A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀντικράτης), a Spartan who, according to Dioscourides (apud Plut. Ages. 35), killed Epaminondas at the battle of Mantineia. The descendants of Anticrates are said to have been called Μαχαιρίωνες by the Lacedaemonians, on account of his having struck Epaminondas with a μαχαίρα (Plut. l.c.), but Pausanias (8.11.4) mentions Machaerion, a Lacedaemonian or Mantinean, to whom this honour was ascribed by some. Others attribute it to Gryllus, the son of Xenophon. [GRYLLUS.]