Epaminondas: Encyclopedia II - Epaminondas - 371 BC

Epaminondas - 371 BC

Epaminondas - Peace Conference of 371

No source states exactly when Epaminondas was first elected a Boeotarch, but by 371 BC he was in office and, the following year, leading the Boeotian delegation to a peace conference held at Sparta. A feeble attempt at a Common Peace had been made in 375, but desultory fighting between Athens and Sparta had resumed by 373 (at the latest). Thebes, meanwhile, was strengthening its confederation. By 371 Athens and Sparta were again war-weary, so a conference was called. There, Epaminondas caused a drastic break with Sparta when he insisted on signing not for the Thebans alone, but for all the Boeotians. Agesilaus refused to allow this, insisting that the cities of Boeotia should be independent; Epaminondas countered that if this were to be the case, the cities of Laconia should be as well. Irate, Agesilaus struck the Thebans from the document. The delegation returned to Thebes, and both sides marshaled for war^[10].

Epaminondas - Leuctra

Immediately following the failure of the peace talks, orders were sent out from Sparta to the Spartan king Cleombrotus, who was at the head of an army in the pastoral district of Phocis, commanding him to march directly to Boeotia. Skirting north to avoid mountain passes where the Boeotians were prepared to ambush him, Cleombrotus entered Boeotian territory from an unexpected direction and quickly seized a fort and captured several triremes. Marching towards Thebes, he camped at Leuctra, in the territory of Thespiae. Here, the Boeotian army came to meet him. The Spartan army contained some 10,000 hoplites, 700 of whom were the elite warriors known as Spartiates. The Boeotians opposite them numbered only 6,000, bolstered by a cavalry superior to that of the Peloponnesians'^[11].

In arranging his troops before the battle, Epaminondas utilized a strategy as yet unheard of in Greek warfare. Traditionally, a phalanx lined up for battle with the elite troops on the right flank—the "flank of honor." Thus, in the Spartan phalanx, Cleombrotus and his Spartiates were on the right, while the less experienced Peloponnesian allies were on the left. Needing to counter the Spartans' numerical advantage, Epaminondas implemented two tactical innovations. First, he and his Thebans lined up on the left, with the elite Sacred Band under Pelopidas on the extreme left flank. Second, recognizing that he could not extend his troops to match the width of the Peloponnesian phalanx without unacceptably thinning his line, he abandoned all attempt to match the Spartans in width. Instead, he deepened his phalanx on the left, making it fifty ranks deep instead of the conventional eight to twelve. When battle was joined, the strengthened flank was to march forward to attack at double speed, while the weaker flank was to retreat and delay combat. The tactic of the deep phalanx had been anticipated by Pagondas, another Theban general, who used a 25 man deep formation at the battle of Delium; the staggered line of attack, however, was a new innovation. Thus, Epaminondas had invented the military tactic of refusing one's flank^[12].

The fighting opened with a cavalry encounter, in which the Thebans were victorious. The Spartan cavalry was driven back into the ranks of the phalanx, disrupting the order of the infantry. Seizing the advantage, the Boeotians pressed the attack. Cleombrotus was killed, and although the Spartans held on for long enough to rescue his body, their line was soon broken by the sheer force of the Theban assault. At a critical juncture, Pelopidas led the Sacred Band in an all-out assault, and the Spartans were soon forced to flee. The Peloponnesian allies, seeing the Spartans put to flight, also broke and ran, and the entire army retreated in disarray. Four thousand Peloponnesians were killed versus some 300 Boeotian dead. Most importantly, 400 of the 700 Spartiates on the scene were killed, a catastrophic loss that posed a serious threat to Sparta's future war-making abilities.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "371 BC", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki