TJie Leadership of Thebes 213 The long im^incible Spartan army was thus at last defeated. While continuing the war into Spartan territory, even to Sparta itself/ Thebes under Epaminondas's leadership likewise created a navy and greatly weakened Athenian supremacy at sea. Thus, with Spartan power at last shattered, and Athens held in check on the sea, Thebes gained the leadership of Greece. But it was a supremacy based upon the genius of a single Collapse of Xhebes man, and when Epaminondas fell in a final battle with Sparta at Mantinea (362 B.C.), the power of Thebes by land and sea again collapsed. Thus the only powerful Greek states, which might have developed a federation of the Hellenic world, having destroyed each other, were ready to fall helplessly before the conqueror from the outside. He appeared in the person of Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. Nor were the powerful and highly civilized Greek cities of the west in Italy and Sicily, like Syracuse, able to assume the political Final political leadership of the Hellenes. The Greek world, whose culture the whole" ° was everywhere supreme, was politically prostrate and helpless. Greek world QUESTIONS Section 31. What causes contributed to hostilities between Athens and Sparta ? Who were the other enemies of Athens ? By whom was she supported.? What catastrophe caused the fall of Pericles? Had he founded a system which left to Athens wise and stable leadership '^. Give some account of Alcibiades. What kind of leadership did Athens now receive? Give an example. What was the result of ten years of war? What spirit had pervaded the struggle? Why did the peace of Nicias fail? Who brought on war again? Tell the story of the Sicilian expedition. What did Sparta do after the destruction of the Sicilian expedition? Give an account of the Decelean War. What kind of leadership did the Athenian democracy furnish in this war ? What was the outcome? What became of the Athenian Empire? Section 32. In what condition was the higher life of Athens after the death of Pericles? What was the purpose of the history 1 W^here the city was still without walls (see Fig. 87 and explanation).
