Epaminondas (/ɪˌpæmɪˈnɒndəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἐπαμεινώνδας, romanized: Epameinṓndas; c. 418 BC – 362 BC) was a Greek general (strategos/Boeotarch) of Thebes and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a pre-eminent position in Greek politics called the Theban Hegemony. In the process he broke Spartan military power with his victory at Leuctra and liberated the Messenian helots, a group of Peloponnesian Greeks who had been enslaved under Spartan rule for some 230 years after being defeated in the Messenian War ending in 600 BC. Epaminondas reshaped the political map of Greece, fragmented old alliances, created new ones, and supervised the construction of entire cities. He was also militarily influentia