Page "Battle of Mantinea (418 BC)" Paragraph 5

Agis could have bided his time inside the walls of Tegea, waiting for his northern allies.

However, he was already discredited and could not show the slightest sign of shying away from battle.

So, he invaded and ravaged the territory around Mantinea, about ten miles north of Tegea and a member of the Argive alliance, in order to force a pitched battle with the Argives and their allies.

The Argive army, however, was situated on ground ' steep and hard to get at ' and would not be drawn in battle, probably because the grain harvest had already been stored ( the battle probably took place in the end of September 418 ).

Agis, who was desperate for a victory to redeem his embarrassment at Argos, charged ahead ; but according to Thucydides, when the armies had closed to a stone's throw, " one of the elder Spartans " ( the xymboulos Pharax, according to Diodorus ) advised him not to try to correct one error ( his former defeat ) with another.

The Spartans therefore retreated, and went off to find a way to draw out the Argive army to a battle.

So, they diverted the Sarandapotamos River to the bed of the smaller Zanovistas river, or, they just filled up the sinkholes in which Zanovistas flowed, in order to flood the Mantinean territory.