Boeotian War
[2] After passing through the allied cities of Plataea and Thespiae, Cleombrotus's force camped at Cynoscephalae (6 km west of Thebes) to await events.
[3] The Athenians were alarmed at Cleombrotus's presence nearby, and, seeking to placate Sparta, immediately punished their own generals who had aided the Theban coup.
Cleombrotus inflicted no damage to Theban territory, as he apparently hoped for a reconciliation, but the government at Sparta, led by the other king, the anti-Theban hardliner Agesilaus, would have nothing less than the punishment of the coup leaders and the restoration of a pro-Spartan regime, terms which Thebes rejected.
[5] Whatever negotiations Cleombrotus may have initiated on his own came to nothing, and, once it became apparent after 16 days that neither Thebes nor Athens would offer a challenge, he ended the campaign, retiring unhindered by way of Creusis and Aigosthena.
[4] Sphodrias, the harmost (governor) whom Cleombrotus had left in command of a Spartan remnant garrisoned at Thespiae, launched an officially unauthorized nighttime raid on the Athenian port of Piraeus.
[8] A Spartan delegation in Athens, which had been probably sent earlier by Agesilaus to assess Athenian intentions, professed ignorance of the attack, but Sphodrias was then unexpectedly acquitted by the home government.
[11] Agesilaus probed the stockade looking for weak points, moving his camp around it and devastating the land outside, while the Thebans and Athenians sent out repeated forays to harass his forces.
He dispersed their light troops and brought his army uphill to threaten the enemy, but the latter, led by the Athenian Chabrias, defiantly stood their ground in a defensive and provocative manner.
[14] Unwilling to charge uphill against a strong opponent, Agesilaus decided not to engage the enemy and, his bluff called, continued devastating Theban territory, reaching the walls of the city itself.
[18] Turning back westward, Agesilaus found the Theban army formed up in a hill named Graos Stethos (probably the modern Golemi), but he ignored them and marched straight to Thebes itself.
[20] As Agesilaus retired to Thespiae, his Olynthian cavalry inflicted some casualties on a group of enemy peltasts after the Athenian Chabrias refused to risk his hoplites in support.
He had failed to decisively engage the enemy or to capture Thebes, and his depredations had the effect of strengthening the resolve of the affected Boeotian communities against Sparta.
[29] The capture of Plataea by the Thebans put the Theban-Athenian Alliance under strain,[30] as the Plataeans were expelled from their city and found asylum in Athens, where they were a strong voice against Thebes.
