Battle of Tegyra

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Tegyra took place around 375 BC near the village of Tegyra in Boeotia , northeast of Orchomenos in Greece .

The 300-strong Holy Band from the supremacy of the Boeotian League , Thebes , an elite unit of state-run citizen soldiers , defeated a much larger Spartan force of two Morai with around 600 to 1000 heavily armed men under their general Pelopidas , supported by a cavalry unit of the civil army.

The Theban unit formed a deep and narrow formation that broke through the Spartan phalanx, causing the first defeat of a numerically superior Spartan force in the conditions of a field battle .

Ancient sources