CHAPTER ONE

THE PEACE OF 362 BC

The battle of Mantineia in 362, which involved the major powers of Greece, spelled the end of the Theban Hegemony and the beginning of a stormy period of political uncertainty in Greece. Never again would any single Greek state win ascendancy over the others. Although the comba• tants, except Sparta, concluded a Common Peace after the battle, Xeno• phon described the outcome otherwise: '' still more confusion and disorder occurred in Greece after the battle than before". Even a brief survey of the situation between the Peace of 362 and the outbreak of the Third Sacred War in 356 substantially supports Xenophon's gloomy verdict. What Xenophon could not have known when he wrote that line is that order would come to Greece from an unexpected source, the young, ambitious, and able king of Macedonia, Philip II. Permanent stability lay still further in the future with the coming of the Romans. The long and brilliant season of the polis was drawing to an end, and the stalemate of 362 was the harbinger of change. 1 In the Peloponnesos Sparta, impoverished in men, land, and money, dared not attack its nearest opponents, Messenia, Megalopolis, and Argos, especially with Thebes still free to come to their aid. Perforce they watched quietly in 361 while stasis broke out in Megalopolis and the Thebans intervened to restore peace. No longer subsidized by Sicilian tyrants or the Persian king, the Spartans remained inactive, while seeking to recoup their fortunes. Their opportunity came when Tachos, the king of Egypt, rebelled against his Persian master. In need of troops, Tachos sent an appeal to Sparta, where the authorities responded by dispatching their aged king Agesilaos and 1000 hoplites. Although the Spartan troops returned with 230 talents of silver, their very absence in the meantime further dictated a quiescent Spartan policy in the Peloponnesos. Thus, between 362 and 356 Sparta played the part of a watchful bystander, quietly removed from broader Greek affairs. 2

1 Xen. Hell. 7.5.27; Bengtson, SdA 112.292; cf. Justin 8.1.1-2. Th. Flathe, Geschichte des phokischen Kriegs (Plauen 1854) 5; T.T.B. Ryder, Koine Eirene (Oxford 1965) 140-144; Buckler, TH, 205 - 219. 2 Xen. Ages. 2.28-31; Theopompos, FGrH 115 FF106-108; Lykeas, FHG IV.441; Polyb. 4.33.8-9; NeposAges. 8; Chab. 2; Diod. 15.89.2-94; Plut. Ages. 35.3-6; 36-40; Mor. 214D-E; Paus. 3.10.2. F.K. Kienitz, Die politische Geschichte Aegyptens (Berlin 1953) 96, and for Sparta in general P. Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis Of Sparta (Baltimore 1987). 2 THE PEACE OF 362 BC G

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