Dr. Roel Konijnendijk

Well, it's not just for you, it's Xenophon, right?

Like he actually steps in.

Well, that's because he and I are like this.

Sorry, yeah, that's it.

You're all made Xenophon.

Like he actually invokes the gods at this point.

He says, you know, everything was going great for Sparta, but at this point they offended the gods.

This is actually like divine retribution will follow because they have committed this horrendous sort of

It's not just a misstep or a diplomatic faux pas or even just a military sort of provocation.

It's actually just they've done wrong, right?

They've done something that is sort of morally reprehensible.

No Greek condones it.

And so, you know, retribution will follow.

In a nutshell, the Thebans actually, initially, they have to put up with it.

This is a Spartan-backed oligarchy as well, same as in Athens before.

So you have an oligarchy that was already pro-Spartan, which is propped up by this garrison.

And so they have their democratic faction, essentially, where they're at least non-pro-Spartan faction.

It's very amorphous what kind of political ideals they have, but they have to flee.

They're in exile.

But they, just like the Athenians went to Thebes, the Thebans go to Athens and get support.