In autumn 378 BC Agesilaus invaded Boeotia with fifteen hundred horsemen and eighteen thousand hoplites. On entering Theban territory he found that a trench and palisade had been constructed around the most valuable land. Not skilled in attacking such positions, and since the Thebans and Athenians refused to meet him on level ground, Agesilaus had to content himself with destroying the countryside on his side of the barrier, while the enemy troops marched parallel with him on the other side. He returned in 377 BC with a similar result. In spring 376 BC he was ill. Cleombrotus led the raid but he failed to carry the passes over Cithaeron to enter Boeotia because the enemy had taken control of them that winter. During this time Thebes was dealing with the Spartan garrisons in Boeotia and developing a formidable military machine.
After several years of campaigning, the Thebans succeeded in driving Spartan garrisons out of every city in Boeotia except Orchomenus. As each Boeotian state was liberated, a pro-Theban democracy came into power. Thus the Thebans were able to reconstitute the Boeotian League as a democratic federation with an executive body composed of seven officials, or boeotarchs, elected from seven districts of Boeotia.
In 378 BC when Agesilaus withdrew from Boeotia he left Phoebidas behind as harmost at Thespiae to continue the attacks on Theban territory. Thebes sent a force led by Gorgidas to attack Thespiae, but Phoebidas’ peltasts forced the Thebans to retreat. Phoebidas, sensing a rout, pursued too closely and the Thebans turned around and charged. Phoebidas was killed by the Theban cavalry, and his peltasts fled back to Thespiae.
Shortly after the Spartan garrison was expelled from Thebes in 379 BC it was probably Gorgidas that formed the elite force known as the Sacred Band comprising 150 pairs of homosexual pairs, the theory being that each man would fight better to defend his partner. In 375 BC, the command of the band was transferred to the younger boeotarch Pelopidas.
Learning that the Spartan garrison of Orchomenus had departed on an expedition to Locris (east?), Pelopidas set out with the Sacred Band and a small force Hearing that a force had been dispatched from Sparta to reinforce the Orchomenus’ garrison Pelopidas decided to withdraw, but before the Thebans could reach safety at Tegyra they met the original Spartan garrison returning from Locris.
The Sacred Band of 300 hoplites faced a Spartan force of between 1000 and 1800 hoplites. Pelopidas ordered his cavalry to charge while his infantry formed up in their deep formation. The Theban phalanx broke through the Spartan line then turned to attack the vulnerable flanks of the Spartans to either side. The Spartan force broke and fled but the Theban pursuit was limited by the proximity of Orchomenus. For the first time in Greek warfare Spartan hoplites had been defeated by an equal or smaller number of hoplites.
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