AGESILA`US, a Spartan king, victorious over the Persians in Asia and over the allied Thebans and Athenians at Coronea, but defeated by Epaminondas at Mantinea after a campaign in Egypt; d. 360 B.C., aged 84.

PELOPONNESIAN WAR, a war of thirty years' duration (431-404 B.C.) between Athens and Sparta, which ended in the supremacy of the latter, till the latter was overthrown at Leuctra by the Thebans under Epaminondas in 371 B.C.

The usual formation of the regular cavalry was in the form of a wedge, so as to penetrate and break the enemy's line,a manoeuvre probably learned from Epaminondas of Thebes, a great master in the art of war, who defeated the Spartan phalanx by forming his columns upon a front less than their depth, thus enabling him to direct his whole force against a given point.

He was a military prodigy, equally great in tactics and strategy,a master of all the improvements which had been made in the art of war, from Epaminondas to Frederic II.