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Modern Description: Located in the plain N of modern Tripolis and off the road to Olympia. Mentioned as 'lovely'; by Homer (Il. 2.607), it was formed by the synoecism of five villages at some unknown date (Strab. 8.3.2). As an ally of Sparta, Mantinea took part with 500 hoplites in the battle of Thermopylai (Hdt. 7.202), but came too late for Plataia (Hdt. 9.77). Mantinea split with Sparta in 420 (Thuc. 5.29) when interests collided, and was disbanded by Sparta in 385. After the battle of Leuktra in 371 the city was reconstituted, and was a member of the Arkadian League until 362 , at which time it returned to friendship with Sparta. In 223 Antigonos Doson destroyed the city which was then refounded under the name of Antigoneia, a name which it retained until Hadrian's time. Numerous battles took place in the vicinity (418: Thuc. 5.64-81; 362: 207: Polyb. 11.11-19). Pausanias describes the city (8.8.3-8.12), thus disproving Strabo (8.8.2), who included it among states no longer extant.
The 4th c. city--;the most ancient site was at Ptolis, securely identified with the hill Gourtsouli--;is located nearly in the middle of the plain, and was originally bisected by the Ophis river. Later, after Agesipolis had taken the city in 385 (Xen. Hell. 5.2.4-7) by damming the river and thus causing the sun-dried bricks of the walls to collapse, the river was diverted so as to flow around the city. The circuit of the walls, 3942 m long and roughly oval in shape, is preserved for nearly its entire extent. Originally built up in mudbrick, only the socle of the inner and outer curtain remains, at a height varying between 1-1.8 m with a width of 4.2-4.7 m. Over 100 towers (estimates vary as to the original number) are built out from the wall, and there are at least nine, and possibly ten, gates. Most of the gates are so constructed that one is forced to approach through towers into a passage between sections of the wall. Excavators have cleared the agora (85 x 150 m) with colonnades around it, and the remains of a 4th c. theater at its W end. Though rebuilt and remodeled at various times, it may well be one of the earlier Greek theaters. (W. F. WYATT, JR.)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantineia
Wikidata ID: Q1160195
Trismegistos Geo: 15750
Manto: 9364225

Info: Princeton Encyclopedia

(Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, from Perseus Project)

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