen. Creating a common polity: Religion, economy, and politics in the making of the Greek Koinon. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2016. p. 99.

After the Battle of Leuctra in 371 B.C. had shattered the foundations of Spartan hegemony, Thebes attempted to build a new hegemony. (section 44) Epaminondas, the city's chief statesman and general from 420 B.C. to his death, was highly regarded for his military prowess and his tendency to promote virtues such as simplicity and perseverance. The historian Diodorus Siculus stated that after the Battle of Leuctra, Epaminondas "became the foremost man, not only of Thebes, but of all who lived in his time". (book 10, chapter 11, section 2) Due to the high regard from his subjects and recent military victory, Epaminondas sought to continue to expand and establish Theban supremacy. Consequently, the Thebans had marched south into the area traditionally dominated by the Spartans and set up the Arcadian League, a federation of city-states of the central Peloponnesian plateau to contain Spartan influence in the Peloponnese and thereby maintain overall Theban control. At the behest of the Arcadian League in 370 B.C., Epaminondas led a winter campaign in Laconia, plundering the countryside while King Agesilaus II could only watch in Sparta. Epaminondas ended this campaign by repopulating Messene, the capital of Messenia, fortifying it with the finest stone walls in all of Greece, causing Sparta to be surrounded with enemies on all sides. Subsequently, a Persian diplomatic intervention in 368 B.C. spearheaded by Artaxerxes II attempted to negotiate peace among the Greeks, but Sparta desired to continue the war to regain Messenia, while Thebes desired to conquer all of Boeotia, ending any chance of successful negotiations.Rees, Owen (2016). Great Battles of the Classical Greek World. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. p. 118. .

Beginning in 367 B.C., Epaminondas led a bloodless expedition into Achaea with Argive support, installing pro-Theban factions and Theban governors in the region, but these regimes were quickly replaced by Achaean aristocrats who aligned themselves with Sparta as soon as Epaminondas left Achaea.Rees, Owen (2016). Great Battles of the Classical Greek World. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. p. 119. .

In years prior to the Battle of Mantinea, the Spartans had joined with the Eleans (a minor Peloponnesian people with a territorial grudge against the Arcadians) in an effort to undermine the League. When the Arcadians seized the Pan-Hellenic sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia in Elis and celebrated the Olympic Games in 364 B.C., the Eleans counterattacked and instilled fear into the Arcadians.Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 4, section 32. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+7.4.32&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206.Rees, Owen (2016). Great Battles of the Classical Greek World. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. pp 120-121. . In the aftermath of this incident, one of the Arcadian city-states, Mantinea, passed a resolution to stop funding the elite epariti with funds from the sanctuary, causing the attempted ejection of Mantinea from the league and eventual disillusionment of Mantinea with the Arcadian League and Thebes.Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 4, section 33-40. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+7.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206. Diplomatically isolated, the Mantineans sent envoys to Athens and Sparta, causing them to join the Mantineans in a military attack on the Arcadian League, rallying at Mantinea.Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 5, section 1-8. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+7.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206.Rees, Owen (2016). Great Battles of the Classical Greek World. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. p. 122. . Athens decided to support the Spartans, as they resented the growing Theban power. The Athenians also recalled that at the end of Peloponnesian War, the Thebans had demanded that Athens be destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved; the Spartans had resisted these demands. An Athenian army was sent by sea to join the Spartan-led forces, in order to avoid being intercepted on land by Theban forces. Epaminondas then led a Theban army into the Peloponnese to restore order and re-establish Theban/Arcadian hegemony there.Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 5, section 26, 35n.d.. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D5%3Asection%3D26 . Knowing that Sparta was undefended due to their troops assembling at Mantinea, Epaminondas led an unsuccessful sneak attack into Sparta in 362 B.C., foiled by a Cretan who happened to witness the Theban march and encounter Agesilaus II, warning him of the attack. Defeated at Sparta, Epaminondas retreated to Tegea, where his allies assembled.Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 5, section 8-14. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+7.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206.

Battle

Initial skirmish While his army camped in Tegea, Epaminondas sent his cavalry to Mantinea with a mission to raze and plunder the Mantinean countryside.Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 5, section 14. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+7.5.14&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206.Rees, Owen (2016). Great Battles of the Classical Greek World. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. p. 124. .Butera, C. Jacob; Sears, Matthew A. (2019). Battles and Battlefields of Ancient Greece. Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. p. 336. . However, the Mantineans begged the Athenian cavalry, who had just stopped at nearby Cleonae for recuperation, to attack the Theban cavalry. Despite being tired and hungry, the Athenian cavalry rode out to Mantinea and successfully engaged the Thebans in a bitter skirmish in which many Athenians, including Gryllus, son of Xenophon, died before routing the Thebans.Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 5, section 15-17. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+7.5&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206. Due to the consecutive setbacks the Thebans faced so far in this campaign, Epaminondas is said to have believed that he must regain his honour through winning a decisive battle. Xenophon wrote that Epaminondas believed that, since he had so far been unsuccessful in this campaign, "if he were victorious, he would make up for all these things, while if he were slain, he deemed that such an end would be honourable for one who was striving to leave to his fatherland dominion over Peloponnesus."Xenophon. "Xenophon, Hellenica Carleton L. Brownson, Ed." Xenophon, Hellenica, Book 7, chapter 5, section 18. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.+Hell.+7.5.18&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0206.

Main action The two armies met near Mantinea in a flat plain hemmed in by two mountains.Butera, C. Jacob; Sears, Matthew A. (2019). Battles and Battlefields of Ancient Greece. Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. p. 319. . The Spartans, Athenians, Eleans and Mantineans, alongside smaller contingents of some of the Achaeans and Euboeans, were led by Podares of Mantinea and Cephisodorus of Marathon, the commander of the Athenian cavalry. The strength of the Spartan alliance numbered at 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, with the Athenians contributing 6,000 and the Spartans contributing 1,000.Rees, Owen (2016). Great Battles of the Classical Greek World. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military. p. 123. . Epaminondas's Thebans were assisted by the Arcadians loyal to the League, principally those from the city-states of Megalopolis (founded by the Thebans when they were last in the Peloponnese, as the Arcadian federal capital) and Tegea (the traditional leading city-state of the Arcadians), with additional support from most of the Achaeans, Argives, Messenians, and Thessalians. The Theban army included contingents from city-states of the pro-Theban Boeotian League. The Theban cavalry was supported by lightly armed running infantry, known as hamippoi, integrated into the cavalry formation.