Battle of Mantinea (418 BC)
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The Battle of Mantinea of 418 BC
418 BC
Year 418 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Fidenas, Axilla and Mugillanus...

 was a significant engagement in the Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...

. Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

 and its allies defeated an army led by Argos
Argos
Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...

 and Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

.

Prelude to the battle

After the conclusion of the alliance between the Argives, Achaeans, Eleans and Athens, the humiliation of the Spartans in the 420 Olympic Games and the invasion of Epidaurus
Epidaurus
Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. Two modern towns bear the name Epidavros : Palaia Epidavros and Nea Epidavros. Since 2010 they belong to the new municipality of Epidavros, part of the peripheral unit of Argolis...

 by the allies, the Spartans were compelled to move against them, fearing an alliance with Corinth and having amassed an army that was, according to Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...

, 'the best army ever assembled in Greece to that time. Immediately after the truce, the Argives captured the key town of Orchomenus
Orchomenus
-Greek mythology:*Orchomenus, a king, the father of Elara*Orchomenus, one of the twenty sons of Lycaon*Orchomenus, son of Zeus and Isonoe, father of Minyas and Kyparissos*Orchomenus, a son of Athamas and Themisto-Ancient Greek geography:...

, whereupon the Spartan king Agis
Agis II
Agis II was the 17th Eurypontid king of Sparta, the eldest son of Archidamus II by his first wife, and half-brother of Agesilaus II. He ruled with his Agiad co-monarch Pausanias....

 (son of Archidamus
Archidamus II
Archidamus II was a king of Sparta who reigned from approximately 476 BC to 427 BC. He was of the Eurypontid dynasty. His father was Zeuxidamus , who died before his father, Leotychidas, after having his son, Archidamus....

) was on the verge of being fined 100,000 drachmas and having his house destroyed. Agis managed to forestall this punishment, promising to redeem himself with a victory elsewhere. The Spartan ephors consented, but in an unprecedented move, placed Agis under the supervision of ten advisors, called xymbouloi, whose consent was required for whatever military action he wished to take.

The battle

Late in 418, the Argives and their allies marched against Tegea
Tegea
Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. Its seat was the village Stadio....

, where a faction was ready to turn the city over the Argive alliance. Tegea was a very important place, as it controlled the exit from Laconia. Enemy control of the town would mean that the Spartans would be unable to move out of their home city and would effectively mean the demise of the Peloponnesian coalition that fought the Archidamian War.

Agis marched the whole of the Spartan army, together with the neodamodeis and everyone who was able to fight in Sparta out to Tegea
Tegea
Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. Its seat was the village Stadio....

 where he was joined by his allies from Arcadia
Arcadia
Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...

, and he sent for help from his northern allies, Corinth, Boeotia
Boeotia
Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

, Phocis
Phocis
Phocis is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardousia on the west, upon the Gulf of Corinth...

, and Locris
Locris
Locris was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of three distinct districts.-Locrian tribe:...

. However, the northern army could not arrive quickly to the scene, as they had not expected the call and would have to pass through enemy territory (Argos and Orchomenus). On the whole, the army of the allies of Sparta would have numbered around 9,000 hoplites.

In the meantime, the Eleans decided to attack Lepreum
Lepreum
Lepreum was an Ancient Greek city-state in Triphylia, a district of Elis...

, a contested border town with Sparta. So, they chose to withdraw their contingent of 3,000 hoplites. Agis took advantage of it and sent a sixth of his army, with the youngest and the oldest hoplites home to guard Sparta proper. They were called back soon after, as Agis or the xymbouloi realized that the Eleans would soon be back on the side of the Argives, but did not arrive in time for the battle.

Agis could have bided his time inside the walls of Tegea, waiting for his northern allies. However, he was already discredited and could not show the slightest sign of shying away from battle. So, he invaded and ravaged the territory around Mantinea, about ten miles north of Tegea and a member of the Argive alliance, in order to force a pitched battle with the Argives and their allies. The Argive army, however, was situated on ground 'steep and hard to get at' and would not be drawn in battle, probably because the grain harvest had already been stored (the battle probably took place in the end of September 418). Agis, who was desperate for a victory to redeem his embarrassment at Argos, charged ahead; but according to Thucydides, when the armies had closed to a stone's throw, "one of the elder Spartans" (the xymboulos Pharax, according to Diodorus) advised him not to try to correct one error (his former defeat) with another. The Spartans therefore retreated, and went off to find a way to draw out the Argive army to a battle. So, they diverted the Sarandapotamos River to the bed of the smaller Zanovistas river, or, they just filled up the sinkholes in which Zanovistas flowed, in order to flood the Mantinean territory.

Instead of allowing Mantinea to be flooded, the Argive army moved more quickly than the Spartans anticipated, as the Argive hoplites were very angry at their generals for not pursuing the Spartan army and accused them of treason. They surprised their enemies by drawing up as the Spartans emerged from a nearby wood. The Spartans quickly organized themselves, with no time to wait for their other allies. Brasidas' veterans (Brasidas himself had been killed at the Battle of Amphipolis
Battle of Amphipolis
The Battle of Amphipolis was fought in 422 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. It was the culmination of events that began in 424 BC with the capture of Amphipolis by the Spartans.-Capture of Amphipolis, 424–423 BC:...

), and the Sciritae
Sciritae
The Sciritae or Skiritai were a people subject to Sparta, whose status is comparable to that of the Perioeci. They lived in Skiritis, a mountainous region located in northern Laconia on the border with Arcadia, between the Oenus and the Eurotas rivers.According to Stephanus of Byzantium and...

 (an elite unit of Spartan troops) formed the left wing, the Spartans, Arcadians, Heraeans and Maenalians in the centre, and the Tegeans, who were fighting for their homeland took the position of honour on the right wing. The Argive lines were formed by the Mantineans on the right, the Argives in the centre, and the Athenians on the left. Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...

 did not know the exact numbers of men on each side, but estimated that there were about 9,000 men on the Spartan side (the Spartan army must have numbered about 3,500, with 600 Sciritae, about 2,000 neodamodeis and Brasideans and about 3,000 Arcadians on the whole) with somewhat fewer men on the Argive and Athenian side (about 8,000), according to Donald Kagan
Donald Kagan
Donald Kagan is an American historian at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece, notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War. 1987-1988 Acting Director of Athletics, Yale University. He was Dean of Yale College from 1989–1992. He formerly taught in the Department of...

. Other scholars, such as V.D. Hanson, give slightly bigger numbers.

As the battle began, each side's right wing began to outflank the other's left, due to the erratic movements of each hoplite
Hoplite
A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...

trying to cover himself with the shield of the man beside him. Agis tried to strengthen the line by ordering the Sciritae and his left to break off contact from the rest of the army and match the length of the Argive line. To cover the void created, he ordered the companies of Hipponoidas and Aristocles to leave their positions in the center and cover the line. This however was not achieved, for the two captains were unable, or unwilling to complete these manoeuvres on such short notice. This kind of manoeuvre was unprecedented in the history of Greek warfare. Donald Kagan considers it a most ill-advised move and gives credit to the two captains for disobeying orders that would have probably lost the battle for the Spartans. Others consider it a move that could have succeeded.

In any case, the Mantineans and the right part of the Argives, the elite Argive Thousand entered the gap and routed the Brasideans and the Sciritae and pursued them for a long distance. In the meantime, the Tegeans and the regular Spartan army routed the Athenians and the Arcadians that formed the left part of the Argive army. Most of them 'did not even stand to fight, but they fled as the Spartans approached; some were even trampled in their hurry to get away before the enemy reached them'.

Then, the Spartans turned left and broke the Argive right which fled in total disarray. The Spartans did not pursue the enemy for long after the battle was won.

Aftermath

The Argive side lost about 1,100 men (700 Argives and Arcadians, 200 Athenians and 200 Mantineans) and the Spartans about 300.

The Spartans sent an embassy to Argos and the Argives accepted a truce by the terms of which they gave up Orchomenus, all their hostages and joined up with the Spartans in evicting the Athenians from Epidaurus. They also renounced their alliance with Elis and Athens. After deposing the democratic government of Sicyon, the Argive Thousand staged a coup against the democratic rule of Argos, where the democrats' morale was low, because of the bad performance of the common army and the Athenians in the battle.

In more general terms, the battle was a considerable boost to the Lacedaemonian's morale and prestige, since after the disaster at Pylos they had been considered cowardly and incompetent in battle. Their success at Mantinea marked a reversal of the trend and the Greeks again recognized the near-invincibility of the Spartans in hoplite combat.
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