Hellenica

When these things were reported back to the[*](362 B.C.) general assembly of the Arcadians and to the several cities, the Mantineans and such of the other Arcadians as were concerned for Peloponnesus inferred therefrom, as did likewise the Eleans and the Achaeans, that the Thebans manifestly wanted Peloponnesus to be as weak as possible so that they might as easily as possible reduce it to slavery.

For why in the world, they said, do they wish us to make war unless it is in order that we may do harm to one another and consequently may both feel the need of them? Or why, when we say that we do not at present need them, are they preparing to march forth? Is it not clear that it is for the purpose of working some harm upon us that they are preparing to take the field?

And they sent to Athens also, bidding the Athenians come to their aid, while ambassadors from the Epariti proceeded to Lacedaemon as well, to invite the help of the Lacedaemonians in case they wanted to join in checking any who might come to enslave Peloponnesus. As for the matter of the leadership, they arranged at once that each people should hold it while within its own territory.

While these things were being done, Epaminondas was on his outward march at the head of all the Boeotians, the Euboeans, and many of the Thessalians,[*](362 B.C.) who came both from Alexander[*](cp. VI. iv. 34 f.) and from his opponents. The Phocians, however, declined to join the expedition, saying that their agreement was to lend aid in case anyone went against Thebes, but that to take the field against others was not in the agreement.

Epaminondas reflected, however, that his people had supporters in Peloponnesus also — the Argives, the Messenians, and such of the Arcadians as held to their side. These were the Tegeans, the Megalopolitans, the Aseans, the Pallantians, and whatever cities were constrained to adopt this course for the reason that they were small and surrounded by these others.

Epaminondas accordingly pushed forth with speed; but when he arrived at Nemea he delayed there, hoping to catch the Athenians as they passed by, and estimating that this would be a great achievement, not only in the view of his people’s allies, so as to encourage them, but also in that of their opponents, so that they would fall into despondency — in a word, that every loss the Athenians suffered was a gain for the Thebans.

And during this delay on his part all those who held the same views[*](i.e., of hostility to Thebes.) were gathering together at Mantinea. But when Epaminondas heard that the Athenians had given up the plan of proceeding by land and were preparing to go by sea, with the intention of marching through Lacedaemon to the aid of the Arcadians, under these circumstances he set forth from Nemea and arrived at Tegea.

Now I for my part could not say that his campaign proved fortunate; yet of all possible deeds of forethought and daring the man seems to me to have left not one[*](362 B.C.) undone. For, in the first place, I commend his pitching his camp within the wall of Tegea, where he was in greater safety than if he had been encamped outside, and where whatever was being done was more entirely concealed from the enemy. Furthermore, it was easier for him, being in the city, to provide himself with whatever he needed. Since the enemy, on the other hand, was encamped outside, it was possible to see whether they were doing things rightly or were making mistakes. Again, while he believed that he was stronger than his adversaries, he could never be induced to attack them when he saw that they held the advantage in position.

However, when he perceived that no city was coming over to him and that time was passing on, he decided that some action must be taken; otherwise, in place of his former fame, he must expect deep disgrace. When he became aware, therefore, that his adversaries had taken up a strong position in the neighbourhood of Mantinea and were sending after Agesilaus and all the Lacedaemonians, and learned, further, that Agesilaus had marched forth and was already at Pellene, he gave orders to his men to get their dinner and led his army straight upon Sparta.

And had not a Cretan by a kind of providential chance come and reported to Agesilaus that the army was advancing, he would have captured the city, like a nest entirely empty of its defenders. But when Agesilaus, having received word of this in time, had got back to the city ahead of the enemy, the Spartiatae posted themselves at various points and kept guard, although they were extremely few. For all their horsemen were away in Arcadia and likewise the mercenary force and three of the battalions,[*](cp. iv. 20.)[*](362 B.C.) which numbered twelve.

Now when Epaminondas had arrived within the city[*](i.e., the outlying portion of the city. Sparta had no walls.) of the Spartiatae, he did not attempt to enter at the point where his troops would be likely to have to fight on the ground-level and be pelted from the house-tops, nor where they would fight with no advantage over the few, although they were many; but after gaining the precise position from which he believed that he would enjoy an advantage, he undertook to descend (instead of ascending) into the city.

As for what happened thereupon, one may either hold the deity responsible, or one may say that nobody could withstand desperate men. For when Archidamus led the advance with not so much as a hundred men and, after crossing the very thing[*]( Difficult ground, apparently.) which seemed to present an obstacle, marched uphill against the adversary, at that moment the fire-breathers, the men who had defeated the Lacedaemonians, the men who were altogether superior in numbers and were occupying higher ground besides, did not withstand the attack of the troops under Archidamus, but gave way.

And those in the van of Epaminondas’ army were slain, but when the troops from within the city, exulting in their victory, pursued farther than was fitting, they in their turn were slain; for, as it seems, the line had been drawn by the deity indicating how far victory had been granted them. Archidamus accordingly set up a trophy at the spot where he had won the victory, and gave back under a truce those of the enemy who had fallen there.

Epaminondas, on the other hand, reflecting[*](362 B.C.) that the Arcadians would be coming to Lacedaemon to bring aid, had no desire to fight against them and against all the Lacedaemonians after they had come together,[*](cp. 10.) especially since they had met with success and his men with disaster; so he marched back as rapidly as he could to Tegea, and allowed his hoplites to rest there, but sent his horsemen on to Mantinea, begging them to endure this additional effort and explaining to them that probably all the cattle of the Mantineans were outside the city and likewise all the people, particularly as it was harvest time.

They then set forth; but the Athenian horsemen, setting out from Eleusis, had taken dinner at the Isthmus and, after having passed through Cleonae also, chanced to be approaching Mantinea or to be already quartered within the wall in the houses. And when the enemy were seen riding toward the city, the Mantineans begged the Athenian horsemen to help them, if in any way they could; for outside the wall were all their cattle and the labourers, and likewise many children and older men of the free citizens. When the Athenians heard this they sallied forth to the rescue, although they were still without breakfast, they and their horses as well.

Here, again, who would not admire the valour of these men also? For although they saw that the enemy were far more numerous, and although a misfortune had befallen the horsemen at Corinth, they took no account of this, nor of the fact that they were about to fight with the Thebans and the Thessalians, who were thought to be the best of horsemen, but rather, being ashamed to be at hand and yet render no service to their allies, just as soon as they saw the[*](362 B.C.) enemy they crashed upon them, eagerly desiring to win back their ancestral repute.

And by engaging in the battle they did indeed prove the means of saving for the Mantineans everything that was outside the wall, but there fell brave men among them; and those also whom they slew were manifestly of a like sort; for neither side had any weapon so short that they did not reach one another therewith. And the Athenians did not abandon their own dead, and they gave back some of the enemy’s under a truce.

As for Epaminondas, on the other hand, when he considered that within a few days it would be necessary for him to depart, because the time fixed[*]( Apparently either by the Theban government or by agreement with the allies.) for the campaign had expired, and that if he should leave behind him unprotected the people to whom he had come as an ally, they would be besieged by their adversaries, while he himself would have completely tarnished his own reputation, — for with a large force of hoplites he had been defeated at Lacedaemon by a few, and defeated likewise in a cavalry battle at Mantinea, and through his expedition to Peloponnesus had made himself the cause of the union of the Lacedaemonians, the Arcadians, the Achaeans, the Eleans, and the Athenians, — he thought for these reasons that it was not possible for him to pass by the enemy without a battle, since he reasoned that if he were victorious, he would make up for all these things, while if he were slain, he deemed that such an end would be honourable for one who was striving to leave to his fatherland dominion over Peloponnesus.

Now the fact that Epaminondas himself entertained such thoughts,[*](362 B.C.) seems to me to be in no wise remarkable, — for such thoughts are natural to ambitious men; but that he had brought his army to such a point that the troops flinched from no toil, whether by night or by day, and shrank from no peril, and although the provisions they had were scanty, were nevertheless willing to be obedient, this seems to me to be more remarkable.

For at the time when he gave them the last order to make ready, saying that there would be a battle, the horsemen eagerly whitened their helmets at his command, the hoplites of the Arcadians painted clubs[*]( The Theban device.) upon their shields, as though they were Thebans, and all alike sharpened their spears and daggers and burnished their shields.