The first use Sparta made of the advantages she had gained was to make an attack upon the people of Mantineia, a truce of thirty years with that city having just expired. Tho city was taken, and the inhabitants distributed Into four country towns, so as to be under the influence of the aristocratic party, which was powerful and supported by Sparta (n.e. 385).
In n.c. 3S2 Sparta sent forces to aid the cities of Acanthus and Apol Ionia in Chaldaic° against Olynthus, the ally of Thebes and Athens. One division of the forces, commanded by Phcebidaa, marched by Thebes, of which aided by the oligarchic party in the city, they seized the Cadmeia, or citadel, and thus made Thebes entirely dependent on Sparta. The war against Olynthus lasted four years, and ended in the capture of the city, ac. 379.
The Spartans were now at their highest point of power. Olyn thus was overthrown, Bceotia was dependent, Corinth friendly, Argos reduced, and Athens without allies. But a change soon came upon them. The Cadmeia was soon recovered by a band of exiles of the democratical party, and the Lacedremonians were entirely ex pelled from the city ; and shortly afterwards, Athens allied herself with Thebes against Sparta (a.c. 379). Hostilities were carried on for six or seven years, during which Sparta greatly distressed Thebes by ravaging and plundering its territory, and the Athenians were victorious at sea under Chabrias, off Naxos (B.o. 376). Athens soon after however concluded a separate treaty with Sparta (n.c. 374), which, though soon broken on account of the restoration of the Zakynthian exiles to their country by the Athenian admiral, was re-established, n.c. 371, and Thebes and Sparta now met single-handed. A Spartan army, then in Fluids, under Cloombrotus, was ordered to invade Bceotia. The Spartans met the Theban forces, commanded by Pelopidas and Epaminondas, on the plain of Leuctra, and were utterly defeated in a regular pitched battle, by inferior numbers, a circum stance unparalleled in the previous history of Sparta (ac. 371). The battle was most decisive, and from it we may date the decline of the Spartan power. The people of Mantincia again assembled iu one fortified city, which they called Megalopolis, and established n democratic government. The Theban* invaded Laconia under Epsminondaa, and advanced into the immediate neighbourhood of the unwalled capital, burning and pillaging. For the first time, the women of Sparta sew fires kindled by an enemy ; and but for the vigilance end energy of Agesilans, the city would have been taken. The whole plain of the Eurotas, an far as the sea-coast, was devastated. The Theban general collected together the expatriated Meseenians, and restored them to their fatherland, thus establishing a permanent enemy close to Sparta (n.c. 367). In his last expedition into the Peloponnesus, Epaminondas nearly surprised and took Sparta In tho absence of Agesilaus. Be then resolved on a general engagement, and met the Spartan* and their allies, amongst whom were the Athenians, at Mantillas. His army was victorious, but ho himself was slain. (n.c. 362.) From this time Sparta ceased to be one of the leading states of Greece. Another power soon assumed the control in Grecian affairs, and when the Spartans attempted to enforce their claim to Messenla, Philip of Macedon opposed their pretensions, and supported the inde pendence of that country. After the battle of Clucroneia (n.o. 83S),
he invaded Laconia, and, according to Polybitre (ix. 2S), obliged her to anrrender several small districts to the Argives, Arcadians, and Messonians. In the reign of Alexander, and while he was engaged in his eastern conquests, the Spartans made an attempt to overthrow the Macedonian empire, but they were defeated by Antipater, Alexander's lieutenant, and Agis, their king and commander, was slain, ao. 331. In the contests which divided Greece after the death of Alexander, Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, was at war with the Spartans, and victorious over them in two engagements. Their next assailant was Pyrrhus (sm. 268), against whom they made a gallant defence, assisted and animated by the women, whose spirit saved the city from capture. At that time it was walled. After that event we hear little of Sparta till the reigns of Agis III. and Cleomenes (s.c. 240). The institutions of Lycurgus, though existing in name, were then no longer of any force at Sparta. The regulation by which every head of a family was ensured the possession of a plot of land had been repealed. The number of Spartan citizens was considerably reduced, and a great accumulation of property was vested in the hands of a few people, many of whom were females. Agin and his friends wished to return to the original constitution, and the mode of life of former times. Ho perished in the attempt to carry out his views (a.c. 240), being mur dered in prison at the instigation of the ophors, who had now mono polised almost all authority in the state. In n.o. 236, Cleomenes III. ascended the throne, and by stratagem and force succeeded in the attempt in which Agis had failed ; a general division and re-distribn don of property took place ; some of the Periceci were adopted amongst the Spartan citizens; the old mode of education and the public meals were resumed ; the ephors put to death, and their office abolished. Cleomenes also defeated the troops of the Achrean league in several engagements, and had conquered a great part of the Poloponnesue, when Aratus, the general of the /WI:cans, summoned Antigonus Dosou from Macedonia to oppose his progress. The Macedonians and Spartans met at Sellasia, on the borders of Laconia, and after a hard fought and decisive battle Antigonus was victorious. He than marched to Sparta, and restored the former state of things. Cleomenes fled to Egypt.
Pausanias (iii. 6, 5) observes of him, that he was the last of the Agidre, and shortly afterwards the sovereignty was sold by the ephors to Lycurgus, who was not even a Heracleid. He was succeeded by Machanidas, who is called a tyrant, and was conquered and slaiu by Philopmmen, the general of the Achreans. (Livy, xxviii. 5.) Nabis, the last, of these usurpere, resisted the Achreans and Romans, who had now appeared in Greece. Nabis was assassinated, n.c. 192, and the Spartans were compelled soon after to join the Adman league. After the capture of Corinth (n.c. 146) all Greece was reduced to a Roman province, but the inhabitants of Laconia enjoyed more freedom than the other states, being treated not so much like subjects as allies. The colonies of Sparta were but few ; the principal were the island of Calliste or Thera, Cnidos, and Tarentum.