Cleombrotus

Family: Lacedaemonians · Role: commander · First appears: Book 5, section 4, part 1/5

In 378 BC, Cleombrotus was sent to lead the expedition against Thebes. At Plataeae, his light infantry killed nearly all the former Theban prisoners guarding the summit, and he descended in person on the city, which remained friendly to Sparta. He halted at Cynoscephalae for sixteen days, then withdrew to Thespiae, where he left Sphodrias as governor with allied troops and the money he had brought from home. Afterward, he disbanded the contingents, which returned home.

When the Lacedaemonians later preferred Agesilaus to lead an expedition, they called him “a more prudent general than Cleombrotus had proved.” They subsequently ordered Cleombrotus not to disband his army and to march against Thebes if it refused to recognise the autonomy of the states. He marched into Boeotia, took Creusis and captured twelve Theban war-vessels, then advanced to Leuctra. There the armies engaged at noon; the Lacedaemonian cavalry was quickly defeated, and the Theban regiments attacked vigorously.