among the Greeks themselves. In B.C. 385, on the flimsiest pretext of disaffection, the Spartans besieged Mantinea, and forced its inhabitants to dismantle their town and live in open villages. Three years later (B.C. 382) they attacked Olynthus, whose neighbours were jealous of its growing power and appealed for help to Sparta. Olynthus was not reduced till B.C. 379, after the Spartans had suffered more than one disaster. In the same year Phlius, in the north of Argolis, was also reduced and forced to submit to its oligarchical rulers. But a less justifiable proceeding than any of these took place in B.C. 381, when Phcebidas, while on the march to reinforce the army attacking Olynthus, was admitted by treachery into the Kadmeia or citadel of Thebes and held it by force. Though the Spartan government disavowed responsibility for his action, the garrison remained in occupation till B.C. 378.
But though this year witnessed the success of the Spartans at Olynthus and Phlius, it really proved the turning-point in the struggle and the beginning of the fall of the Spartan supremacy. For in the winter of B.C. 379–8 a number of young Thebans (among whom was Pelopidas) suddenly assaulted and killed the ring-leaders of the Spartan party in Thebes, got possession of the city, and next day stormed the Kadmeia and forced the Spartan garrison to surrender on condition of being allowed to depart uninjured.
This was followed by many years of war between Sparta and Thebes, in which the Spartans three times invaded Theban territory with small success. But the chief importance of the war was that it began with an
