300 HISTORY OF GREECE. already spoken as having been debated before the Athenian put* lie assembly. Their plan seems to have been formed some mouths before, when Onomarchus was at the maximum of his power, and when Thebes was supposed to be in danger ; but it was not exe- cuted until after his defeat and death, when the Phokians, de- pressed for the time, were rescued only by the prompt interference of Athens, and when the Thebans had their hands compara- tively free. Moreover, the Theban division which had been sent into Asia under Pammenes a year or two before, to assist Arta- bazus, may now be presumed to have returned ; especially as we know that no very long time afterwards, Artabazus appears as completely defeated by the Persian troops, expelled from Asia, and constrained to take refuge, together with his brother-in- law Memnon, under the protection of Philip. 1 The Megalopoli- tans had sent envoys to entreat aid from Athens, under the apprehension that Thebes would not be in a condition to assist them. It may be doubted whether Athens would have granted their prayer, in spite of the advice of Demosthenes, but the Thebans had now again become strong enough to uphold with their own force their natural allies in Peloponnesus. Accordingly, when the Lacedaemonian army under king Archi- damus invaded the Megalopolitan territory, a competent force was soon brought together to oppose them ; furnished partly by the Argeians, who had been engaged during the preceding year in a border warfare with Sparta, and had experienced a partial de- feat at Ornea?, 2 partly by the Sikyonians and Messenians, who came in full muster. Besides this, the forces on both sides from Boeotia and Phokis were transferred to Peloponnesus. The Thebans sent four thousand foot, and five hundred horse, under Kephision, to the aid of Megalopolis ; while the Spartans not only recalled their own troops from Phokis, but also procured three thousand of the mercenaries in the service of Phayllus, and one hundred and fifty Thessalian horse from Likophron, the expelled despot of Pherse. Archidamus received his reinforcements, and got together his aggregate forces earlier than the enemy. He ad- vanced first into Arcadia, where he posted himself near Mantinea, thus cutting off the Argeians from Megalopolis ; he next invaded 1 Diodor. xvi. 52 2 Diodor xvi. 34.
