An act of violence committed by a Spartan general in Thebes in 380 in the end led to the complete downfall of that city. The aristocratic party in Thebes, when the Spartan army hap pened to be in the neighborhood, prevailed upon the general to give his assistance in overthrow ing their opponents and establishing an aristo cratic government. A number of the less prom inent members of the defeated party, among them Pelopidas, made their escape to Athens, where they got the support and assistance of the democratic party there. They soon returned in disguise to their own city, surprised and mur dered the leaders of the aristocratic party, ex pelled the Spartan garrison, and again set up a democratic government. These circumstances give a good idea of the fury of party strife which was then general in the Greek cities. The immediate result of this counter-revolution in Thebes was a war with Sparta, the heroes of which were Epaminondas and Pelopidas, who were then at the head of affairs in Thebes. In the course of the war the Spartans invaded Bceotia, but were so completely defeated at Leuctra in 371 B.C. that they never fully re covered from the blow.
With this victory Thebes won hegemony in Greece, which she maintained during the life time of Epaminondas, whose policy it was to keep down the power of Sparta by strengthen ing the surrounding states. From him the Messenians recovered their freedom, and by his advice the cities of Arcadia formed themselves into a confederacy, and built the city of Mega lopolis. This policy was at first successful, but in a few years the confederacy began itself to strive after the supremacy, and joined them selves with this object to the Spartans. Epa minondas then invaded the Peloponnesus, but although the Thebans totally defeated the Spar tans and Arcadians in the battle of Mantinea (362), yet the victory being won with the loss of their great general, the Thebans could no longer boast with justice of su premacy in Greece. Pelopidas had died two years before.
Two years after the death of Epaminondas, Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, be came king of Macedonia. He was a man of great ability as a soldier and a ruler, an ad mirer of the Greek character, and a lover of Greek art and literature. He perceived, how ever, the weakness of the Greeks, arising from their want of unity, and waited for an oppor tunity of interfering in the affairs of their coun try, with the view of ultimately making him self master of it. An occasion for interference was furnished him by the Sacred War (355-46). The Phocians having taken possession of some of the land belonging to the sanctuary of Delphi, the Amphictyonic League condemned them to pay a fine and restore the land they had taken. This was refused and the league imposed upon the Thebans the task of forcing the Phocians to submit, but in their rocky strongholds the Phocians were able to resist all the efforts of their assailants, who at last called in the aid of Philip of Macedon. With his help the Phocians were subdued, they themselves expelled from the league, and their place given to Philip.
It was not, however, till the Locrian war (339-38) that Philip acquired a firm hold in Greece. The Locrians had committed the same offense as that of the Phocians, and when they likewise refused to pay the fine imposed upon them by the league, Philip, as one of the mem bers, received the charge of punishing them. The advance of Philip was at first witnessed with comparative indifference by the states of Greece, but when his real designs became ap parent the Athenians, on the advice of Demos thenes, hastily concluded an alliance with the Thebans, and an army was sent out to oppose him. The battle of Chzronea (338) turned out,
however, disastrously for the Greeks, who saw their whole country laid at the feet of Philip. But the conqueror treated his new subjects with mildness, wishing to reconcile them to the Mace donian yoke, and to win their co-operation in bis projected invasion of the rotten empire of Persia. He collected a large army, of which he got himself declared commander-in-chief by the Amphictyonic League in an assembly held at Corinth in 337 Lc.; before he was able to start he was assassinated 336 a.c.
The design of Philip on Persia was taken up and carried out by his son Alexander the Great, during whose absence Antipater was left behind as governor of Macedonia and Greece. Soon after the departure of Alexander, Agis III of Sparta headed a rising against Antipater. He was defeated, however, in the battle of Mega lopolis in 330 a.c. and no other attempt was made by the Greeks to recover their liberty for nearly 100 years. At the close of the wars which followed the death of Alexander, and which resulted in the division of his empire, Greece remained with Macedonia.
The last efforts of the Greeks to recover their independence proceeded from the Acha ans, who held the northern strip of the Pelo ponnesus. This tribe is frequently mentioned by Homer as taking a very prominent part in the Trojan war; but during the historical period of Greece they for the most part kept aloof from the quarrels of the other states, and did not even furnish assistance in repelling the Per sian invasion. They had taken part, though reluctantly, in the Peloponnesian war on the side of Sparta, and had shared in the defeat of Megalopolis in 330 a.c. In the course of the first half of the 3d century B.C. several of the Adman towns expelled the Macedonians, and revived an ancient confederacy, which was now known as the Achaan League. About the middle of this century the league was joined by the town of Sicyon, the native city of Ara tus, who soon after became its leading spirit. Through his influence it was joined also by Corinth, and then it began to aim at acquiring the supremacy throughout the Peloponnesus, and even throughout the whole of Greece, as well as at delivering Greece from the Mace donian yoke. In following out the first of these aims Aratus and the league came into collision with Sparta, which at that time hap pened to be governed in near succession by two kings, Agis IV (244-240) and Cleomenes (236-220), who had both something of the old Lycurgan spirit in them. These, then, naturally looked with jealousy on the efforts of Aratus, and during the reign of Cleomenes a war broke out between Sparta and the Achamn League. The league was at first worsted, and was only finally successful when Aratus, forgetting the ultimate end of his efforts in the pursuit of that which he had more immediately in view, called in the aid of the Macedonians. In the battle of Sellasia, in 222 a.c., Cleomenes was de feated and compelled to take to flight, and the Macedonians became masters of Sparta. Aratus died in 213, and his place was taken by Philo pcemen, °the last of the Greeks?) who roused the league once more to vigorous efforts, and gradually succeeded in making it in some degree independent of Macedonia.