RECAPITULATION.
The second period of Spartan supremacy was signalized by the abolition of free governments throughout Greece. Athens, under the Thirty Tyrants, suffered for eight months a reign of terror. Thrasybulus, with the Athenian exiles, effected the expulsion of the tyrants, the restoration of free government, and a conservative reaction which occasioned, among other results, the execution of Socrates. The Spartans plundered the sacred land of Elis, and expelled or enslaved all the Messenians who remained upon their soil. Agesilaus, succeeding his brother as king of Sparta, became involved in war with Persia. In the contest with Thebes, Lysander was killed, and the king Pausanias disgraced. During the Corinthian War which followed, Sparta was victorious at Corinth and Coronæa, but suffered a disastrous overthrow from the Persian fleet under Conon, in the battle of Cnidus, which resulted in the sudden downfall of her supremacy. The Long Walls of Athens and the fortifications of the Piræus were rebuilt, under the superintendence of Conon. The Peace of Antalcidas gave to the Persian king a controlling voice in Grecian affairs, with the sovereignty of Asiatic Greece, and of the islands of Cyprus and Clazomenæ.
Supremacy of Thebes.
B. C. 386.
227. The Spartan hatred of Thebes was not allayed by the return of peace. To annoy the latter city, Platæa[56] was rebuilt, and as many as possible of its former citizens brought back. An expedition against Olynthus gave occasion for a more decided act of hostility. Phœ´bidas, on his march through Bœotia, happened to approach Thebes on a festal day, when the citadel was occupied only by women. Aided by some citizens who were in secret alliance with Sparta, he seized the Cadmea, had the chief of the patriotic party put to death on a false charge, and effected a revolution in the government which made Thebes only a subservient ally of Sparta. The Lacedæmonians pretended to join in the general indignation of Greece at this outrage; but though they dismissed Phœbidas, they kept the Cadmea.
B. C. 382.
228. Olynthian War. The war in Macedonia was now prosecuted with the aid of Thebes. Olynthus, in the Chalcidian peninsula, had become the head of a powerful confederacy of Grecian cities; but Acan´thus and Apollo´nia refused to join it, and applied to Sparta for help. Amyn´tas, king of Macedonia, took their part, and joined his troops with those of Eudamidas. Olynthus, by means of its excellent cavalry, held out bravely for four years; but at last it fell, and the league was dissolved. The Macedonian ports returned into subjection to Amyntas, while the Greek cities joined the Spartan alliance. Sparta was now leagued on all sides with the enemies of Greece: with the Persians, with Dionysius of Syracuse, and with Macedon. By the destruction of the Olynthian League, she had removed the chief obstacle to the Macedonian power, which was soon to overthrow the freedom of the Greeks.
B. C. 379.
229. Thebes remained three years in the control of the Lacedæmonian party. But the citizens were discontented, and a company of exiles at Athens were awaiting an opportunity of vengeance. Among them was Pelop´idas, a noble and wealthy youth, who had already distinguished himself by his patriotism. He was the ardent friend of Epam´inon´das, a Theban of greater age and still more exalted virtue than himself. A plan was now formed among the exiles for the deliverance of Thebes. Pelopidas was its leader; but Epaminondas at first held back, because the execution of the plot required deceit, and the possible shedding of innocent blood. He was a strict Pythagorean; and so pure were his principles, that he was never known to trifle with the truth even in jest, or to sacrifice it for any interest.
230. Phyl´lidas, secretary of the Theban government, was in the plot, and took a leading part in its execution. He invited to supper the two polemarchs, Ar´chias and Philip´pus, with the principal Spartan leaders; and when they were sufficiently stupefied with eating and drinking, he proposed to introduce some Theban ladies. Before these entered, a messenger brought a letter to Archias, and begged his attention, as it contained a matter of serious importance. But the polemarch only thrust the letter under the cushions of his couch, saying, “Serious matters tomorrow!”
Pelopidas and his friends, who had arrived in the city disguised as hunters, now entered the banquet-room in the long white veils and festive garb of women. They were loudly welcomed by the half-drunken guests, and dispersed themselves with apparent carelessness among the company; but as one of the Spartan lords attempted to lift the veil of the person who was addressing him, he received a mortal wound. It was the signal for a general attack. Swords were drawn from beneath the silken garments, and no Spartan left the room alive. The prisons were now opened, and five hundred Thebans, who had been immured there for their love of freedom, were added to the armed force of the revolutionists. As day dawned, all citizens who valued liberty were summoned to the market-place. A joyful assembly was held, the first since the Spartan usurpation. The Lacedæmonians in the citadel were besieged, and their expected reinforcements being cut off, they speedily surrendered.
231. It was now the depth of winter, but when the news arrived at Sparta, instant preparations were made for war. Cleombrotus led an army into Bœotia, and Athens was called to account for having sheltered the exiles. Unable to enter upon war with Sparta, the Athenians consented to sacrifice their two generals who had rendered the most efficient aid to the Thebans. One was executed, and the other, having fled, was sentenced to banishment. The Thebans feared that they should be left to fight single-handed against Sparta. In order to compel Athens to take part in the war, they bribed Spho´drias, the Spartan general, to invade her territory. He entered Attica in the night and committed various ravages, but retired the next day. The Spartan government disclaimed all knowledge of the affair, and brought Sphodrias to trial for it; but, through the influence of Agesilaus, he was acquitted. Athens immediately made an active alliance with Thebes, and a declaration of war against her ancient rival.
B. C. 378.
232. A new confederacy was now formed on the plan of that of Delos, including, in its most prosperous period, seventy cities. Athens was the head, but the independence of the members was carefully guarded. A congress at Athens regulated the share of each in the general expenses. The fortifications of Piræus were completed, new ships of war were built, and all the allies hastened forward their contingents of troops. In Thebes, the Sacred Band was formed—a heavy-armed battalion, consisting of three hundred chosen citizens of the noblest families, bound to each other by ties of the closest friendship. Though Pelopidas was bœotarch, Epaminondas had the most prominent share in the drill and discipline of the troops.
B. C. 378-376.
B. C. 375.
During two summers the army of Agesilaus invaded the country, and carried its depredations to the very gates of Thebes. The third year the Thebans held the passes of Mount Cithæron, and kept out the invaders. The Spartans were no longer successful at sea. They were thoroughly defeated off Naxos by the Athenians, who thus regained their maritime empire in the East; while, in the western seas, Corcyra, Cephallenia, and the neighboring tribes on the mainland joined the Athenian alliance. The Thebans were no less victorious on land. During the two years that they were free from Spartan invasion, most of the Bœotian cities submitted to their control. In 374 B. C., all Spartans were expelled, free governments were restored to every city, except Orchomenus and Chæronea, and the Bœotian League was revived. The Phocians, who had, twenty years before, invited the Spartans into central Greece, were now the objects of vengeance, and not the less because the treasures of Delphi would be the prize of the victor. But Cleombrotus came to the aid of the Phocians, and the aggression was checked.
B. C. 374.
233. The Athenians had now various reasons for enmity against Thebes, and messengers were sent to Sparta with proposals of peace. They were eagerly accepted; but the inopportune restoration of the Zacynthian exiles by Timo´theus, son of Conon, at this crisis, broke off the negotiations, and war was renewed. It was carried on in the western sea, with great expense and no gain to either party; the main object of the Spartans being the conquest of Corcyra, and, of the Athenians, the protection of its independence. At length all parties were weary of war, and a general congress was appointed at Sparta in the spring of 371.
234. Peace of Cal´lias.[57] It was agreed that the Spartan garrisons should be withdrawn from every city, and independence secured to all. Athens and her allies signed the treaty separately, but Sparta took the oaths for the whole Lacedæmonian Confederacy. When the Thebans were called upon, Epaminondas refused to sign except for the whole Bœotian League, claiming that Thebes was as rightfully the sovereign city of Bœotia, as Sparta of Laconia. He defended his view in a speech of great eloquence; but Agesilaus was violently incensed. Peace was concluded between the other states, but Thebes and Sparta continued at war.
235. The courage of the Thebans seemed to the rest of the Greeks like madness, and it was believed that a very few weeks would see them crushed by the overwhelming power of Sparta. But Thebes now possessed the greatest general whom Greece ever produced. Knowing his own power, and the value of those new tactics which were destined to supersede the Spartan system, he revived the drooping confidence of his countrymen, reasoned down their evil omens or invented good ones, and by his own greatness of soul sustained the spirit of a whole nation.
B. C. 371.
236. Battle of Leuc´tra. Cleombrotus, the Spartan, was already in Phocis with a considerable army. He began with energy by seizing Creusis, on the Crissæan Gulf, with twelve Theban vessels which lay in the harbor, thus providing at once a base of supplies and a line of retreat. He then marched along the Gulf of Corinth into Bœotia, and encamped upon the plains of Leuctra. Three of the seven bœotarchs were so much alarmed as to propose retreating upon Thebes, and sending their wives and children for safety to Athens; but their plan was overruled. Epaminondas and Pelopidas were alert and cheerful. Though outnumbered by the Spartans, they so arranged their forces as to be always superior at the actual point of contact, instead of engaging all at once, which had been the uniform method in Grecian warfare. The Theban left was a dense column, fifty deep, led by the Sacred Band. This was hurled upon the Lacedæmonian right, which contained their choicest troops, led by Cleombrotus himself; while the Theban center and right, facing the Spartan allies, were kept out of action. The onset of the Thebans was irresistible. Never had more furious fighting been seen on any Grecian battle-field. The Spartans maintained their ancient virtue; but Cleombrotus was mortally wounded, his whole division were driven to their camp, and the victory of the Thebans was complete. The allies of the Spartans, many of whom were present more through fear than choice, scarcely regretted the result of the battle.
At Sparta the fatal news was not permitted to interrupt the festival then in progress. All signs of mourning were forbidden, except on the part of those whose relatives had survived the defeat. The disaster was, nevertheless, the greatest that had ever befallen Sparta. Her influence was destroyed, even over the Peloponnesian cities. Her dependencies north of the Corinthian Gulf were divided between the Thebans and Jason, tyrant of Pheræ, in Thessaly, a man of singular talent and unbounded ambition, who aimed at the sovereignty of all Greece. The Thebans had courted his alliance, but they began to be alarmed by the extent of his projects, and all Greece was relieved when he was assassinated in 370. The Spartan sovereignty, which had lasted thirty-four years since the battle of Ægos-Potami, now gave way to the Theban Supremacy (B. C. 371-362).
237. The Mantineans seized the occasion to revenge their former wrongs, and besought the aid of Epaminondas. He entered Arcadia with an army near the end of the year 370, and was joined by Argives and Eleans, who increased his number to 70,000 men. By the entreaties of his allies, he marched into Laconia, and advanced upon Sparta itself. During all the centuries that the fame of Spartan valor had held Greece and Asia in awe, the Spartan women had never seen an enemy in arms, and the unwalled city was now filled with terror. But the energy of old King Agesilaus was equal to its defense. He repulsed the cavalry of Epaminondas, who retired down the valley of the Eurotas, burning and plundering as he went, and then returned to Arcadia.
238. The main objects of his expedition were yet to be fulfilled. A union of Arcadian towns had already been formed, which Epaminondas wished to organize and strengthen. Lest jealousy should be excited by the choice of any existing place as capital of the league, a new city, called Megalop´olis, was built, and peopled by colonists from forty towns. Here a congress of deputies, called the “Ten Thousand,” was to be regularly convened; and a standing army of deputies from the various cities was also raised.
239. A still more cherished plan was the restoration of the Messenians. For three hundred years this noble race had been fugitive and exiled, while its lands were in the possession of the Lacedæmonians. The exiles were now recalled, by the letters of Epaminondas, from the shores of Italy, Sicily, Africa, and Asia, and eagerly sprang to arms for the recovery of their ancient seats. The citadel of Ithome was fortified anew, and the town of Messe´ne, which arose upon the western slope of the mountain, was protected by strong walls. The Messenian territories extended southward to the gulf which bore their name, and northward to Elis and Arcadia.
B. C. 369.
240. Common jealousy of Thebes now led to a closer alliance between Athens and Sparta. Their forces were united in guarding the mountain-passes of the isthmus, in order to prevent another invasion of the Peloponnesus. Epaminondas, however, broke their line by defeating a Spartan division, and Sicyon deserted the Spartan for the Theban alliance. The Thebans were, in their turn, defeated in an attack upon Corinth, and their enemies were strengthened by a squadron which arrived at Lechæum, from Dionysius of Syracuse, bearing two thousand auxiliaries from Gaul and Spain.
B. C. 368.
241. The Tearless Battle. The Arcadians, meanwhile, rejoicing in their newly acquired power, became ambitious to share the sovereignty with Thebes, as Athens did with Sparta. Under their leader, Lycome´des, who had first proposed the league, they gained several advantages in the west, and completed the overthrow of the Spartan power in the Messenian part of the peninsula. In a later enterprise, they were routed, however, with great slaughter by the Spartans, who lost not a man in the engagement, and gave it, therefore, the name of the “Tearless Battle.” The Thebans did not mourn this defeat of their allies, which had the effect of curbing their pride, and showing their need of protection from the sovereign state.
The same year the Thebans, under Pelopidas, organized a league among the cities of Thessaly, and formed an alliance with Macedonia. Among the hostages sent from the Macedonian court was the young prince, Philip, son of Amyntas, now fifteen years of age, who was destined to act an important part in the later history of Greece.
242. In the years 367 and 366, the Thebans obtained from the Persian king that sanction of their power which the peace of Antalcidas had rendered necessary, or, at least, customary in Greece. Artaxerxes recognized the Hellenic supremacy of Thebes, and the independence of Messene and Amphip´olis; decided a dispute between the Arcadians and Eleans in favor of the latter, and commanded Athens to reduce her navy to a peace footing. This royal rescript naturally provoked a violent opposition among the states of Greece; and when Pelopidas visited Thessaly to obtain compliance with its terms, he was seized and imprisoned by Alexander of Pheræ. The Thebans instantly sent a force to recover or avenge their ambassador. But, unhappily, Epaminondas was now degraded from command; the army was defeated, and barely escaped total destruction. The great general was serving as a private in the ranks; he was called by his comrades to be their leader, and conducted them safely home. He then received the command of a second expedition, which secured the release of Pelopidas.
B. C. 363.
Two years later, Pelopidas himself conducted an army against Alexander, and gained a great victory over him at Cyn´oceph´alæ. Rage at the sight of his old enemy overcame his prudence, and he fell furiously fighting in the midst of Alexander’s guards. The Thebans felt more grief at his death than joy in the victory, but they did not fail to follow it up with a fresh army, which stripped Alexander of all his possessions except the city of Pheræ, and established Theban supremacy throughout northern Greece.
243. The war in the Peloponnesus was now varied by an act of sacrilege. The Arcadians seized the Sacred Grove at Olympia during the year of the festival, expelled the Eleans from their supervision of the games, and installed the Pisatans in their place. A large army of the Arcadians and their allies was present to enforce this irregular proceeding. The Eleans came up in the midst of the games, supported by their allies, the Achæans, and a battle was fought on the sacred ground. The very temple of Olympic Zeus became a fortress, and the gold and ivory statue by Phidias looked down upon a scene of unprecedented strife. The treasury of the shrine was despoiled by the invaders. Arcadia itself was divided by this impious act. The Mantineans refused all share in the spoils, and were on that account proclaimed traitors to the league. Peace was at length made with Elis, but two parties remained in Arcadia: the Mantineans, in alliance with Sparta; and the Tegeans, with the other towns which favored Thebes. Hostilities were frequent, and envoys were sent to Epaminondas demanding his intervention.
244. In the summer of 362 B. C., the great general invaded Peloponnesus for the fourth and last time. At Tegea he was joined by his allies, while Agesilaus moved with a Spartan force toward Mantinea. Placed thus between the king and his capital, Epaminondas seized the occasion to make a sudden attack upon Sparta. Agesilaus heard of it in time to return, and though a battle was fought in the very streets of the capital, the invader was compelled to retire. With his usual swiftness, Epaminondas moved back to surprise Mantinea while the Spartan army was withdrawn. The citizens with their slaves were dispersed in the fields, for it was the time of harvest; but a troop of Athenian cavalry had just arrived, and, though tired and hungry, they succeeded in repulsing the Thebans.
245. Battle of Mantinea. It was now evident that a great battle must take place, and the elevated plain between Tegea and Mantinea, inclosed on every side by mountains, was the destined field. The Thebans, on arriving, laid down their arms, as if preparing to encamp; and the Spartans, inferring that they did not mean to fight, dispersed themselves in some confusion. Some were tending their horses, some unbuckling their breastplates, when they were surprised by the charge of the deep and heavy column of Bœotian troops, which Epaminondas had swiftly put in order for attack. The Spartans fought bravely, but under the disadvantage which disorder always occasions, they were unable to recover themselves at once. Epaminondas seized the moment to lead a band of chosen troops directly upon the enemy’s center. The Mantineans and Spartans turned and fled; but at this moment the Theban general fell, pierced with a mortal wound. His followers stood paralyzed with dismay, unable to pursue and reap the advantage he had prepared for them. The Spartans acknowledged themselves defeated, by requesting permission to bury their dead, but both armies erected trophies of victory.
246. Epaminondas, with the spear-head in his breast, was carried off the field. He first assured himself that the battle was won, then tried to make a disposition of his command; but the two generals whom he would have chosen were already slain. “Then make peace,” was his last public command. The spear-head was now removed, and with the rush of blood which followed it, his life passed away. No Greek ever more truly merited, by character and talent, the title “Great.” Many of the worthiest who succeeded him took him for their model; and even the Christian ages have seen none who better fulfilled the description of a brave knight, “without fear and without reproach.” The greatness of Thebes began and ended with his public career. After the fatal result of the battle of Mantinea, she fell to her former position.
B. C. 361.
247. Peace was made, leaving all parties in the same position as before the war. Agesilaus, untamed by his eighty years, sought a field of glory beyond the sea. Tachos, king of Egypt, had asked the aid of Sparta in his revolt against Persia. Agesilaus went to his assistance, at the head of a thousand heavy-armed troops. The appearance of the little, lame old man, utterly destitute of the retinue or splendor of a king, excited the ridicule of the Egyptians; but when he transferred his aid from Tachos to Nectan´abis, who had risen against him, the importance of the little Spartan was felt, for Nectanabis obtained the throne. Agesilaus did not live to bear back to Sparta his honors and rewards. He died on the road to Cyrene, and his body, embalmed in wax, was conveyed with great pomp to his native city. An ancient oracle had foretold that Sparta would lose her power under a lame sovereign. It was now fulfilled, but through no fault of the king. Agesilaus had all the virtues of his countrymen, without their common faults of avarice and deceit; and he added a warmth and tenderness in friendship which Spartans rarely possessed. He has been called “Sparta’s most perfect citizen and most consummate general, in many ways, perhaps, her greatest man.”
248. The Social War. Athens still maintained her wars in the north; by sea against Alexander of Pheræ, and by land against Macedonia and the Thracian princes. The second period of Athenian greatness reached its height in the year 358, when Eubœa, the Chersonesus, and Amphipolis were again subdued. In that year a serious revolt, called the Social War, was begun by Rhodes, Cos, Chios, and Byzantium. Sestus and other towns on the Hellespont joined in the quarrel, and Mauso´lus, king of Caria, sent aid to the insurgents. The war was inglorious and exhaustive to Athens. To obtain means of paying their sailors, the commanders aided Artabazus in his revolt against Persia, and thereby incurred the vengeance of the great king. Athens had to consent to the independence of the four rebel states, in order to avoid still greater losses and calamities. During the four years that her attention had been thus absorbed, Philip of Macedon had been able to grasp all her dependencies on the Thermaic Gulf, and thus to extend his power as far as the Peneus.
B. C. 357.
249. The Sacred War. During the progress of the Social War, another fatal quarrel began in central Greece, through the enmity of Thebes and Phocis. Driven to fight for their existence, the Phocians seized the sacred treasures at Delphi, which enabled them to raise and maintain a large army of mercenaries, and even to bribe some of the neighboring states either to aid them or remain neutral. Their first general, Philome´lus, was defeated and slain at Titho´rea. His brother, Onomar´chus, who succeeded to his command, used the Delphian treasures with still less scruple, beside confiscating the property of all who opposed him. By these means he conquered Locris and Doris, invaded Bœotia, and captured Orchomenus.
B. C. 352.
250. Lyc´ophron, tyrant of Pheræ, now sought his aid against Philip of Macedon, whose increasing power pressed heavily upon Thessaly. Phaÿl´lus, who first led a force to the aid of Lycophron, was defeated; but Onomarchus himself marched into Thessaly, worsted the king in two pitched battles, and drove him from the country. He then returned into Bœotia, where he captured Coronæa, but was recalled into Thessaly by another invasion of Philip. This time his fortune changed; he was defeated, and, with many other fugitives, plunged into the sea, hoping to reach the Athenian ships which were lying off shore to watch the battle. He perished, and his body, falling into the hands of Philip, was crucified as a punishment of his sacrilege.
251. This battle secured the ascendency of Philip in Thessaly. He established a more popular government in Pheræ, took and garrisoned Magnesia, and then advanced upon Thermopylæ. The Athenians anticipated the danger, and guarded the pass with a strong force. But the liberty of Greece was destined to be sacrificed to her internal dissensions. The Sacred War had continued eleven years, when the Thebans called in the aid of Philip to complete the destruction of Phocis. The Athenians now remained neutral, and Philip passed Thermopylæ without opposition. In a short campaign he crushed Phocis, and was admitted as a member of the Amphictyonic Council, in the place of the conquered state.
B. C. 349.
252. Athens was now the only power in Greece capable of opposing the Macedonian king, and Athens was no longer possessed of a Miltiades, a Conon, or a Themistocles. A great orator, however, had arisen, and when Olynthus sent envoys to implore aid against the invader, who was now attacking the Chalcidian cities, the eloquence of Demosthenes aroused some faint show of their former spirit. The attempted rescue was defeated, however, by treachery within the walls; and, in 347, Olynthus fell. The threefold peninsula was now in the power of Philip, and he was able to push his interests throughout Greece rather by intrigue than force. Even in Athens a powerful party, sustained by his bribes, labored to undermine the efforts of the true patriots, of whom Demosthenes was chief. Æs´chines was the mouth-piece of the Macedonian party, an orator second only to Demosthenes himself, and won to Philip’s side, probably, more by flatteries than gifts. He constantly urged peace with the king, while Demosthenes, as soon as he perceived the extent of Philip’s designs, opposed them with all the unsparing vehemence of his nature. His Philippics are the most forcible examples in any language of bold and eloquent opposition to an unjust usurpation of power.
B. C. 339.
253. In 340, war was declared on account of the aggressions of Philip on the Bosphorus; and the Second Sacred War, which broke out in the following year, gave him a reason for again passing Thermopylæ. He was now appointed general-in-chief of the Amphictyonic forces, and thus gained a position in the very heart of Greece, which he did not fail to use for his own advantage.
Aug. 7, B. C. 338.
254. The Thebans, in alarm, applied to Athens for aid, which was not refused. The armies met in battle at Chæronea, and the victory of Philip gave the death-blow to Grecian independence. All the states except Sparta acknowledged his sovereignty, and he was made generalissimo of the Hellenic forces in the war now projected against Persia. To overawe the hostility of Sparta, he marched through the Peloponnesus to the southern extremity, and returned by the western coast, meeting no serious opposition.
Philip’s death by assassination interrupted the movement against the Persians, and for a moment revived the hopes of the patriots; but the Macedonian party prevailed under the youthful Alexander, who surpassed his father both as general and as king.