jan invasion, and conquest of that extensive but feeble 
ire. It had the ers eee he nee 
i an expedition, under Agesilaus oO! rta, 
ver the liberty of the Grecian ‘aon icf Asia, 
80 captains, wi ysander 
ay Asia with a dread of his arms ; and was 
to 
wher erwas suddenly recalled for the protection of his 
own country. The Persian monarchs had discovered a 
“more easy and effectual defence against Greciaw valour, 
than their most numerous armies had been able to pro- 
_ vide ; and, by a seasonable distribution of bribes among 
the leading men of the different states, succeeded in 
turning the arms of these warlike republics against 
one another. The Thebans were first gained to their 
interests, who easily succeeded in persuading the Athe- 
nians. Even Argos and Corinth, two Peloponnesian 
"states, joined the confederacy, to which were added 
_ Acarnania, Ambracia, Leucadia, Eubcea, part of Thes- 
or ae Chalcidice in Thrace. The haughty tyranny. 
of mon furnished sufficiently ostensible reasons 
for the union; and Persian gold readily supplied the. 
arguments which were wanting. The confederates 
- sustained a severe check in the vicinity of Corinth, and 
were afterwards defeated by Agesilaus at Coroneia 
with great loss on both sides ; but Pharnabazus, assist- 
ed by the Athenian commander Conon, having defeat- 
ed the Lacedemonian fleet, completely destroyed their 
influence in Asiatic Greece. They proceeded even to 
_ ravage the coasts of Laconia; and, assisting the Athe- 
nians to rebuild their long walls, which connected the 
Peirzeus with the city, again laid the foundation of their 
naval power. After various vicissitudes and intrigues, 
all parties became tired of war, and disposed to peace. 
_ The Lacedemonians, though still superior in the field, 
yet destitute of the aid which they had formerly deri- 
_ ved from the Persian treasury, were straitened in their 
Ms © soa resources ; and Pharnabazus, the friend of 
Pd » having been succeeded in Lydia by Teribazus, 
_ the new Satrap became favourable to the interests of 
By the able negociations of Antalcidas the La- 
_ eedemonian, the Persian monarch was brought in as 
a- mediator, or rather dictator, for a general pacification 
_ among the: states of Greece,’ of which the conditions 
were simply these ; “ that all cities on the continent of 
Asia; together with the islands of Clazomene and Cy- 
_ prus, should belong to the Persian empire; and that 
all other Grecian cities, small and great, should be com- 
B ceed pire sree except that the islands of Lemnes, 
~ Imbros, and Sciros, should remain as formerly under 
the dominion of Athens,” Against all who should re- 
 fuise these terms, the court of Persia declared itself 
ready to unite with those who accepted them, and to 
render every assistance, by land and sea, to reduce the 
‘ . The weaker states were well pleased to be 
n their independence. The Athenians were 
— by the exception in their favour. The The- 
‘bans, anxious to preserve their authority over the 
smaller towns of Beeotia, wished to stipulate for that 
superiority ; but were compelled to concur in the terms. 
And the Lacedemonians, while they lost nothing by 
_ abandoning the Asiatic Greeks, whom they had already 
been obliged to desert, genet the great object of the 
_ -war,—the separation of the states which had combined 
against them, and the emancipation, especially, of the 
_ Beotians from the growing power of Thebes. They 
sres of goon shewed that they accounted themselves to have 
established their supremacy ; and were the first to dis- 
__ turb the general tranquillity. They demolished the for- 
_ tifications of Mantinwza, as a punishment for the disaf- 
t 
of 
i‘ 
eiracto 
=, 
I 
GREBRCE 
at their head, , 
carry the war into the heart of the empire, | 
471 
fection of its citizens to the Lacedemonian interests, 
during the ing wars. T 
Olynthus, a Grecian city of Thrace, because; by asso. 
ciating the smaller towns in its vicinity under one go- 
vernment, it,was considered as, infringing the condi- 
tions of the Jate treaty ;| hits only offence was 
the-increase of its. strength by a-wise, liberal poli- 
cy, which ought to have been emulated, rather than 
opposed by the other Greeks. They interfered also, 
in the most unjustifiable manner, in the political con- 
tests which agitated the Theban. state; and, by this 
rash measure, gave rise to a long and complicated 
struggle, which ended only with the general overthrow 
of Grecian ,independence: 
returning from an ‘expedition against the Olynthians, pation of 
was persuaded to join the leader of the aristocratical Thebes. 
party in Thebes, and to oceupy the citadel with a La- ® 52. 
cedemonian garrison. | This unauthorised step, though 
at first disapproved by the government of Sparta, was 
finally santtioned by their retaining possession of the 
fortress thus treacherously seized, and by their bring- 
ing to trial and punishment. the chief of the adverse 
faction, as if they had heen the constituted judges of 
Thebes, For the space of four years, they succeeded in 
holding the Thebans under the most humiliating sub- 
jection ; but suddenly the Theban exiles, with. the as- 
sistance of the Athenians, by one of the boldest and 
best conducted exploits recorded in history, recovered 
possession of their power in the city, and compelled 
the Lacedemonians to evacuate the citadel. With dif- 
ficulty the Thebans at first withstood the armies of 
Sparta, by: acting on the defensive; but gradually im- 
proving in military skill, they learned to face in the 
fiell, and to combat, even with inferior numbers, the 
experienced troops of their powerful adversary. Un- 
der the able direction of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, 
they ventured, though then without an ally, to perse- 
vere in the un 
tle of Leuctra, the bloodiest action hitherto known in Leuctra. 
Greece, these distinguished commanders, by their skil- B. C. 370. 
ful dispositions, and the. enthusiastic courage with. 
which they inspired their troops, defeated an army, 
nearly four times the number of their. own. Never 
had the Lacedemonians, before that day, retreated from. 
an. inferior force, or lost in any one engagement. so 
many of their citizens. Another of their boasts, “ that 
neyer had the women of Sparta beheld the smoke of an. 
enemy’s camp,” was now also done away. 
The victorious Thebans, headed by Epaminondas, and City of 
joined by many of the Grecian states, ravaged the La- 7 sane ase 
cedemonian territories to the very suburbs of the capi- “™*e"e* 
tal; and on their return reinstated the Messenians, whom 
the Spartans had driven from their country. The La- 
cedemonians, alarmed not merely for their supremacy 
but their safety; secured assistance from Athens, from 
Syracuse, and even. from Persia, while the Thebans. 
were hard pressed by a war in Thessaly,,against Alex-. 
ander,. tyrant of Phere. Pelopidas, however, having 
been. dispatched to the Persian court, succeeded in re- 
commending himself to the esteem of the monarch, and 
in turning his friendship to a-state which had never 
been at war with Persia. Thebes, intoxicated with her 
rising power, which she owed chiefly to the abilities of 
her leaders, obstinate in maintaining her authority over 
the cities of Beeotia, which was perhaps necessary for 
her resistance to Lacedemon, and aiming to become the 
arbitress of Greece, which her sudden elevation provo- 
ked many of the states to regard as unpardonable pre-. 
sumption, may be considered as at this period the cause 
of the continuation of hostilities among the Greeks. 
Greece. 
hey marched against =—-~y— 
Their general Phabidas, Their occus.- 
ual contest ; and, in the farnous bat~ pefeated at» 
