These wars were complicated affairs. They were fought simultaneously
on land and sea, in Greece, Asia, Thrace, and Sicily, ordinarily at
several points at once. The Spartans had a better army and ravaged
Attica; the Athenians had a superior fleet and made descents on the
coasts of the Peloponnesus. Then Athens sent its army to Sicily where
it perished to the last man (413); Lysander, a Spartan general,
secured a fleet from the Persians and destroyed the Athenian fleet in
Asia (405). The Athenian allies who fought only under compulsion
abandoned her. Lysander took Athens, demolished its walls, and burnt
its ships.
=Wars against Sparta.=--Sparta was for a time mistress on both land
and sea. "In those days," says Xenophon, "all cities obeyed when a
Spartan issued his orders." But soon the allies of Sparta, wearied of
her domination, formed a league against her. The Spartans, driven at
first from Asia, still maintained their power in Greece for some years
by virtue of their alliance with the king of the Persians (387). But
the Thebans, having developed a strong army under the command of
Epaminondas, fought them at Leuctra (371) and at Mantinea (362).
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