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MANTINEIA, or MANTINEA

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 605 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MANTINEIA, or MANTINEA , an See also:ancient See also:city of See also:Arcadia, See also:Greece, situated in the See also:long narrow See also:plain See also:running See also:north and See also:south, which is now called after the See also:chief See also:town See also:Tripolitsa. See also:Tegea was in the same valley, about so m. S. of Mantineia, and the two cities continually disputed the supremacy of the See also:district. In every See also:great See also:war we find them ranged on opposite sides, except when See also:superior force constrained both. The See also:worship and mysteries of Cora at Mantineia were famous. The valley in which the city lies has no opening to the See also:coast, and the See also:water finds its way, often only with much care and artificial aid, through underground passages (katavothra) to the See also:sea. It is bounded on the See also:west by See also:Mount Maenalus, on the See also:east by Mount Artemision. Mantineia is mentioned in the Homeric See also:catalogue of See also:ships, but in See also:early See also:Greek times existed only as a cluster of villages inhabited by a purely agricultural community. In the 6th See also:century it was still insignificant as compared with the neighbouring city of Tegea, and submitted more readily to Spartan overlordship. The See also:political See also:history of Mantineia begins soon after the See also:Persian See also:wars, when its five constituent villages, at the See also:suggestion of See also:Argos, were merged into one city, whose military strength forthwith secured it a leading position in the See also:Peloponnesus. Its policy was henceforth guided by three See also:main considerations. Its democratic constitution, which seems to have been entirely congenial to the See also:population of small freeholders, and its ambition to gain See also:control over the See also:Alpheus See also:watershed and both the Arcadian high roads to the See also:isthmus, frequently estranged Mantineia from See also:Sparta and threw it into the arms of Argos.

But the chronic frontier disputes with Tegea, which turned the two cities into See also:

bitter enemies, contributed most of all to determine their several a notable victory but lost his own See also:life. After the withdrawal of the Thebans from Arcadia Mantineia failed to recover its pre-See also:eminence from See also:Megalopolis, with which city it had frequent disputes. In contrast with the Macedonian sympathies of Megalopolis Mantineia joined the leagues against See also:Antipater (322) and Antigonus Gonatas (266). A See also:change of constitution, imposed perhaps by the Macedonians, was nullified (about 250) by a revolution through which See also:democracy was restored. About 235 B.C. Mantineia entered the Achaean See also:League, from which it had obtained See also:protection against Spartan encroachments, but soon passed in turn to the Aetolians and to Cleomenes III. of Sparta.

End of Article: MANTINEIA, or MANTINEA

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