Because the Spartans did not break ranks but advanced steadily, shoulder to shoulder, with shields locked, they took full advantage of the phalanx formation: an unbroken wall of shields bristling with thrusting spears. Xerxes’ Persians learned to their dismay just how devastatingly effective the Spartan phalanx could be: first at Thermopylae, where a mere 300 Spartans left as a rear guard in a narrow mountain pass inflicted terrifying casualties upon elite Persian infantry, and then at Plataea, where the Spartans proved capable of defeating the best Persian cavalry as well. The Spartan phalanx, some 9,000 men strong at the time Demaratus addressed Xerxes, was massive by Greek standards; on its own ground it was as close to an unstoppable force as the ancient world had ever encountered. Yet Sparta’s governmental and social structures were simply incapable of coping with an era of rapid change. And that is exactly what Sparta–along with the other Greek city-states–faced in the hard half-century between the battles of Mantinea in 418 B.C. and Leuctra in 371 B.C.

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At the time of the battle of Mantinea, fought at about the midway point in the long Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.), Sparta’s once-sterling reputation among the Greeks had already suffered considerable tarnish. The war between imperial Athens, an audacious democratic naval power, and the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League, had dragged on much longer than anyone had anticipated: optimistic Spartans had expected Athens to fold after two or three campaigning seasons. Albeit, Athens had a fine navy, secure overseas supply lines, and the cash resources of a maritime empire. Yet Sparta headed up a tested coalition of Peloponnesian states. The Peloponnesian League could field a land army second to none in size–and the Spartan heavy infantry provided a fine-honed cutting edge. Beginning in the summer of 431, the superior Peloponnesian land army repeatedly ravaged Athens’ home territory of Attica. But it failed to make a serious dent in Athens’ strength or internal cohesion and proved miserably inadequate at siege warfare.

Six years into the war, in 425 B.C., came a serious setback: the Spartan army botched an attack on Pylos, a headland on the southwestern Peloponnesian coast that had been seized and fortified by the Athenians. The Spartans sought to circumvent the walls of Pylos by attempting a marine landing, but when the Athenian navy suddenly appeared, a Spartan unit found itself stranded on the small offshore island of Sphakteria. The Athenians blockaded the island and landed lightly armed troops. Projectile harrassment eventually led to the surrender and capture of several hundred Spartan warriors.

The Sphakteria debacle was a shocker; it proved Spartan soldiers were not invincible. Moreover, the continued Athenian presence at Pylos fueled the subject Helots’ dreams of independence. The situation was serious, but the Spartans found among their ranks a genuinely innovative military leader. Brasidas, with a rag-tag army composed mostly of Helot recruits, opened a new front in northern Greece, threatening Athens’ access to vital grain markets and timber resources. The playing field was back to level: Sparta’s fears of Helot revolts spurred by the presence of the Pylos garrison were now balanced by Athenian fears of imperial collapse in the north. A few years later, the uneasy Peace of Nicias was negotiated; the first stage of the war was over and many Athenians and Spartans breathed a sigh of relief. But some of Sparta’s key allies felt that the Peace had been signed prematurely, without adequate consultation, and that their interests were slighted in the peace terms. Meanwhile, wily and ambitious Athenians–including the notorious Alcibiades–engaged in diplomatic intrigue with their Spartan counterparts; the result was a thoroughly confused international situation in the once-tidy Peloponnese. By 418, when hostilities recommenced, many Greeks doubted that the fabled Spartan courage, resolution and blunt straightforwardness were anything but a clever sham. Sparta’s fanatical devotion to secrecy in all matters regarding its military organization had begun to look like a cover.

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