Battle of Cynoscephalae (364 BC)
In 364 BC some Theban exiles conspired with three hundred cavalrymen at Orchomenus (Thebes’ only serious rival for the local hegemony) to overthrow the democracy at Thebes. The plot was betrayed and the Theban demos voted in assembly to raze Orchomenus and kill or sell into slavery its inhabitants, a plan that was carried out.
In the same year Alexander of Pherae once again threatened the members of the Thessalian League, who called for Theban support. Pelopidas went north with three hundred cavalry and was joined by Thessalian infantry at Pharsalus. The two armies met near Cynoscephalae (‘dog’s heads’), two hills lying close together in southern Thessaly, where Alexander had posted his much superior heavy infantry on the rising ground of the foothills. Pelopidas sent his infantry forward to attack and during their advance his cavalry defeated the enemy cavalry in the plain. But his infantry were now losing ground so he recalled his cavalry and set them against the enemy right wing. Outstripping his men, Pelopidas was killed by the spear thrusts of the enemy infantry, but his combined infantry /cavalry attack broke the enemy line and three thousand men were killed in the long pursuit. In autumn the Thebans sent an army of seven thousand infantry and seven hundred cavalry that defeated Alexander, and reduced him to the status of subject-ally, thus ending his efforts to unite Thessaly.
Battle of Mantinea (362 BC)
In 365 BC the dispute over Triphylia led to the outbreak of a war between Elis and Arcadia, with other Peloponnesian states supporting Arcadia but Sparta supporting Elis. In 364 BC Arcadia took control of Olympia and gave control of the Olympic festival to the Pisatans. When the war started to go badly the Tegeans took some of the treasures from Olympia to pay their troops. Mantinea objected and the Tegeans asked for Theban help. In 363 BC The Arcadian League condemned this expropriation, abolished pay for the eparitoi (the Arcadian standing army) and negotiated a peace with Elis.
During the celebrations at Tegea, a Theban officer arrested a number of anti-Thebans, but losing his nerve he released them the following day and withdrew to Thebes. When Arcadia complained, Epaminondas said that the Arcadian League had infringed its treaty with the Boeotian League by negotiating a separate peace with Elis and announced his intention of entering Arcadia to assert Boeotia’s interests. With this threat to invade the Peloponnese the Arcadian League finally split into its two opposing factions: one led by Mantinea and allied with Sparta and Athens, the other led by Tegea and Megalopolis and allied with Boeotia. In July 362 BC Epaminondas led his army through the Isthmus. He paused at Nemea to block the Athenians from joining the Mantineans. On learning that these troops were coming by sea he went on to Tegea.
There he learned that the opposition was gathering at Mantinea, and that Agesilaus was at Pellene with the main body of the Spartan army on his way to join them. Realising that Sparta would now be virtually devoid of defenders, Epaminondas marched during the night over the mountains east of Pellene and descended on Sparta soon after dawn. Agesilaus, however, had managed to get some troops in the city and desperate street-fighting ensued before the main body of Agesilaus’ army entered the city. Now fearful of being caught between Sparta and her allies marching to the relief of the city, Epaminondas returned to Tegea where he sent forces to raid the Mantinean countryside. However, this resulted in a cavalry action in which the Athenians, newly arrived from the north, bested Theban and Thessalian horsemen.
The forces of Mantinea, Sparta, Athens, Achaea and Elis assembled in the valley (modern Tripoli) that held Mantinea and Tegea. At its narrowest part (≈2 km wide) their twenty thousand hoplites formed a line eight ranks deep with cavalry, two thousand strong, and light infantry covering the higher ground on the flanks. The Mantineans were on the far right (west) with the Arcadians and the Spartans to their left; the Athenians were on the far left; the Eleans, Achaeans and others occupied the middle.
Epaminondas’ army consisted of thirty thousand hoplites and three thousand cavalry. He planned to attack en masse the enemy’s right wing, while taking a holding position on the enemy’s left wing. On his far left he put his Thebans in their customary twenty-five-rank deep formation, the rest of his army (the other Boeotians, the Tegeans and other Arcadians, the lesser allies, and the Argives respectively) he filled out to the right at a depth of eight ranks to make his complete formation near equal in width to that of the enemy.
At a given signal his cavalry in deep wedge, sixteen hundred strong and mingled with light-armed slingers and javelin-men, crashed into the enemy cavalry, which was drawn up in files of six with no intermingling infantry. Epaminondas marched behind his cavalry/slingers, at the head of the deep block of Boeotian hoplites. On his right the rest of the line was advancing in echelon, still distant from the enemy.
Epaminondas sent a brigade of Theban cavalry with light infantry to his right flank to discourage any attempt to move troops from there to reinforce the other flank. When as expected the Athenian hoplites advanced to engage the Argives and others on that part of the field, this sudden assault nearly broke them, but the Elean mounted reserve intervened and disaster on this part of the field was averted.
Meanwhile, the massed attack on his left wing had broken through and was wheeling right to attack the enemy line in its flank and rear. But behind them, Epaminondas had been mortally wounded. When his troops became aware of their general being carried from the field they lost all heart for the battle. The leading Boeotian troops, advancing in ignorance of his death, were cut to pieces by the retreating Athenians.
So passed the chance for what could well have been a decisive Theban victory, which for all practical purposes became a draw. With the death of Epaminondas, the Theban era as the dominant power in Greece came to an end. The Spartans, having been again defeated in battle, were unable to replace their losses. The ultimate result of the battle was thus to pave the way for the Macedonian rise as the leading force in Greece.
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