Fields, Nic Leuktra 371 BCE

Sparta's Twilight

Volume 2 of the series From Alexander to Adrianople 3000 BCE-400 CE. The famous Spartan debacle at Leuctra was a turning point both politically and militarily. After its victory in the Peloponnesian War and the takeover of Athenian hegemony in the Greek world, Sparta had proven itself unbeatable in hoplite combat over the following three decades. All that was to change on one afternoon in the height of summer 371 BCE. Cleombrotus was killed along with most of his royal guard when Epaminondas' Theban phalanx, which he had stacked fifty shields deep and led with the veterans of the Sacred Band, mowed down the Spartan king's men. Moreover, the Theban general was a harbinger of the combined arms tactics that were fully developed by Philip II of Macedon (who was once held as a political hostage in the house of Epameinondas) and later used to brilliant effect by his son Alexander the Great in his breathtaking success against the Persian Empire. Epaminondas' innovative military genius had brought the Thebans a decisive victory over the best hoplite force in Greece. The fall of their king effectively meant the end of Sparta's hegemony over the Greek world and facilitated the rise of Thebes, albeit short-lived.