34. Sparta in distress forms an alliance with Athens, under the stipulation that the command shall alternately be in the hands of the two confederates; conditions, no doubt, humiliating to Spartan pride! It however affords them the means of frustrating Epaminondas's new attempt on Corinth and the Peloponnesus. Even Dionysius I. of Syracuse, thinks himself bound to assist the Spartans as being Dorians.
35. Thebes played a no less brilliant part in the north than she did in the south. And had the attempts to liberate Thessaly from the rule of the tyrant, Alexander of Pheræ, been attended with success, Thebes would have received a vast increase of power. Even in Macedonia she acted as arbitress.
First and successful expedition of Pelopidas into Thessaly, 368.—After the decision of the disputed succession to the Macedonian throne, young Philip is brought as hostage to Thebes, and educated in the house of Epaminondas.—Pelopidas is sent as ambassador, and taken prisoner by Alexander; hence the second expedition of the Thebans, in which Epaminondas rescues the army and delivers his friend, 367.
Alliance of Thebes and Persia.
36. Alliance of Thebes with Persia successfully brought about by Pelopidas. In the intrigues of the opponents at the Persian court, the object of each was to bring that court over to his own interest. Yet the domineering tone in which the Persians wished to dictate peace, had not the consequences that might have been expected; and although Sparta consented to her confederates remaining neutral, she would not forego her claims on Messene. The establishment of a navy would have been of more important consequences to Thebes than this alliance, had not all these plans, together with the greatness of Thebes, been 365. swept away by the premature death of her two leading men.
Last expedition of Pelopidas against Alexander of Pheræ, in which he himself falls, 364.—New irruption into Peloponnesus caused by the commotions in Arcadia.—Battle of Mantinea, and death of Epaminondas, June 27, 362.—General peace in Greece mediated by the Persians; Sparta does not assent to it on account of Messene, but sends Agesilaus to Egypt, there to support the insurrection of Tachos.
State of Greece after the war between Thebes and Sparta.
37. The result of this bloody struggle for the supremacy of Greece was, that neither Sparta nor Thebes obtained it; the former of these states being weakened by the loss of Messene, the latter by the loss of its leaders, and both strained by their violent exertions. The situation of Greece after this war seems to have been thus far changed, that no state had the predominance; an independence proceeding from enervation. Even Athens, who by means of her naval power still preserved her influence over the cities on the coast and in the islands, lost the greater part in the war of the allies, together with three of her most celebrated leaders, Chabrias, Timotheus, and Iphicrates, whose places were ill supplied by Chares.
Confederacy of the islands Cos, Rhodes, and Chios, and the city of Byzantium; their secession from Athens, 358.—Unsuccessful siege of Chios, before which Chabrias falls, 358; of Byzantium, 357. Athens suffers a still greater injury from the cabals of Chares against his colleagues Timotheus and Iphicrates, and from her imprudent participation in the insurrection of Artabazus, 356. The threats of Artaxerxes III. force Athens to make a peace, in which she is obliged to acknowledge the freedom of her confederates.
Sacred war.
356—346.