In pursuance of the treaty the Spartans withdrew their harmosts and garrisons, and the Athenians recalled their fleet from the Ionian Sea. Cleombrotus was in Phocis at the head of the Spartan army and he now received orders to invade Boeotia. The two armies met on the plain of Leuctra, southwest of Thebes. The forces of each are not accurately known, but it seems that the Theban force of about nine thousand was slightly outnumbered by the Peloponnesians.
To offset the natural tendency of the phalanx in battle drifting right it was normal to place the most experienced hoplites on the right. Cleombrotus moved to attack, extending his right flank and wheeling to attack the Boeotian left. Epaminondas, however, had formed an unusually heavy phalanx (fifty ranks deep) on the left with the Sacred Band led by Pelopidas as a separate contingent. Epaminondas’ shallower centre and right were placed progressively further to the rear, i.e. in echelon formation. The Spartan right was hurled back with a loss of about one thousand men of whom four hundred were Spartiates, and Cleombrotus himself was killed.
Immediately after the battle the Thebans sent a message to Thessaly asking Jason of Pherae for reinforcements. He responded instantly, marching south with fifteen hundred mercenaries and five hundred cavalry. When he arrived at Leuctra the Thebans proposed a joint attack to destroy the Spartans and their allies, but he persuaded Epaminondas to avoid further risks and allow the Spartans to withdraw from Boeotia.
When news of the disaster reached Sparta the ephors sent out Archidamus III (Eurypontid; r.360-338 BC), the son of the bedridden Agesilaus, with the remaining two morai and other reserves northwards collecting allied contingents from Tegea, Mantinea, Achaea, Sicyon, Corinth and others. At Aegosthena on the east coast of the Corinthian Gulf, he met the survivors of Cleombrotus’ army. Appalled at the Theban losses, Archidamus returned to Corinth and disbanded his army.
On his march homeward Jason destroyed the fortifications of the Spartan controlled town of Heraclea Trachinia to ensure himself free access into Central Greece in the future. In 371/0 BC he annexed Perrhaebia to the north of Thessaly and concluded an alliance with Amyntas. From Malis north to Macedonia and from Epirus east to Magnesia, regions surrounding Thessaly were brought into alliance with Jason as tagos of the Thessalian Confederacy. To increase his influence Jason planned to attend the Pythian Games at Delphi in 370 BC, but shortly before leaving for Delphi he was approached by seven young men and they murdered him. Jason was succeeded by his brother Polydorus, who was in turn murdered by Jason’s son Alexander (r.369-358 BC).
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