Battle of Mantinea in 207 BC

Philopoemen, commander of Achaean League formed up the Acheans behind a trench with both flanks resting on hills. Nevertheless, the Spartans under the tyrant Machanidas moved in against them.

Sparta and the Achaean League came to grips at full strength each side sending out a full citizen levy as well as a big force of mercenaries.

A new instrument of war is said to have been employed here for the first time in a field: Machanidas had a number of catapults moved up in front of his phalanx, in order to fire on the enemy phalanx. To forestall this, Philopoemen started the battle by having the light cavalry or Tarentines, who were stationed in his left flank and other light armed mercenaries move forward.

In this battle, the Achaeans, allies of Macedonia, were victorious. The Battle of Mantinea this year was the most significant battle of the Frost Macedonia War, although it involved none of the main participants in that war.
Battle of Mantinea in 207 BC

Battle of Mantinea in 362 BC

In 420 BC during the Peloponnesian war, Mantinea joined and anti-Spartan alliance of Athens, Argos and Elis.

The battle of Mantinea brought something like peace and conclusion to the forty year period of confusion following the fall of the world order of 405 BC.

Thebes stood in the ascendant, Sparta on the decline and Athens in a useful and international flexible position.

In this battle, the Spartans faced the Boeotians and the Athenians the Arcadian auxiliaries and Eleans; the cavalry was stationed on the wings, that the Athenians facing that of the Thebans, which reinforced by an immense number of skirmish.

Mantinea troops fought on the Spartan side and shared in the Spartan defeat at the second Battle of Mantinea, where Theban commander Epaminondas was killed in his hour of victory.

In the end superior Spartan soldiering won the day as the Spartan right wheeled around and rolled out the enemy, who retreated under pressure.
Battle of Mantinea in 362 BC

Battle of Mantinea (418 BC)

Thucydides describes Battle of Mantinea as the greatest battle that had taken place for a very long time among Hellenic states.

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)