Following the custom according to which trophies were erected on the very spot of the battle, the one in question was erected on the field of the battle of Leuktra which took place in 371 B.C. by the Thebans and their leader Epameinondas after they had defeated the Lacedaemonians. An ancient boeotian coin informs us about the shape of the trophy itself: on a tree trunk was attached an armoury which was collected from the defeated opponents.

Preserved is the cylindrical stone socle of the monument which underwent restoration at the place where most of its parts were discovered. The height of the socle remains conjectural. At its upper part a register of triglyphs and metopes surrounds the body of the monument; further on top, a series of shields was carved on the stone.

The architect-archaeologist A. Orlandos undertook an excavation at the site Marmara of Leuktra in 1958, where parts of the socle of the trophy (triglyphys, metopes and stone shields) were found.