This is the History of the World Podcast with me Chris Hasler

And you're listening to volume three, the classical world

episode 17

The Rise of Masoden Oh, It seems unthinkable when you look back to the 5th century B.C. that after

371 B.C. the main power of Greece would be neither Athens or Sparta as both nations had dominated Greek

politics for as long as anyone could remember and for as long as the Greek

alphabet had been in use. Now it was the Phibans who were the ones who commanded

the respect of their neighbours after the incredible defeat of Sparta at the Battle of Luctra. The Peloponnesian League had been disassembled

and the Messinian Helots had been freed. However, time and time again we see that the outstanding success

of a nation is often attributed to the strong leadership of an individual. The Acadian Empire under Sargan the Great, the Babylonian

Empire under Hammurabi, the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II, the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great,

the Athenian Empire under Pericles, The success of Thebes can be attributed to a period of

leadership under one man who was called Epaminondondas.

Epaminondas seemed to be a man who understood that victory at one military exchange

was not enough when attempting to position your nation in a position of greatness.

And so we can recognise that same insatiable desire to consolidate and improve Thebes by continuing

to campaign against Theibam rivals and commissioning

building projects to strengthen the national infrastructure. A Paminondas

would ensure that Thibban influence was strong in the Peloponnese by supporting the Arcadians, who were always under Spartan hegemony previously.

As we discovered in a previous episode, the young Prince Philip of Macedon was being

held hostage in Thebes, and the Paminondus was granting him an education.

This is a typical example of an ancient society attempting to influence another society by taking important members of their

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