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.

The Arcadian army, after ravaging Elis in the spring of 364 BCE, marches against the little town Cromnus, in the neighborhood of Megalopolis, and lays siege to the city, in which Archidamus had left a small garrison.

The Arcadians defeat Archidamus's relief force.

Agesilaus dies at age eighty-four on his way home to Greece in 360 BCE; his son, who had shown great courage in the defense of Sparta against Epaminondas, succeeds him as Archidamus II.

Phocis, led by Philomelus, also refuses to pay, instead using a secret grant of fifteen talents from Spartan king Archidamus III to hire mercenaries, …

…who in 356 BCE capture for Phocis the Delphic shrine and its treasury.

Most of the Delphians are not hurt, but the resisting clan of Thracidae is put to death.

The neighboring Locrians make an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the Phocians.

Archidamus III, the Eurypontid Spartan king leading a mercenary army to help Tarentum against the Lucanians in 338, falls with most of his troops at the nearby Apulian town of Manduria.

Taras (modern Taranto, Italy), one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia (Greek colonies in southern Italy), had reached its zenith of military power and prosperity in the first half of the fourth century BCE under the great philosopher, scientist and major Pythagorean mathematician Archytas, who served for seven years as commander in chief of his city.

After his death, however, the city has suffered in a series of wars.

The Messapian-Lucanian alliance had led to the conquest of Eraclea and Metaponto in 356 BCE and the subsequent intervention in support of Taras by the Spartan king Archidamus III, who ultimately finds his death in battle just below the walls of the Messapian city of Manduria in 338 BCE.