The loss of Messene has crippled Sparta economically; in particular, Sparta no longer has a helot population to provide the economic surplus necessary for its military life-style.

The combined impact of Leuctra, Megalopolis, and Messene is, however, not immediately obvious; in the “Tearless Battle” of 368 (or 367), the Spartan army, commanded by Agesilaus' son Archidamus, still manages to win a victory over a force of Arcadians, but Sparta is no longer a leading power.

Affairs in Thessaly and Arcadia are temporarily stalemated by 367, and a peace conference is held at Susa, inside the Persian empire.

Pelopidas asks that Sparta be made to give up Messenia formally and (more important, in view of Sparta's relative impotence at this time) that Athens be requested to give up its fleet.

The Aetolian League, a federal state or “sympolity” of Aetolia, probably based on a looser tribal community, has been an ally of Thebes since 370, and in 367 is well-enough organized to conduct negotiations with Athens.

Aetolia's federal constitution provides for two main ruling bodies: a primary assembly, composed of all adult male citizens and presided over by the annually elected general (strategos), which meets at Thermum to elect officials and at various cities to transact other business; and a council (boule or synedrion), to supervise administration, in which cities are represented in proportion to their populations.

Apokletoi, a small group of at least thirty who are assigned essential duties in wartime, assist the strategos, who has complete control in the field.

Leadership within the league is always kept in Aetolian hands, since the more distant states, which are linked to the confederacy by isopolity (potential citizenship), have full civil, but no political, rights.

Dionysius II, Dionysius' son and successor as tyrant, halts the conflict in 367 on the same unfavorable terms established after his father's defeat in the third war with Carthage from 383 BCE to about 375 BCE.

Other districts under federal systems join Boeotia: Euboea, Acarnania, Phocis, Thessaly, Arcadia, and Achaea.

However, this great block of military power is soon split by imperialist ambitions, and the Boeotian League itself intervenes in the Achaean League in 366, when Epaminondas invades the Peloponnese for a third time, with a view to strengthening the Theban position there.

He obtains assurances of fidelity from several states and, perhaps because of these assurances, decides not to overthrow the oligarchical governments that the Spartans have established.

This is unacceptable to the Theban government, which is in favor of overthrowing the oligarchs and establishing new democracies.

Thebes, when the city's proposals at Susa inevitably fail, seizes the valuable border territory of Oropus, and …

…Athens is after all obliged to accept what is probably a King's Peace (366).

There is, however, no question of Athens dismantling its navy; on the contrary, its claims to the Chersonese (reachable only by sea) are recognized in exchange, it seems, for acceptance of Theban leadership of Boeotia, including Oropus.

Athens' pursuit of essentially private Athenian aims, such as control of Amphipolis and the Chersonese, cannot have pleased its allies in the confederacy.

It is costly, and it is ultimately unsuccessful.

On the other hand, Athens, shortly after the peace of 366, does send help-—a force under Timotheus—to a rebel satrap, Ariobarzanes of Hellespontine Phrygia; this shows a perhaps encouraging willingness to defend Greek interests against Persia, especially since …

…Timotheus ejects a Persian garrison he finds installed on Samos, a violation of Persia's side of the original King's Peace.

It is surprising that Athens should act against Persia so soon if the peace of 366 is really a King's Peace, but the risk of reprisals at this time is slight.

In any case, Timotheus' somewhat contradictory instructions are to keep to the King's Peace while also helping Ariobarzanes.

An old alliance between the Achaemenids and the Thebans had been restored after the Theban victory of Leuctra in 371.

Achaemenid supremacy, however, is based on Greek internal discord rather than Achaemenid strength, and, when this weakness becomes apparent, all the satraps of Anatolia rise in revolt around 366 BCE in alliance with Athens, Sparta, and Egypt, and Artaxerxes can do little against them.

Already in the late 370s, Datames, the governor of Cappadocia, had established his independence.

Then, by the middle of the decade, Ariobarzanes of Hellespontine Phrygia goes into revolt, assisted by Timotheus of Athens and Agesilaus of Sparta.

Dion, a former minister and a relative of the older Dionysius by marriage, had invited Plato back to Sicily in order to undertake the philosophical and scientific education of the young Dionysius and generally to educate him to become a constitutional king.

Plato had accepted.

Perhaps he intended to foster the establishment of a philosopher-king, as set forth in his "Republic."

However, Plato's experiment ends in failure the following year with the dismissal of both counselors; Dion goes into exile and Plato returns to Athens.

Dionysius, weak and ineffectual, lacks the vigor to maintain the military autocracy he has inherited, ruling precariously in Syracuse and southern Italy.