The Campaign and Battle of Mantineia in 418 B.C.

Abstract

Among the more elaborate pieces of purely military history written by Thucydides is the section (of fourteen chapters in the Fifth Book) devoted to that Arkadian campaign of King Agis by which, in the late summer of 418 B.C., he ruined the far-reaching schemes of Alkibiades and restored the tarnished prestige of Sparta. According, to Thucydides, this fortunate achievement was due more to good luck than to good management; not in any wise is it exhibited as the reasonably forecast outcome of cunningly contrived, if somewhat delicately articulated, machinery. Something less than justice is thereby done to one of the most remarkable personages of that time. Both by Thucydides himself, and, after his example, by most modern historians, the Spartan king, in his connexion with these operations at any rate, is pilloried without further question as a bungler, and, indeed, as little better than a fool. It would seem that the time has come to ask whether that verdict is justified.