Spartan Mora regiments at Battle of Plataea

[Ghostmojo]

In any event, Theban hegemony was short-lived. What is clearly demonstrated from that period is the power of the charismatic leader since without Pelopidas and then Epaminondas, Thebes soon slid back to its more usual role of Boiotian intrigues.

One wonders just how the Spartans must have viewed events a mere 40 years later when Thebes had been destroyed by Alexander. One of their premier foes razed by another. In that case surely a situation of my enemy's enemy is (also) my enemy? Even though it reappeared 20 years later courtesy of Kassander, it never again amounted to much and by Roman times was little more than a village. Sparta - ever true to form - at least made several comebacks and under Kleomenes III could be argued to be once more on the breach of serious domination of the Peloponnese.

I suspect many Greeks in 335 [size=85:37m8eli3]BC[/size] were glad to see the back of Thebes even if it had briefly appeared to have some kind of pan-Hellenic pretentions (liberating Messenia etc.) in the previous generation. The post Persian War policy of punishing Medizers remained a issue with many who had been a part of the Hellenic League, and I can only assume Athens clearly remembered Thebes' own clamouring for the former's destruction after the Peloponnesian War - and was duly happy to stick the knife in when the time came.