128 HISTORY 0* GREECE knee, and their spears protended. So imposing was their appear, ance, that Agesilaus called off his troops without daring to com- plete the charge. 1 After a month or more of devastations on the lands of Thebes, and a string of desultory skirmishes in which he seems to have lost rather than gained, Agesilaus withdrew tc Thespiae ; the fortifications of which he strengthened, leaving Phoebidas with a considerable force in occupation, and then leading back his army to Peloponnesus. Phcebidas, the former captor of the Kadmeia, thus sta- tioned at Thespiaa, carried on vigorous warfare against Thebes ; partly with his own Spartan division, partly with the Thespian hoplites, who promised him unshrinking support. His incursions soon brought on reprisals from the Thebans ; who invaded Thes- piae, but were repulsed by Phoebidas with the loss of all their plunder. In the pursuit, however, hurrying incautiously forward, he was slam by a sudden turn of the Theban cavalry ; 2 upon which all his troops fled,, chased by the Thebans to the very gates of Thespiae. Though the Spartans, in consequence of this misfor- tune, despatched by sea another general and division to replace Phoebidas, the cause of the Thebans was greatly strengthened by their recent victory. They pushed their success not only against Thespiae, but against the other Boeotian cities, still held by local oligarchies in dependence on Sparta. At the same time, these oligarchies were threatened by the growing strength of their own popular or philo-Theban citizens, who crowded in considerable numbers as exiles to Thebes. 3 A second expedition against Thebes, undertaken by Agesilaus in the ensuing summer with the main army of the confederacy, was neither more decisive nor more profitable than the preceding. Though he contrived, by a well-planned stratagem, to surprize the 1 Diodor. xv, 32 ; Polyaen. ii, 1, 2; Cornel. Nepos, Chabrias, c. 1, "ob- nixo genu scuto," Demostlien. cont. Leptinem, p. 479. The Athenian public having afterwards voted a statue to the honor of Chabrias, he made choice of this attitude for the design (Diodor. xv, 33).
- Xen. Hellen. v, 4, 42-45 ; Diodor. xv, 33.
- Xen. Hellen. v, 4, 46. 'E Je TOVTOV Ttakiv av ru TUV Qrj(3aiav avefu-
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