How Sparta abused its power over the other Greeks and guaranteed its own destruction

During the Peloponnesian War, which had begun in 431 BCE, Sparta had found itself at odds with Athens, which was growing in influence through the Delian League.

The conflict began over disputes involving trade and political alliances. Athens, with its powerful navy, initially held an advantage.

Sparta, however, used its land forces to invade Athenian territory repeatedly, forcing Athens into defensive strategies.

The war dragged on for decades, leading to widespread devastation across Greece. 

By 413 BCE, the tide of war had begun to shift in favor of Sparta. Athens suffered a catastrophic defeat during its Sicilian Expedition, during which it lost much of its fleet and soldiers.

Then Sparta, thanks to support from Persia, rebuilt its navy and continued to press Athens on both land and sea.

In 404 BCE, after a final siege of Athens, the Spartans, under the leadership of Lysander, captured the city.

The Athenians surrendered and brought an end to the war. Unfortunately, Sparta imposed harsh terms: Athens was forced to tear down its long walls, surrender its fleet, and submit to Spartan control. 

After their astounding victory in 404 BCE, the Spartans imposed their authority across Greece through a combination of political restructuring and military dominance.

It specifically began to establish oligarchies in many cities, which replaced the democratic governments that had been sympathetic to Athens.

In Athens itself, the Thirty Tyrants ruled with Spartan backing. They used harsh measures to suppress any opposition.

This policy of placing pro-Spartan governments in key cities allowed Sparta to maintain control over much of Greece. 

Militarily, Sparta maintained its influence by keeping a network of garrisons across its allies and subject cities.

These garrisons were placed in strategic locations, such as in Thebes and Corinth, where Sparta needed to ensure loyalty and suppress potential revolts.

Sparta’s military presence also extended into the Aegean, where it sought to control the islands that had once been part of the Athenian Empire.

The Spartan fleet, paid for with Persian financial support, played a key role in maintaining this reach. 

Sparta also imposed tributes on many of these cities in order to use their resources to maintain its navy and garrisons.

Athens in particular, was stripped of much of its wealth and resources. Meanwhile, cities like Corinth and Thebes, where trade routes passed through, contributed financially to Sparta's continued military operations.

However, this economic pressure created tensions. As these cities grew tired of supporting Spartan ambitions, alliances began to fray. 

One of the most powerful individuals during the early years of Sparta’s hegemony was Lysander.

He was an admiral who had won fame for his role in the eventual triumph over Athens.

Lysander had been born into a lesser branch of the Spartan aristocracy but rose to prominence in 407 BCE when he secured Persian financial backing, which allowed Sparta to build their powerful navy.

This fleet eventually defeated the Athenian navy at the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BCE, a crushing blow that ended Athenian resistance and led to their surrender the following year. 

After Sparta’s triumph, he personally oversaw the installation of pro-Spartan oligarchies in many Greek cities, including the establishment of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens.

Many of these rulers, including Critias in Athens, owed their positions directly to Lysander.

However, Lysander’s ambitions and increasing influence drew resentment from some Spartan elites.

His close ties with the Persian prince Cyrus raised concerns that he might undermine traditional Spartan values.

As a result, King Pausanias and others within the Spartan leadership grew wary of his power.

Regardless, Lysander remained an influential figure until his death in 395 BCE during a campaign against Thebes as part of the Corinthian War.

Sparta’s period of dominance was constantly threatened by other rival powers.

One of the most pressing external threats came from Persia. After initially supporting Sparta in its war against Athens, King Artaxerxes II of Persia began providing financial aid to Athens and other Greek city-states in opposition to Sparta.

Internally, Sparta also faced increasing discontent among its allies and subject states.

Cities such as Corinth and Thebes, which had initially supported Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, grew resentful of their subordinate status.

The imposition of pro-Spartan oligarchies created unrest, and many of these cities began to push back against Spartan dominance.

This discontent was most evident in Thebes, where opposition to Sparta grew steadily.  

So, in 395 BCE, Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Argos formed an alliance with support from Persia, which aimed to challenge Sparta’s dominance in Greece.

With the support, Athens was able to quickly rebuild its navy. The conflict soon spread across land and sea, with several battles taking place in key regions such as Corinth, which became a focal point of the war. 

However, the war saw mixed results on both sides. In 394 BCE, Sparta achieved a significant victory at the Battle of Nemea, where it defeated the combined forces of the allied cities.

However, this success was short-lived. Later that year, the allied fleet, under the command of the Athenian general Conon, destroyed the Spartan navy at the Battle of Cnidus off the coast of Asia Minor.

This effectively ended Sparta’s control of the sea, which was critical to maintaining its influence over the Aegean.

The loss of naval supremacy allowed Athens to regain many of its former allies, which were key to its resurgence as a regional power.

The land battles in Greece were also costly for Sparta as Thebes launched raids into Spartan territory.

Sparta’s inability to decisively defeat these allied forces, combined with Persian financial support for its enemies, began to wear down its military and resources.

By 387 BCE, Sparta, exhausted by years of warfare and unable to maintain its position, sought peace. 

So, in 387 BCE, the Spartan diplomat Antalcidas negotiated the peace terms with the support of King Artaxerxes II, who dictated the conditions of the agreement.

It was known as the King’s Peace or the Peace of Antalcidas. It temporarily restored Spartan authority in Greece, since the terms declared that all Greek cities in Asia Minor would remain under Persian control, while the rest of Greece would remain autonomous.

Although the other Greek city-states were declared autonomous, Sparta was given the authority to enforce the peace.

This arrangement allowed Sparta to maintain its influence while ensuring that Persia’s interests in the region were secured. 

One significant consequence of the King’s Peace was the fact that it allowed Sparta to act as a regional power without direct interference from their rivals.

Thebes, Athens, and Corinth, which had all opposed Sparta during the Corinthian War, were forced to accept these terms.

Athens had to disband its navy again as part of the agreement which curbed its ability to challenge Sparta’s supremacy, at least temporarily. 

Ultimately, Persia’s involvement in the peace was driven by its own strategic goals.

By ensuring that the Greek cities in Asia Minor remained under its control, Persia secured its western frontier.

The King’s Peace also prevented further unity among the Greek city-states, which could have posed a greater threat to Persian interests.  

The peace, however, came at a cost to Spartan prestige. Although Sparta retained its dominance, it was now seen as reliant on Persian backing.

The agreement exposed Sparta’s limitations in maintaining hegemony on its own.

Consequently, while the King’s Peace temporarily restored Spartan control, it did little to address the underlying tensions that would soon erupt again in the form of renewed challenges to its authority. 

Sparta quickly exploited the terms of the agreement to maintain its dominance, using the pretext of enforcing the peace to interfere in the affairs of other cities.

This caused resentment, especially in Thebes, which had once been a close ally of Sparta but now viewed its hegemony as oppressive.

The Thebans, under leaders like Epaminondas, began to question the legitimacy of Spartan interference in Boeotia, which was Thebes’ traditional sphere of influence. 

In 382 BCE, Sparta took a direct and aggressive action that escalated tensions dramatically.

A Spartan force, led by Phoebidas, seized the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes, without warning or provocation.

This blatant act of treachery infuriated the Thebans and showed that Sparta was willing to violate the autonomy promised by the King’s Peace.

Sparta installed a pro-Spartan oligarchy in Thebes. For the next few years, Thebes lived under the control of this puppet regime, and many Thebans began plotting to free their city from Spartan control. 

By 379 BCE, opposition to Spartan rule in Thebes had reached a breaking point. A group of exiled Theban leaders, including Pelopidas, secretly returned to the city and led a successful uprising.

They assassinated the pro-Spartan rulers and retook control of the Cadmea. This caught Sparta off guard.

Despite several attempts to reassert its influence over Thebes, Spartan efforts were unsuccessful.

Thebes then reorganized its army by including the use of a deep phalanx formation, and began preparing for an inevitable showdown with Sparta. 

By 371 BCE, the conflict reached a critical point. At that time, the Spartan king Cleombrotus led an army into Boeotia where they hoped to deliver a crushing blow to their rebellious neighbors.

Near the town of Leuctra in Boeotia, the Spartan army of around 10,000 men clashed with Epaminondas and his army of about 7,000. 

However, Epaminondas arranged his troops in the new deep formation on the left flank, where he concentrated his best soldiers, including the elite Sacred Band, against the Spartan right wing, which was led by King Cleombrotus.

This unconventional approach broke the traditional Greek battle strategy, which relied on evenly distributed lines.

By focusing his strength on a single point, Epaminondas was quickly able to overwhelm the Spartans.

Cleombrotus was killed, which caused panic among the Spartan ranks. At its conclusion, Sparta had suffered heavy losses, with around 1,000 men killed. 

For the first time in centuries, Sparta had been decisively defeated in a pitched battle.

The defeat shattered the myth of Spartan invincibility and severely weakened its military power.

More importantly, the battle finally saw the end of Sparta's control over Greece.

Thebes emerged as the dominant force, and Epaminondas led further campaigns that liberated many cities from Spartan control, including Messenia, which had been under Spartan domination for centuries. 

After the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE, Sparta's decline was swift and irreversible.

The defeat at the hands of Thebes shattered the military reputation that Sparta had built over centuries.

This defeat also undermined Sparta’s political authority in Greece, as many of its allies began to distance themselves from Spartan control.

The cities that had once submitted to Sparta’s dominance now saw Thebes as the new power in Greece.

As a result, Sparta struggled to maintain any influence over the Greek world, a dramatic change from its previous position of supremacy. 

One of the major causes of Sparta’s decline was its dwindling population of full citizens, known as Spartiates.

Years of constant warfare, combined with the rigid social structure that limited new citizens, left Sparta with fewer men to serve in its army.

By the time of its defeat at Leuctra, Sparta could no longer field the powerful forces it had once commanded.

This led to a further weakening of its military capabilities, making it unable to defend its territory or enforce its will on others.

Under Theban orders, the helots, who were crucial to supporting Spartan agriculture, were now freed, and Sparta lost a vital source of wealth and labor. 

Additionally, the rise of other powers, such as Macedonia under Philip II, left Sparta isolated.

Its inability to adapt to the changing dynamics of Greek politics further contributed to its decline.

Sparta made several attempts to regain its former power, but these efforts were largely unsuccessful.

By the mid-4th century BCE, Sparta had become a secondary power, unable to exert significant influence on the broader affairs of Greece.

The once-dominant city-state had been reduced to a shadow of its former self.