History of the Peloponnesian War

Now as he gave these orders at the very moment of the charge, and on a sudden, the consequence was, that Aristocles and Hipponoidas would not move on, (they were for this offence afterwards banished from Sparta, being thought to have shown cowardice,) and that so the enemy closed with them before any thing could be done; and moreover, that when he ordered the Sciritae to rejoin their comrades, since the lochi did not move on to their support, neither could these now fill up the line.

But when the Lacedaemonians were most decidedly and in every respect beaten in point of skill, at that very time [*]( Or, proved that it was mainly through their courage that they won the victory. ) they proved themselves no less superior in point of courage.

For when they had come to close quarters with their opponents, though the right wing of the Mantineans broke their Sciritan and Brasidean corps, and the Mantineans and their allies, with the thousand picked men of the Argives, rushing in through the open and unclosed part of the line, cut up the Lacedaemonians, having surrounded and broken them, and drove them to the baggage waggons, and killed some of the veterans who were posted as a guard over them: