Instead Sparta sent an army under King Cleombrotus into Boeotian. A small Athenian force took part in the uprising, but at first the new Theban government hoped to stay on good terms with the Spartans. They then attacked the garrison on the Cadmea and forced it to surrender on terms. In December 379 the Theban exiles, including Epaminondas and Pelopidas (the 'Liberators'), rose against the Spartans and their supporters. In the aftermath of his actions a Spartan garrison remained in the Cadmea, and the pro-Spartan Leontiades was left in charge of Thebes. Phoebidas was fined and removed from command of the northern expedition, but later returned to favour. It isn't clear if the coup at Thebes was carried out on Phoebidas's own authority, or with the support of King Agesilaus II of Sparta. After carrying out this coup the Spartans continued on their way north, eventually capturing Olynthus in 379. The strains between Sparta and Thebes turned into a crisis in 382 when a Spartan army, led by Phoebidas, passing through Thebes on its way to campaign in Chalcidice, captured the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes and then imposed a new government on the city (possibly with the support of a pro-Spartan faction within the city). Their reputation was also damaged by their willingness to hand the Greeks of Asia Minor over to the Persians.
In contrast Sparta's own Peloponnesian League was allowed to continue. Sparta interpreted this as meaning the Boeotian League would have to be dismantled. Relations between Sparta and Thebes were strained by the terms of the King's Peace, which guaranteed the autonomy of the Greek cities. They made peace with Sparta, and between them the two powers were able to impose the King's Peace, or Peace of Antalcides, on the other Greek powers. The revival of Athenian power then began to worry the Persians. At sea their fleet was defeated by a joint Persian-Greek fleet at Cnidus (394 BC), and their maritime empire around the Aegean collapsed. The Spartans won the major land battles of the war, although didn't manage to win any truly decisive victories. Athens and Corinth entered the war on the Theban side. The Thebans managed to incite a border incident between Locris and Phocis, their western neighbours, and Sparta soon found herself dragged into the conflict ( Corinthian War, 395-386 BC). This triggered the Persian-Spartan War (400-387 BC), which in turn helped convince Sparta's Greek rivals that she was vulnerable to attack.
Within Greece they denied their allies many spoils of the victory, while further afield they supported Cyrus the Younger's revolt against Artaxerxes II of Persia. The Spartans soon managed to alienate their allies from the Peloponnesian War. This temporarily eliminated Athens as a great power, and left Sparta as a major land and naval power. The Theban-Spartan War or Boeotian War (379-371 BC) was a conflict triggered by Sparta's attempts to impose her dominance over the rest of Greece, and that ended with a dramatic Spartan defeat that marked the beginning of the end for Sparta as a great power.Īlthough Sparta had always had an impressive military reputation, that only translated into power outside the Peloponnese after her victory in the Great Peloponnesian War in 404 BC.