The Battle of Leuctra
Epaminondas breaks the invincible Spartan phalanx
On 6 July 371 BC the Theban general Epaminondas drew up his phalanx in an oblique order, massing his left wing fifty ranks deep, and with Pelopidas' Sacred Band routed the Spartans. The myth of Spartan invincibility was over, and Theban hegemony began.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 4th century BC
Alive at the time
- Plato (aged 57)
- Aristotle (aged 13)
- Hippocrates (aged 89)
- Democritus (aged 89)
- Mencius (aged 1)
- Antisthenes (aged 74)
- Diogenes of Sinope (aged 41)
- Shang Yang (aged 19)
- Olympias (aged 4)