Dr. Roel Konijnendijk

You know, other states are really rising.

Sparta is nowhere near that and cannot manage to assert itself, but it never stops trying.

And so throughout the 360s, you have these sort of attempts to try and push back against those boundaries that are the walls that are moving in.

You know, they tried to sort of push that back out.

They have some success, but also mostly it's, you know, it's dismal fighting.

It's endless campaigns that don't really achieve anything.

They aren't able to retake Messenia, which is their main purpose.

They aren't able to dismantle Megalopolis, the Arcadian Federation, which is one of the strongest new powers in the region.

Traditionally, they've always been able to punish Argos at least, but in this case, they're really not able to manage themselves against any of these states in any lasting way that rebuilds their hegemony.

That does not fare well.

Spear to the chest.

It will ruin your whole day.

But this is the moment where Theban hegemony gets in trouble because it seems to hinge so much on the energy and the ideas and the innovative sort of diplomacy and maneuvering of figures like Epaminondas.

Like when they are killed, the Thebans really struggle to maintain themselves as well.

And they get caught up very soon afterwards in this long drawn out, very costly Third Sacred War, which is a more regional conflict, but it sort of drains their energy.

So the Battle of Mantinea creates the situation where kind of no one knows what's going on.

But Sparta remains completely unable to capitalize on that.

So into the 350s as well, there's always campaigning going on.

They're constantly trying to fight Megalopolis.

They're trying to fight Argos.