Arcadia. Detailed history

Arcadia, a mountainous and landlocked region of the Peloponnese, traces its history to the myth of Arcas, the son of Zeus and the nymph Callisto; Zeus’s wife, Hera, sought to punish Callisto by turning her into a bear. Zeus hid the child Arcas in a remote region that eventually became known as Arcadia. His maternal grandfather, Lycaon, raised him, although he later placed him upon a pyre as a sacrifice to the gods, Zeus freed Arcas and turned Lycaon into a wolf.

Arcas became king, and while hunting one day, he came across his mother, who was in the form of a bear, and prepared to shoot her. He was prevented from doing so by Zeus, who then turned him into a bear as well, and both were put into the stars as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The tale probably references the natural ruggedness of the region and its pastoral setting.

Arcadia was bounded in the north by Achaea, by the mountain ridges from Erymanthos to Cyllene in the east, and then by Corinth in the northeast and Argolis in the east, from Cyllene to Mount Oligyrtus and Parthenius on the Argolis border. To the south lay Laconia, with the border being the Parnon and Taygetos ranges, while in the southwest lay Messenia from Mount Nomia to Mount Elaeum, where it then ran into Elis on the west, bordered by the Erymanthos and Diagon river valleys. The region had a few plains, such as at Tegea and Megalopolis.

The population retained the language it had used prior to the Dorian invasion (ca. 1000) due to its mountainous and uninviting geography. During the Classical Age, this language difference with the other regions of mainland Greece was evident. Since it was the same type of dialect as spoken on Cyprus, it points to the idea that the Arcadian language was spoken throughout the Peloponnese before the Dorian invasion.

The region was fiercely independent, and during the seventh century, it defended itself against Spartan aggression. Eastern Arcadia contained a broad plain overlooking the sea where the cities in the north would create a synoecism (melding together) to form the city of Mantinea, while those in the south did the same to create Tegea. They were typically allied with Sparta against its neighbor Argos. During the Persian Wars, they joined with Sparta and fought at Thermopylae and Plataea.

Several important cities during this time included Tegea, which guarded the entrance into Laconia, near the Argive border, and Mantinea, in the northeast near Corinth. Mantinea had become a unified city in 470, and Sparta allowed the union of the villages into an enlarged city due to their neutrality during the war with the Arcadian League and Tegea.

During the competition between Sparta and Athens, Mantinea first fought with Sparta and then attempted to gain its independence by joining with Argos and Athens. The Spartans decided to divert a river to flood Mantinea, forcing the Mantineans out of their strong defensive position into the field below. Here, at the First Battle of Mantinea in 418, the Argive army was defeated and forced to rejoin the Spartans.

The other chief city, Tegea, was a powerful city between Mantinea in the north and Sparta in the south. It sent ships to Troy fighting for Agamemnon in struggles against Sparta during the early classical period. The difference between Tegea and Messenia was that the territory of Tegea was not incorporated into Spartan territory; it was allowed to remain free but dependent upon Sparta.

In return, Tegea would contribute forces to the Spartan army and agreed not to harbor any Messenians who might flee Sparta. The change in Spartan policy toward the rest of the Peloponnese by not trying to annex the regions, but rather create a series of alliances, began with Tegea and continued throughout the sixth century.

The Tegeatae fought at Thermopylae with 500 men and at Plataea with 3,000. Argos, Sparta’s perennial foe, successfully raised an alliance of Arcadian cities in about 475 to combat Sparta. Argos and Tegea entered into an alliance against Sparta. At the Battle of Tegea in 473, the combined forces of the alliance faced the hoplites of Sparta outside the walls of Tegea. Although the combined army was defeated, the Spartans could not take Tegea.

At this point, all the members of Arcadia that were the traditional enemies of Tegea (except for Mantinea) joined in an alliance against Sparta called the Arcadian League. As the Spartan army marched north into Arcadia, Argos, which had instigated the whole alliance, did not support the Arcadians. The Spartans won a great victory at Dipaea in 471 and forced Tegea back into the alliance. They remained loyal, including during the Peloponnesian War.

After the Peloponnesian War, the region of Arcadia witnessed a revival of independence and resistance to Sparta. The cities realized that the only way to break away from their dominant southern neighbor was through aligning themselves together. To accomplish this task, the independent villages and cities realized that they had to form some kind of federal league, giving up some freedom and independence in exchange for strength in numbers. Mantinea became the chief city of the newly created league.

Previously, Mantinea had been threatened with flooding by the Spartans, who changed the course of the River Ophis. To prevent this from happening again, the Mantineans decided to dig a new riverbed to split the river so that two loops surrounded the city like a moat for protection. They then proceeded to build an elaborate city wall of stone with ten gates, each purposely built so that the attackers had their right side exposed to the defenders on the walls and towers.

This new Pan-Arcadian League, with Mantinea in the lead but Tegea absent, decided to build a new city so that none of the previous cities could claim preeminence as Athens and Thebes had. The decision was helped by the defeat of Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 by Thebes, so they created the new city of Megalopolis in the western large plain of central Arcadia. The River Helisson flowed through the middle. It had a double wall that was five and a half miles long, with towers.

The nearby cities joined together to create Megalopolis. The city lay near the northwestern edge of Laconia and would provide a strong counterforce to Sparta. Like Mantinea, Megalopolis was similar in fortifications and designs to present a large base against the Spartans. Tegea underwent a revolution in 370, and the pro-Spartan party was thrown out and joined the Arcadian League.

Although the league had been bolstered by Thebes in 370, new rifts formed that threatened to break it. The city of Elis, outside the league, had claimed control over one of the cities in the league, Triphylia. Sparta now endorsed the claim of Elis over its neighbor, a break from the past. The Arcadians in 365 attacked Elis and were rebuffed, but they succeeded the following year.

The problems of the league were the age-old divisions between Mantinea and Tegea, with the former rejoining Sparta. Thebes attacked again in 362 with Megalopolis, and Tegea, but this time Sparta, Athens, Elis, and some of the Arcadian towns led by Mantinea opposed them.

The Thebans under their leader Epaminondas were victorious at Mantinea, but he was killed while pursuing the defeated foes, and the status quo remained. Arcadia would briefly oppose Macedon in 335 by sending forces to the Isthmus in case Alexander the Great attacked. But once Macedon destroyed Thebes, the Arcadians abandoned the Isthmus and abandoned any future plans of fighting.