In 362 the Thebans defeated the Spartans and their allies at Mantinea. However, the Theban victory was marred by the death of the general Epaminondas, and as a result Thebes gradually lost its power among the city-states

When these things had taken place, the opposite of what all men believed would happen was brought to pass. For since well-nigh all the people of Greece had come together and formed themselves in opposing lines, there was no one who did not suppose that if a battle were fought, those who proved victorious would be the rulers and those who were defeated would be their subjects, but the deity so ordered it that both parties set up a trophy as though victorious and neither tried to hincer those who set them up, that both gave back the dead under a truce as though...