LEUCTRA  , a

village of Boeotia in the territory of Thespiac, chiefly noticeable for the battle fought in its neighbourhood in 371 B.C. between the Thebans and the Spartans and their allies . A Peloponnesian army, about 1o,000 strong, which had invaded Boeotia from Phocis, was here confronted by a Boeotian levy of perhaps 6000 soldiers under Epaminondas (q.v.) . In spite of inferior numbers and the doubtful loyalty of his Boeotian allies, Epaminondas offered battle on the plain before the town . Massing his cavalry and the 50-deep column of Theban infantry on his left wing, he sent forward this body in advance of his centre and right wing . After a cavalry engagement in which the Thebans drove their enemies off the field, the decisive issue was fought out between the Theban and Spartan foot . The latter, though fighting well, could not sustain in their 12-deep formation the heavy impact of their opponents' column, and were hurled back with a loss of about 2000 men, of whom 700 were Spartan citizens, including the king Cleombrotus . Seeing their right wing beaten, the rest of the Peloponnesians retired and left the enemy in possession of the field . Owing to the arrival of a Thessalian army under Jason of Pherae, whose friendship they did not trust, the Thebans were unable to exploit their victory . But the battle is none the less of great significance in Greek history . It marks a revolution in military tactics, affording the first known instance of a deliberate concentration of attack upon the vital point of the enemy's line . Its political effects were equally far-reaching, for the loss in material strength and prestige which the Spartans here sustained deprived them for ever of their supremacy in Greece . AuraoRrrres.—Xenophon, Hellenica, vi .

4 . 3-15; Diodorus xi . 53-56;

Plutarch, Pelopidas, chs . 20-23; Pausanias ix . 13 . 2-10; G . B . Grundy, The Topography of the Battle of Plataea (London, 1894), pp . 73-76; H . Delbruck, Geschichte der Kriegskunst (Berlin„ 1900), i . 130 if . (M .

O . B .