Battle of Mantinea (418 BC)

Battle of Mantinea
Part of the Peloponnesian War
Date 418 BC Location Mantinea Result Spartan victory
Belligerents
Sparta, Arcadian allies of Sparta, Tegea	Argos, Athens, Mantinea, Arcadian allies of Argos
Commanders and leaders
Agis II	Laches †, Nicostratus †
Strength
About 9,000 (3,500 Spartans, 600 Sciritae, 2,000 helots (Neodamodes), 3,000 Tegean allies and cavalry)	About 8,000 (3,000 Argives, 1,000 Athenian heavy infantry, 2,000 Mantineans, 1,000 mercenary Arcadians, 1,000 Cleonaeans, Orneans, Aeginetans and other allied infantry and cavalry)
Casualties and losses
About 300 Spartans with insignificant other allied casualties	About 1,100 (700 Argives, 200 Mantineans, 200 Athenians and Aeginetans)

The First Battle of Mantinea of 418 BC was a significant engagement in the Peloponnesian War. Sparta and its allies defeated an army led by Argos and Athens.

After the conclusion of the alliance between the Argives, Achaeans, Eleans and Athens, the humiliation of the Spartans in the 420 Olympic Games and the invasion of Epidaurus by the allies, the Spartans were compelled to move against them, fearing an alliance with Corinth and having amassed an army that was, according to Thucydides, 'the best army ever assembled in Greece to that time'. However, the Spartan king Agis (son of Archidamus) instead concluded the first campaign with a truce, without explaining his actions to the army or his allies; the army thus returned home. Immediately afterwards, the Argives denounced the truce and resumed the war, capturing the key town of Orchomenus; as a result, anger at Agis was such that he was on the verge of being fined 100,000 drachmas and having his house destroyed. Agis managed to forestall this punishment, promising to redeem himself with a victory elsewhere. The ephors consented, but in an unprecedented move, placed Agis under the supervision of ten advisors, called xymbouloi, whose consent was required for whatever military action he wished to take.

Late in 418, the Argives and their allies marched against Tegea, where a faction was ready to turn the city over to the Argive alliance. Tegea was a very important place, as it controlled the exit from Laconia. Enemy control of the town would mean that the Spartans would be unable to move out of their home city and would effectively mean the demise of the Peloponnesian coalition that fought the Archidamian War.

Agis marched the whole of the Spartan army, together with the neodamodeis and everyone who was able to fight in Sparta out to Tegea where he was joined by his allies from Arcadia, and he sent for help from his northern allies, Corinth, Boeotia, Phocis, and Locris. However, the northern army could not arrive quickly to the scene, as they had not expected the call and would have to pass through enemy territory (Argos and Orchomenus). On the whole, the army of the allies of Sparta would have numbered around 9,000 hoplites.

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