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At the same time, Spartan military prestige suffered a severe blow when a mora of 600 men was defeated by peltasts (light infantry) under the command of the Athenian general Iphicrates. Spartan authority finally collapsed after their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Leuctra by the Thebans under the leadership of Epaminondas in 371 BC.
The Theban–Spartan War of 378–362 BC was a series of military conflicts fought between Sparta and Thebes for hegemony over Greece. Sparta had emerged victorious from the Peloponnesian War against Athens (431–404 BC), and occupied a hegemonic position over Greece.
The Thebans marched into Messenia, and freed it from Sparta; this was a fatal blow to Sparta, since Messenia had provided most of the helots which supported the Spartan warrior society. These events permanently reduced Spartan power and prestige, and replaced the Spartan hegemony with a Theban one. The Theban hegemony would be short-lived however.
The Spartan right was hurled back with a loss of about 1,000 men, of whom 400 were some of Sparta's most experienced soldiers, including King Cleombrotus I. [ 2 ] Wilhelm Rüstow and Hermann Köchly , writing in the 19th century, believed that Pelopidas led the Sacred Band out from the column to attack the Spartans in the flank.
The Spartan king, Agesilaus II, scraped together an army from various Peloponnesian towns dissatisfied with Theban rule and managed to kill but not defeat Epaminondas in the Battle of Mantinea, but not to re-establish any real Spartan ascendancy. This was if anything a Pyrrhic victory for both states. Sparta lacked the manpower and resources to ...
Maneuver warfare - a military strategy which attempts to defeat the enemy by incapacitating their decision-making through shock and disruption Motitus - A Motitus or Motti is a double envelopment manoeuvre, using the ability of light troops to travel over rough ground to encircle and defeat enemy troops with limited mobility.
A mora (Greek: μόρα, [1] plural morae) was an ancient Spartan military unit of about a tenth of the Spartan army, at approx. 600 men by modern estimates, although Xenophon places it at 6,000. This can be reconciled by the nature of the Spartan army with an organisation based on year classes, with only the younger troops being mobilised for ...
During the summer, two years after these events occurred, the Spartan king Archidamus II finally led a Peloponnesian force against Plataea and began to raze their crops. . The Plataeans, in response, dispatched a herald reminding the Spartans of the glorious deeds the Plataeans performed during the Greco-Persian War and of the oath the Spartans swore to protect them and keep them independent ...