Читать книгу A Companion to Greek Warfare - Группа авторов - Страница 41

After their decisive victory at Leuctra, the Thebans immediately struck at Spartan control of the Peloponnese with a series of successful invasions, in the course of which the Spartans witnessed their own territory devastated for the first time (Xen. Hell. 6.5.24–32; Diod. Sic.15.64–65). Worse yet, the Thebans permanently liberated Messenia (Diod. Sic. 15. 66.1; Paus. 4.27), not only putting an end to centuries of Spartan domination but also crippling Spartan infrastructure. Although the Thebans also intervened in both central and northern Greece, they did not impose direct control on their allies outside of Boeotia,⁴³ which led to constant shifting of alliances and jockeying for position among previously subordinate states, particularly in the Peloponnese. This Peloponnesian infighting culminated at the Battle of Mantinea in 362, when despite the expectation that the battle would determine the leadership of Greece, the death of the Theban leader Epameinondas led to a stalemate, and “there was even more confusion and disorder in Greece than there had been before,” as Xenophon states in the pessimistic conclusion to his Hellenica (7.5.27).