Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

When Jason, monarch of Thessaly, arrived at Thebes as an ally, he sent two thousand pieces of gold to Epameinondas, who was then sadly in want. Epameinondas did not take the money, but with a

steadfast look at Jason said, You are beginning wrong. Then he borrowed a couple of pounds from one of his fellow-citizens to meet his personal expenses in the campaign, and invaded the Peloponnesus. [*](Cf. Moralia, 583 F, and Aelian, Varia Historia, xi. 9.)

On a later occasion, when the king of the Persians sent twenty-five thousand pounds to him, he assailed Diomedon bitterly because he had made such a long voyage to corrupt Epameinondas; and he bade him say to the king that if the king should hold views conducive to the good of the Thebans, he should have Epameinondas as his friend for nothing; but if the reverse, then as his enemy. [*](Cf. Cornelius Nepos, Epaminondas, xv. 4, where the same story is told in more words, and Aelian, Varia Historia, v. 5, where the fact is recorded in very few words.)

When the Argives entered the Theban alliance, [*](In 370 B.C.) ambassadors of the Athenians arrived at Arcadia and accused both nations; and when Callistratus, the chief speaker, held up Orestes and Oedipus as a reproach to their respective cities, Epameinondas, rising to reply, said, We admit that we have had a parricide among us, and the Argives a matricide; but we expelled from our land those who did these deeds, and the Athenians received them ί [*](Cf. Moralia, 810 F, and Cornelius Nepos, Epaminondas, xv. 6. 1-3.)

When the Spartans accused the Thebans of a long list of serious offences, he retorted, These Thebans, however, have put a stop to your brevity of speech ! [*](Cf. Moralia, 545 A.)

When the Athenians took as a friend Alexander, the despot of Pherae, who was an enemy of the Thebans, and he promised to supply the Athenians with meat to be sold at a penny a pound, Epameinondas said, But we will supply them with

wood to cook their meat for nothing; for we will cut down everything in their land, if they make any trouble.

The Boeotians, relaxed by leisure, he was always desirous of keeping continually under arms, and whenever he was chosen Governor of Boeotia he used to urge his advice upon the people, saying, Bethink yourselves once more, men, for, if I am general, you will have to serve in my army. And he used to call their country, which was flat and exposed, the dancing-floor of War, [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Marcellus, chap. xxi. (310 B), where two other picturesque expressions of similar meaning are quoted.) intimating that they could not hold their power over it if they did not keep a grip on the handles of their shields.