In the years before this great battle, the Spartans under Brasidas, the most energetic and daring of Sparta’s warriors at the time, had actively campaigned in northern Greece in an attempt to widen Spartan dominance.
While at the same time, the confusion of Athenian domestic politics was reflected in an erratic foreign policy. In 420 BC, Alcibiades was elected general, and proceeded to make an alliance with Argos and other cities of the Peloponnese, directed against Sparta.
But the following year he was not reelected and the new Board of Generals refused to carry through the policy which Alcibiades had initiated. The result was that when the rival armies of the Spartans and Argives met in battle at Mantinea only a few Athenians hoplites were on hand to aid the Argives and their other allies.
In the Battle of Mantinea which was fought n June 418 BC the Spartan army probably had a total strength of some 7000 to 8000 men and was slightly stronger than the opposing Mantineans, Argives and Athenians.
The Athenian phalanx was in danger of being surrounded and destroyed after their allies broke and fled. According to Thucydides, they would have suffered more heavily than any other part of the army if they had not had their cavalry with them to help them.
The Spartans won the battle decisively, and restored much of their damaged reputation by the victory.
Battle of Mantinea (418 BC)
