Читать книгу A Companion to Greek Warfare - Группа авторов - Страница 40

The King’s Peace was negotiated with the Persians by the Spartan nauarch Antalcidas. In exchange for signing over the Greeks of Asia Minor to Persia, the Spartans were given a free hand within Greece (Isoc. 4.127), and the autonomy clause at one stroke dashed the hegemonial aspirations of Thebes over Boeotia, Athens’ hopes to establish a new maritime empire, and the political union of Corinth and Argos, forcing Corinth to return to the fold of the Peloponnesian League.³⁹ The Spartans used the authority conferred upon them to enforce the terms of the treaty to punish the Arcadian city of Mantinea for evincing insufficient loyalty during the Corinthian War (Xen. Hell. 5.2.1–7), and then to suppress the increasingly powerful Chalcidian League, led by the city of Olynthus (Xen. Hell. 5.2.11–24, 37–43, 3.1–9, 18–20, 26). Even more egregiously, in 382 the Spartans occupied the Theban acropolis, garrisoned the city, and imposed a pro-Spartan government (Xen. Hell. 5.2.25–36), a blatant violation of the autonomy clause.

This act of hybris (cf. Xen. Hell. 5.4.1) marked the climax of Spartan power and matters rapidly went downhill for them afterward. The first nail in their coffin was the recapture of the Theban acropolis by a group of exiles who had taken refuge in Athens; they assassinated the pro-Spartan rulers and forced the Spartan garrison to withdraw.⁴⁰ Successive Spartan military incursions into Boeotia were limited and unsuccessful, and the attempted raid on Attica by the Spartan harmost Sphodrias succeeded only in exacerbating tensions with Athens.⁴¹ The Thebans re-established the Boeotian League and the Athenians founded a second Athenian naval confederacy, of which the Thebans were founding members. Mutual antipathy for Sparta did not make easy bedfellows, however, and the Athenians became increasingly nervous of the rapid growth of Theban power, particularly after Pelopidas’ reorganization of the Theban army around a core unit of elite warriors, the Sacred Band, led to the unexpected defeat of a larger force of Spartans at the Battle of Tegyra in 375 (Diod. Sic. 15.37; cf. 15.81.2; Plut. Pel. 16). Tensions culminated in renewed peace negotiations in 375, but the peace was short-lived thanks to continuing conflict between Sparta and Athens, as well as aggressive Theban expansion, including the destruction of Athens’ loyal ally Plataea (Isoc. 13; Paus. 9.1.8; cf. Xen. Hell. 6.3.1). In 371, both Sparta and Athens agreed to put aside their differences, and hammered out a peace agreement, which the Thebans refused to sign when the Spartans would not recognize their hegemony over Boeotia (Xen. Hell. 6.3.18–20; Diod. Sic. 15.50.4). Resolving to force the Thebans to comply with the terms of the peace, the Spartans sent an army into Boeotia, which engaged with the deepened Theban phalanx at Leuctra. Unable to cope with novel military strategy, the Spartans were severely defeated and the battle ended Sparta’s traditional hegemony of Greece.⁴²