Theban hegemony

This was taken as a direct challenge by the previous hegemonic power, the Spartans, who gambled on restoring their waning ascendancy by a decisive defeat of the Thebans.

In the north, they invaded Thessaly, to crush the growing local power of Pherae and took the future Philip II of Macedon hostage, bringing him to Thebes.

The Thebans overstretched themselves strategically and, in their efforts to maintain control of the north, their power in the south disintegrated.

The Thebans sought to maintain their position through diplomacy and their influence at the Amphictyonic council in Delphi, but when this resulted in their former allies the Phocians seizing Delphi and beginning the Third Sacred War (c. 355 BC), Thebes proved too exhausted to bring any conclusion to the conflict.

This signalled the rise of Macedon within Greece and finally brought to an end a Theban hegemony which had already been in decline.