He saw the Mantineians posted on the right, with a body of Argives and Arkadians in the centre, while on the left were the Athenian foot and his own comrades of the cavalry. He saw the Argives advance in haste and fury, and the Spartans slowly to the music of their pipers, which kept them in step together and in perfect order. He saw the Mantineians charge the left wing of the Spartans grandly, and break their line, and follow them, as they retreated, to their waggons. He saw with anguish the Spartan king dealing out destruction on the Athenians and the others of the Argive force, and about to overwhelm them, when, to his astonishment and delight, Agis drew off his men and hastened to assist his left wing, which was being harassed by the Mantineians as it retreated. Now was the time for the Athenian horsemen to charge the Spartans in the rear; now his own cavalry might outflank the king; but there they stood motionless, demoralized. Both their leaders, Laches—his old friend Laches—and the other general, were slain. There was no one to encourage them, no one to lead them, none who was capable of rising to the great occasion, and they slunk unworthily away. The Mantineians and the remainder of the Argive host, seeing themselves abandoned, retreated in good order into Argos. Thus Alkibiades, in vexation and despair, saw, for a time, his best-laid plans and hopes frustrated. The Spartans claimed, and rightly claimed, a victory. By this battle they recovered their renown as the first military power in Greece, which they had lost at Sphakteria, and their success threw discredit on the new Argo-Athenian alliance. What Alkibiades had foreseen and feared soon took place. The oligarchic faction, which sided with Sparta against Athens, had been growing strong in Argos for some time. The Spartan success at Mantineia enabled these oligarchs to effect a peace with their Lakedaimonian friends. Alkibiades was forced to go back to Athens. The Spartans showed their gratitude to their friends within the walls of Argos by sending them a thousand soldiers to assist them. This enabled the Argive aristocracy to overthrow the democratic government and establish an oligarchy in its place, which managed to keep itself in power for some months—months which were marked by atrocious acts of cruelty and outrage. This sort of government, established and maintained in such a way, upon the ruins of a popular control, seldom lasts for long. The means by which it seems to keep itself in existence generally put an end to it by at length rousing the suffering victims to such a state of rage that they become willing to risk all in their efforts to shake off the incubus.