nd meditated nothing less
than extending his dominion over the whole of Greece, for which his
central situation seemed to offer many facilities. Upon receiving the
invitation of the Thebans, Jason immediately resolved to join them.
When he arrived the Thebans were anxious that he should unite with them
in an attack upon the Lacedaemonian camp; but Jason dissuaded them from
the enterprise, advising them not to drive the Lacedaemonians to
despair, and offering his mediation. He accordingly succeeded in
effecting a truce, by which the Lacedaemonians were allowed to depart
from Boeotia unmolested.

According to Spartan custom, the survivors of a defeat were looked upon
as degraded men, and subjected to the penalties of civil infamy. No
allowance was made for circumstances. But those who had fled at
Leuctra were three hundred in number; all attempt to enforce against
them the usual penalties might prove not only inconvenient, but even
dangerous; and on the proposal of Agesilaus, they were, for this
occasion only, suspended. The loss of material power which Sparta
sustained by the defeat was great. The ascendency she had hitherto
enjoyed in parts north of the Corinthian gulf fell from her at once,
and was divided between Jason of Pherae and the Thebans. Jason was
shortly afterwards assassinated. His death was felt as a relief by
Greece, and especially by Thebes. He was succeeded by his two
brothers, Polyphron and Polydorus; but they possessed neither his
ability nor his power.

The Athenians stood aloof from the contending parties. They had not
received the news of the battle of Leuctra with any pleasure, for they
now dreaded Thebes more than Sparta. But instead of helping the
latter, they endeavoured to prevent either from obtaining the supremacy
in Greece, and for this purpose called upon the other states to form a
new alliance upon the terms of the peace of Antalcidas. Most of the
Peloponnesian states joined this new league. Thus even the
Peloponnesian cities became independent of Sparta. But this was not
all. Never did any state fall with greater rapidity. She not only
lost the dominion over states which she had exercised for centuries;
but two new political powers sprang up in the peninsula, which
threatened her own independence.

In the following year (B.C. 370) Epaminondas marched into Laconia, and
threatened Sparta itself. The city, which was wholly unfortified, was
filled with confusion and alarm