EPAMINONDAS SPARTA’S NEMESIS
“EPAMINONDAS WAS IMPOVERISHED, DESPITE BEING FROM AN OLD ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY. HE EMBRACED HIS STRAITENED CIRCUMSTANCES AND MADE THEM A PART OF HIS PHILOSOPHY”
At the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE, Epaminondas led the outnumbered Theban phalanx to an overwhelming victory against an army of Spartan hoplites. Theban victory that day forever changed the political map of Greece. In order to achieve this, Epaminondas had created a military revolution that would indelibly change warfare. His tactics and strategies are studied and implemented to this day, yet the man himself remains a figure of some mystery and controversy.
Prelude
In the aftermath of the victory in the Peloponnesian War against Athens (431-404 BCE), Sparta sought to impose its will on all of Greece. This included several states in the plains of Boeotia – an area over which the city of Thebes considered itself the natural leader. Despite having supported Sparta against Athens, Thebes switched its support to Athens and led an anti-Spartan coalition of cities that was able to gain some success against Sparta in the Corinthian War (395-387 BCE).
With the peace of 387 BCE, known as ‘The King’s Peace’ because it was underwritten by the Persian King Artaxerxes II, all Greek states were to remain autonomous city-states. The Persians also backed the authority of Sparta and established them as the dominant force in Greece.
Buoyed by this foreign support, Sparta proceeded to attack the supposedly autonomous city-states of Greece under the pretext that they threatened the peace. In 383 BCE a coup in Thebes led to the establishment of a pro-Spartan oligarchy and the installation of a garrison. Four years later an anti-Spartan coup led by Pelopidas overthrew this regime and re-established the city as the dominant force in Boeotia. Thebes then consolidated power in the region by creating the Boeotian League, a coalition of cities with Thebes at its head. Thebes became the champion of a free Greece against the tyranny of Sparta.
Sparta moved to put an end to this resistance. Despite negotiations in 371 BCE peace could not be reached, and King Cleombrotus marched at the head of a Spartan-Peloponnesian army to crush Thebes.
Epaminondas saved his friend Pelopidas, which resulted in a life-long bond between the two men as they fought Sparta
“EPAMINONDAS ALSO STUDIED PHILOSOPHY AND IS RATED BY SEVERAL AUTHORS AS A MILITARY PHILOSOPHER WITH ONLY ONE RIVAL – SOCRATES”
