The Battle that ended Spartan influence: 371BC Historical Battle of Leuctra | Total War Battle

The Battle of Leuctra was a battle fought on 6 July 371 BC between the Boeotians led by the Thebans, and the Spartans along with their allies amidst the post-Corinthian War conflict. The battle took place in the vicinity of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae. The Theban victory shattered Sparta's immense influence over the Greek peninsula, which Sparta had gained with its victory in the Peloponnesian War a generation earlier.
Source - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...
Game - Rome 2: Total War
00:00 Introduction
02:24 Thebes March out
03:02 Spartan Supply area
03:52 The Battle begins
05:13 Cavalry Engagement
06:33 Theban left attacks
07:58 Theban right attacks
09:38 Spartans are pushed back
10:46 Aftermath

[@thewargod1995]

Ya while this is basically right it is not quite factually honest. The battle began with a Calvary engagement. The Theban Calvary came from the left side of the battlefield and engaged the Spartan Calvary in front of the Spartans. As this happened the Theban left began marching towards the enemy in an eschelon formation. This is the first time in history an eschelon formation was known to have been used. The dust kicked up from the calvary battle masked the Theban advance. When the Theban Calvary drove the Spartan Calvary from the field they fled to the left side of the Spartan formation completely in front of all other units, which obstructed vision. The Spartans were unaware of how the Thebans were advancing. Because of the super formation built on the Theban left their other units were smaller in number and advanced at specific intervals behind the unit to their left. By the time the Spartans figured out what was going on the Thebans were already upon them. The Thebans put their heavy units on the left so that they would directly engage the Spartans intentionally. Within the 50 deep ranks of the Thebans were the Sacred Band, a group of elite Soldiers who flanked the Spartans which is what caused most of the deaths. When the Super Phalanx engaged the Spartan formation the Sacred Band broke off and moved to a flanking position to the Spartans left and came at them sideways forcing the Spartans to fight in two directions at once. When the Spartans learned their king had fallen in combat they began a general and disorganized retreat, which is the point at which all the casualties occurred. Outside of the Theban Super Phalanx, the Spartan Hoplites and the Calvary no other units even engaged in the battle. The irony is that had Sparta of waited a few hours their reinforcements would have been able to join them. As was, the Spartans actually outnumbered the Thebans on the battlefield. But in war numbers alone confer no advantage. Upon seeing the defeat and route of the Spartans their allies, who were unengaged, choose to retreat and did not engage. The Sacred Band was made up of 300 Soldiers who were gay lovers including Espindas and Pelopidas, his lover and co-commander of the army. The tactics of this battle were later used in future engagements to defeat other Spartan forces and eventually broke Spartan power and the myth of invincibility.

[@manuelacosta9463]

This was quite intense, the loss of those Spartan troops and their king was quite the blow. For Sparta in general it was a slow grind down, ironically a significant cause of this was their own strict and severe policies. Hope you give us more on the ancient Greek city states and their feuds. Nice work. 😎

[@cinematicbattles559]

Thanks for watching !

[@user-vw1vf5cw7d]

They were dying more men into battle than being born which led eventually to the marginalisation of Sparta

[@JOSECANUCCJ]

Isn’t “Thebes” a one syllable word?

[@PSAV76]

Stop reading it like it’s an English word? Sound out the vowels you pillock!

[@SethSwanson-hq1it]

Yeah he's got a computer speaking for him using his voice you can tell by the lack of emotion etc.

[@aleccrombie7923]

I glad you commented. It was driving me crazy. Like a repeated flat note in a musical piece. The rest was pretty good quality and we'll worth watching.

[@Calventius]

Of course.goofy pronunciation

[@robertotamesis1783]

Teves but the inclusion a of Theban was homophobic in nature.

[@trlavalley9909]

Personally I've always found this battle to be the best example of , (or argument for) a more literal interpretation of the term othismos, or pushing described by Greek authors. It should also be noted that the northern power mentioned was Macedon, and that Phillip the II was a "Hostage" in Thebes at the time of the battle and received his military education, and I expect his political one as well at the hand of Epaminondas. Although in this case the student clearly eclipsed his great teacher.

[@user-vw1vf5cw7d]

Thebean Hegemony was replaced by Macedonian Hegemony very quickly.

[@user-ol5vu3qs9y]

Amazing vid 🎉🎉

[@cinematicbattles559]

Thanks! 😁

[@allent1034]

Wonderful graphics but I believe not at all representative of a phalanx battle. There wasn't a bunch individual man to man combat but a mass of bodies pushing against another mass. The deaths were more often caused by being squashed and trampled to death by your own side than a sword thrust from an enemy. This type of graphics would look good for a Trojan War episode though.

[@cinematicbattles559]

Thank you! Yes you are right, I will definitely consider this for future spartan videos

[@ak9989]

It's not pronounced "theebee" it's just Thebes! One word pronunciation and not thee bee😮

[@thenapoleanhistorybuff]

Bro keep this up!!!

[@cinematicbattles559]

Cheers bro glad you enjoyed

[@thenapoleanhistorybuff]

​@@cinematicbattles559 can I work for you

[@nobbytang]

Spartan military arrogance and over confidence used against them ….knowing exactly how your enemy will deploy in advance and setting up a ambush battle plan was the genius of Epim….( whatever his Greek name is )…

[@josephdovi1565]

Thebes had Spartans battle plans.

[@mrbaab5932]

Siege of Gaza by that 'northern force' should be next.

[@rocistone6570]

THEE-BEES?? That's all I can stands; I can't stands no more!!

[@Busson_0]

I love Hellenika mod!

[@raywhitehead730]

Notice! The Low numbers of Spartans?

[@Steven-nd1pz]

According to J.H. Allen's 1906 book "Judas Sceptre and Josephs birthright," the Spartans were Irish. They believed that they were from the tribe of Dan, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Which is why stayed among themselves and didn't really mix with the Greeks. They wrote letters to the high priest in Jerusalem to this effect. Many from the tribe of Dan migrated to modern day Ireland, which is why many regions and towns have Dan and its variations in their naming.

[@craigmurrayauthor]

yeah, that book and pretty much everything in it is now considered about as accurate or useful as a 1906 car repair guide would be on a modern F1 racer

[@michaellangevin3943]

My people came or were begot by the lesser known 14th tribe of Israel, the Tribe of Bob. Most everybody then besides Dan and Bob had these weird names like Mishak, Shadrak and Abendago. Throw in a few Zachiases and Zacharias, Herod, Moses, etc. Bam, new testament in Greek next thing you got Paul, Tom, Mark, Luke, Dan and Bob all these Eurotrash names. That has always made we wonder. But Im sure the druids of Ireland recall all those Israelite's and have honored those true Israeli names in their lore. I've just never seem to be privy to them.

[@billkaroumbalis2310]

Dream on

[@tedgarside6138]

As this is about the Greek city of Thebes and its army it would have been appropriate to pronounce Thebes correctly. It's one syllable, pronounced 'Theebs' not 'Thee-Bees'. If you cannot bother to pronounce the main subject correctly it casts doubt on the reliability of the rest of the information included in this presentation.

[@cinematicbattles559]

I know my apologies, the AI is terrible sometimes

[@felipekrueger272]

TEBAS!

[@davidtorre7370]

I thought the Sacred Band fought naked.

[@trlavalley9909]

Not on youtube.

[@user-tw8zx6wn9d]

Not at all

[@miscprojects9662]

An earthquake ended Spartin influence.

[@SethSwanson-hq1it]

Spartan and no it didn't but ok.

[@charlespayne1707]

There was a huge earthquake in 460 bc that contributed to Sparta's decline. It was a big factor the reduced number of full Spartan hoplites. At its peak Sparta could have fielded 9,000 hoplites who were full citizens and the best trained and organized fighters in all of Greece ...possibly the best in the world. In the battle that drove the Persian Army out of Greece Sparta sent 5,000 hoplites. However over time the concentration of wealth and land ownership led to more full Spartan males who no longer had the required wealth to be full citizens. After the Peloponessian War was Sparta ever able to send even 1,000 full Spartan hoplites into battle? I don't believe Sparta did until two reforming Kings took steps to increase the number of full citizens in the 3rd Century bc but by then it was too late.

[@Gazza-od4ft]

second comment on a great video!

[@cinematicbattles559]

Cheers

[@richardbridges5268]

It’s pronounced The bz not the bees

[@Lavite200]

Sparta ended up being Persia's boy toy. All this talk about Sparta being a beacon of freedom is Hollywood nonsense. Athens's strength was democracy. That same democracy is what killed Athens.

[@robertotamesis1783]

That's funny after the defeat of the Sparta in Lectra the King Philip the 2nd of Macedon made allies with Laconia -Spartans mercernaries. Eventually defeated the Theves and Athenain at Chaeronea.

[@JohnRyan-gr8bs]

There's was even gayer than sparta

[@stephenbutler6819]

Makes no sense what u put