Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1136: Battle of Leuctra (Continued)

"The Spartans will fall to us!" Epaminondas's fierce confidence infected the generals around him. They hurried to command their troops, deploying into formation before the camp according to his plan.

Because the Boeotian Coalition Army was heavily outnumbered, their entire battle line was both shorter and thinner than that of the Spartan Coalition. The sole exception was their left wing. Positioned at the very front stood the Sacred Band of Thebes led by Pelopidas, backed by the Theban heavy infantry under Epaminondas. Their column boasted a staggering depth of fifty ranks.

Epaminondas deliberately waited until the right wing and center had fully formed before deploying his left wing. The moment the left wing fell into place, he ordered the attack horn to sound. Even if the Spartans sensed something was amiss, they would have no time to adjust their formation.

As the horns blared, Pelopidas led the Sacred Band in a rapid advance, spearheading the entire left wing. Meanwhile, following Epaminondas's prior instructions, the troops in the center and right wing intentionally slowed their pace. This allowed the left wing to surge far ahead of the rest of the line. The entire infantry formation resembled a heavily swung hammer, with the left wing serving as its head.

Yet the first to engage were the cavalry. Epaminondas had pre-emptively massed his horsemen in front of his center line. Seeing this, the Spartan king, Cleombrotus, naturally mirrored the maneuver, gathering his own cavalry at the front of his center to counter them.

While the infantry lines were still marching toward one another to the sound of the horns, the opposing cavalry forces clashed violently. The Boeotian Coalition Army's cavalry, anchored by the Cavalry of Thessaly, clearly outclassed the riders of the Spartan Coalition. They shattered the Spartan ranks in short order.

Deliberately herded by the Boeotian horsemen, the routed Spartan Coalition cavalry was forced to flee directly toward their own center and left wing. The fleeing riders hindered the advancing infantry lines in those sections, causing them to gradually detach from the Spartan phalanx on the right wing.

Standing deep within the phalanx, Cleombrotus could not see that his battle line had fractured. He could, however, see the cavalry crumbling ahead and to his flank. But to the Spartans, cavalry had never been the core of their military might. Their unmatched dominance across the Greek Mainland over the years relied entirely on the Spartan Warriors—men who had undergone brutal military training since childhood and had been tempered in countless battles. Positioned at the very front was the Spartan Royal Guard, the absolute elite among elites. Earning a place in their ranks garnered the deepest reverence of the Spartan people. (Historically, the Spartan Royal Guard consisted of three hundred men, but years of unceasing warfare had sharply depleted Sparta's population; they could no longer field that number, and right now, barely a hundred marched in the formation.) Thus, the Spartan king and the Spartan Warriors around him remained completely unfazed by the cavalry's collapse, holding fast to their absolute conviction that victory would be theirs.

When the approaching Thebans closed the distance, the Spartans let out a deafening roar and initiated their charge.

Thus, when the front ranks of heavy infantry from both sides violently crashed into one another, the Sacred Band of Thebes astonishingly matched the elite Spartan Royal Guard blow for blow in both strength and skill.

However, as the successive ranks pressed forward from behind, a profound disparity emerged. A fifty-rank column possessed significantly more pushing power than a fifteen-rank column. In the brutal shoving match that defined phalanx warfare, this sheer physical advantage became glaring. Overpowered and buckling beneath the crushing weight, the outnumbered Spartans were forced back step by step, their once-impenetrable shield wall gradually loosening.

The warriors of the Sacred Band ruthlessly wedged themselves into every opening, striving to widen the breaches and shatter the shield wall. They showed no fear of the spears constantly thrusting from the Spartan ranks. They were determined to prove their valor to their lovers, and defeating a Spartan was a feat worthy of a lifetime's pride. More than that, they held absolute faith that even if they abandoned their own defense to unleash a relentless assault, their partners would parry every lethal blow on their behalf.

The Sacred Band's death-defying assault, combined with the overwhelming crush of their exceptionally deep column, caused Spartan soldiers to continually fall wounded. Their formation began to fracture. And worst of all, their king was in grave peril.

Fighting in the front lines, Cleombrotus drove his spear straight through the chest of a charging Sacred Band warrior. Yet, despite coughing up a mouthful of blood, the dying Theban latched onto the spear shaft with an iron grip, refusing to let go as he screamed a name.

The very next instant, the fallen man's partner—another warrior of the Sacred Band—surged forward with tears in his eyes. Completely ignoring the spears thrust at him by the Royal Guard flanking him, he hurled his entire body forward. The ferocious tackle slammed an unprepared Cleombrotus hard into the dirt.

His helmet having rolled away, the Spartan king could only watch as the Theban soldier—despite having his back skewered by several spears—lunged at his throat with a ferocious snarl...

The king was dead! Sparta had built its foundations on martial supremacy; aside from the heavily lopsided Battle of Thermopylae, a Spartan king had never been slain in combat. But today, this tragedy had occurred. The devastating blow this struck to the morale of the Spartan Warriors was unimaginable. What was more, they were facing a vanguard of Thebans fighting like madmen, and they were sorely outnumbered at the point of contact. The Spartan Warriors, renowned throughout Greece for their peerless bravery, finally felt the cold grip of terror. The rout began with the helot auxiliaries, who broke rank and fled. The perioikoi quickly followed suit. And in the end, even the true Spartans cast down their shields and spears, turning their backs to run...

The Spartan phalanx on the right wing completely disintegrated, the soldiers fleeing desperately back toward their encampment atop the hill.

Meanwhile, their center and left wing had already engaged the enemy and were actually gaining the upper hand. But the Spartan Coalition was built around the core strength of the Spartans. With the Spartans routed, the allied armies lost all heart for the fight and hastily retreated.

Though the Theban Army had shattered the Spartans, the soldiers had exhausted every ounce of their strength and were deeply fatigued. Furthermore, the allied armies of the Spartan Coalition remained practically untouched and still outnumbered the Theban coalition. Thus, Epaminondas did not dare press the attack against the Spartan Coalition's camp. Instead, he withdrew his troops back to their own encampment.

The Battle of Leuctra concluded. Roughly one thousand Lacedaemonians perished in this battle, including four hundred Spartan Warriors. The Sacred Band of Thebes also suffered two hundred casualties—two-thirds of their entire roster. While the overall death toll was not particularly high, the clash had effectively served as a direct measure of the intrinsic strength of two city-states: Thebes and Sparta. And Thebes had won.

Even many of the Thebans who had personally fought on the battlefield found it hard to believe they had won. Upon returning to camp, they erupted into rapturous cheers. Led by Pelopidas, the ecstatic soldiers forcibly hoisted Epaminondas onto their shoulders and paraded him around the encampment for a lap, loudly expressing their profound joy and heartfelt gratitude.

The Spartan Coalition's camp, by contrast, was shrouded in the gloom of defeat. Despite still holding a numerical advantage over the Theban coalition, their king had fallen in battle, leaving the army entirely leaderless. Though a few Spartans gnashed their teeth in bitter denial, they were ultimately forced to follow traditional conventions. They dispatched an envoy to the Theban camp to request a temporary truce to bury their dead, which effectively served as a formal concession of defeat.

Once the dead were buried, both factions immediately and independently dispatched their messengers.

The Spartan Coalition's messenger needed to hurry back to Sparta to deliver the news of their defeat to the Council of Elders, requesting that they appoint a new commander and dispatch reinforcements to rescue them from the Boeotia Region. Although their fallen king, Cleombrotus, had left them a safe avenue of retreat—Port Creusis—the severely demoralized soldiers were terrified of suffering a Theban attack. Too fearful to retreat on their own, they remained huddled in their hilltop encampment.

The Thebans sent out three messengers of their own. One hurried toward Athens, another toward Thessaly, and the third toward Daionia.

The messenger arrived first in Athens, as it was closest to Thebes. Upon arrival, the garland-crowned envoy stood before the Athenian Council and loudly proclaimed, "The Theban Army has defeated the Spartan army and slain the Spartan king, Cleombrotus!..."

This earth-shattering news plunged the entire assembly hall into dead silence. To the elites of Athens, this Theban triumph only magnified their profound wariness toward Thebes.

Callistratus had never imagined that the Thebans could actually defeat the Spartans. Thus, he and Iphicrates questioned the messenger in detail. Though the messenger's answers were brief, the two Athenians sensed the truth of the matter: while Thebes had won, the overall casualties inflicted were not immense. Given the nature of the Spartans, they would inevitably seek frenzied retaliation, and the intensity of the war would only escalate.

While this brought Callistratus secret joy, he also worried that Athens would be dragged back into the quagmire of war.

The second place the Theban messenger reached was Pherae. After all, one could take a ship directly to Pherae from the northern ports of the Boeotia Region, making for a relatively short journey.

When Jason heard the news, he practically danced with joy. He immediately assembled his cavalry and infantry, openly declaring his intent to march to the aid of his ally, Thebes.

Two days later, he led a massive host of eight thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry on a southward march overland, striking straight for Thermopylae.

Jason had expected a fierce battle at Thermopylae. However, when Cleombrotus had initially led the Spartan Coalition in a massive invasion of the Boeotia Region, he had summoned all the regional garrisons stationed across Central Greece to join him. The Spartan garrison at Thermopylae had dispatched the vast majority of its men. Upon receiving news of the defeat at Leuctra, the remaining soldiers realized they were isolated and in a dangerous position, and so they abandoned their post and retreated on their own accord.

Jason easily occupied this highly important strategic location. He left behind a garrison of five hundred men to hold the pass, then led his cavalry escort ahead. Not waiting for the main army to advance, he rapidly cut through the territory of the fiercely hostile Phocians.