“At the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, a resurgent Thebes led by its great statesmen and tactician reformers Epaminondas and Pelopidas defeated the army of Sparta. The defeat was one of the greatest shocks Greece had witnessed – not only did the Thebans defeat the Spartans but the Spartans turned and fled from the battlefields – something they had not done before even in the face of defeat. There were tactical innovations too – the Thebans drew up their formation in echelon and placed their own best troops on the left of their own line rather than the right – to deliberately face the Spartan contingent opposite them. They also had a particularly deep formation – Xenophon tells us it was fifty shields deep but it was probably at least 25 shields deep (a depth they had used before).

In the aftermath of Leuctra, Thebes could have filled the leadership vacuum left by Sparta but she did not. Nor did any other state. Sparta might also have bounced back but she would not – she would face invasion by the Thebans and would meet her fate on the field of Mantinea nine years later. The battle was fought between Thebes and her allies and Sparta and hers (including Athens). The main weakness of Sparta which Aristotle later identified – oliganthropia – her shortage of manpower, was irreversible; so much time and effort was put into training a Spartiate that any battlefield loss could not be easily or quickly recovered.

Although Sparta continued to hold on to her old traditions, she would never again be the power or leader of Greece she had been at her height in the sixth, fifth and early fourth centuries. Although this was the final blow to Sparta, there was, perhaps, a more telling and impactful result of the battle – the death of Epaminondas, the leader of Thebes who died at his moment of greatest triumph.”

This episode was written by Murray Dahm.

Murray is an ancient and medieval military historian from New Zealand, living in Australia. He has written more than 100 articles on various aspects of ancient and medieval military history and other historical topics from all periods. He is the author of Macedonian Phalangite vs Persian Warrior, Athenian Hoplite vs Spartan Hoplite and Leuctra 371 BC, all from Osprey Publishing. He is a regular on the Ancient Warfare Podcast.