and small, the praises given by the general and unanimous voice to a person who is no more, and from whom nothing farther is expected, are an evidence not to be questioned, and a homage never paid but to virtue. Such were the obsequies of Pelopidas, and, in my opinion, nothing more great and magnificent could be imagined. Thebes was not contented with lamenting Pelopidas, but resolved to avenge him. A small army of seven thousand foot and seven hundred horse were immediately sent against Alexander. The tyrant who had not yet recovered the terror of his defeat, was in no condition to defend himself. He was obliged to restore to the Thessalians the cities he had taken from them, and to give the Magnesians, Pthians, and Achæans, their liberty, to withdraw his garrisons from their country, and to swear that he would always obey the Thebans, and march at their orders against all their enemies. Such a punishment was very gentle. Nor, says Plutarch, did it appear sufficient to the gods, or proportioned to his crimes: they had reserved one for him worthy of a tyrant. Thebe his wife, who saw with horror and detestation the cruelty and perfidy of her husband, and had not forgotten the lessons and advice which Pelopidas had given her, while in prison, entered into a conspiracy with her three brothers to kill him. The tyrant's palace was full of guards, who kept watch in the night; but he placed little confidence in them as his life was in some sort in their hands, he feared them the most of all men. He lay in a high chamber, to which he ascended by a ladder that was drawn up after his entrance. Near this chamber, a great dog was chained to guard it. He was exceeding fierce, and knew nobody but his master, Thebe, and the slave who fed him. The time pitched upon for the execution of the plot being arrived, Thebe shut up her brothers during the day time, in an apartment near the tyrant's. When he entered it at night, as he was full of meat and wine, he fell into a deep sleep immediately. Thebe went out presently after, and ordered the slave to take away the dog, that he might not disturb her husband's repose; and lest the ladder should make a noise when her brothers came up by it, she covered the steps of it with wool. All things being thus prepared, she made her brothers ascend, armed with daggers; who, when they came to the door, were seized with terror, and would go no farther. Thebe, in the greatest consternation threatened to awake the tyrant and discover the plot to him, if they did not proceed immediately. Their shame and fear re-animated them; she made them enter, led them to the bed, and held the lamp herself, while they killed him with repeated wounds. The news of his death was immediately spread through the city. His dead body was exposed to all sorts of outrages, trampled under foot by the people, and given for a prey to the dogs and vultures: a just reward for his violent oppressions and detestable cruelties. SECTION VII.-EPAMINONDAS CHOSEN GENERAL OF THE THEBANS.-HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. THE extraordinary prosperity of Thebes was no small subject of alarm to the neighbouring states. Every thing was at that time in motion in Greece. A new war had broken out between the Arcadians and the Eleans, which had occasioned another between the Arcadians themselves. The people of Tegea had called in the Thebans to their aid; and those of Mantinea, the Spartans and Athenians. There were besides several other allies on each side. The former gave Epaminondas the command of their troops, who immediately entered Arcadia, and encamped at Tegea, with design to attack the Mantineans, who had quitted their alliance with Thebes to attach themselves to Sparta." Being informed that Agesilaus had begun his march with his army, and ad vanced towards Mantinea, he formed the enterprise, which he believed would * A. M. 3641. Ant. J. C. 363. Xenoph. vii. n. 642-644. Plut. in Agesil. p 615. Diod. 1. xv immortalize his name, and entirely reduce the power of the eneiny. He left Tegea in the night with his army, unknown to the Mantineans, and marched directly to Sparta by a different route from that of Agesilaus. He would un doubtedly have taken the city by surprise, as it had neither walls, defence, nor troops but happily for Sparta, a Cretan having made all possible haste to apprise Agesilaus of his design, he immediately despatched one of his horse to advise the city of the danger that threatened it, and arrived there soon after in person. He had scarcely entered the town, when the Thebans were seen passing the Eurotas, and coming on against the city. Epaminondas, who perceived that his design was discovered, thought it incumbent on him not to retire without some attempt. He therefore made his troops advance, and making use of valour instead of stratagem, he attacked the city at several quarters, penetrated as far as the public place, and seized that part of Sparta which lay upon the side of the river. Agesilaus made head every where, and defended himself with much more valour than could be expected from his years. He saw well, that it was not now a time, as before, to spare himself, and to act only upon the defensive; but that he had need of all his courage and daring, and to fight with all the vigour of despair; means which he had never used, nor placed his confidence in before, but which he employed with great success in the present dangerous emergency. For by this happy despair and prudent audacity, he in a manner snatched the city out of the hands of Epaminondas. His son Archidamus, at the head of the Spartan youth, behaved with incredible valour wherever the danger was greatest, and with his small body of troops stopped the enemy, and made head against them on all sides. A young Spartan, named Isadas, distinguished himself particularly in this action. He was very handsome in the face, perfectly well shaped, of an advantageous stature, and in the flower of his youth. He had neither armour nor clothes upon his body, which shone with oil, and held a spear in one hand, and a sword in the other. In this condition he quitted his house with the utmost eagerness, and breaking through the press of the Spartans that fought, he threw himself upon the enemy, gave mortal wounds at every blow, and laid all at his feet who opposed him, without receiving any hurt himself; the enemy being dismayed at so astonishing a sight, "or," says Plutarch," the gods taking pleasure in preserving him upon account of his extraordinary valour." It is said the ephori decreed him a crown, after the battle, in honour of his exploits, but afterwards fined him a thousand drachmas for having exposed himself to so great a danger without arms. Epaminondas having failed of his aim, foreseeing that the Arcadians would certainly hasten to the relief of Sparta, and not being willing to have them, with all the Lacedæmonian forces, upon his hands at the same time, he returned with expedition to Tegea. The Lacedæmonians and Athenians, with their allies, followed him close in the rear. The general considering that his command was upon the point of expiring, that if he did not fight, his reputation might suffer extremely, and that inmediately after his retreat, the enemy would fall upon the Theban allies, and entirely ruin them, gave orders to his troops to hold themselves in readiness for battle. The Greeks had never fought among themselves with more numerous armies The Lacedæmonians consisted of more than twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse; the Thebans of thirty thousand foot and three thousand horse. Upon the right wing of the former, the Mantineans, Arcadians, and Lacedæmonians, were posted in one line; the Eleans and Achæans, who were the weakest of their troops, had the centre, and the Athenians alone composed the left wing. In the other army, the Thebans and Arcadians were on the left, the Argives on the right, and the other allies in the centre. The cavalry on each side were disposed in the wings.† *Polyb. 1. ix. p. 547 t Xenoph. 1. vii. p. 645-647, The Theban general marched in the same order of battle in which he intended to fight, that he might not be obliged, when he came up with the enemy, to lose, in the disposition of his army, a time which cannot be too much saved in great enterprises. He did not march directly, and with his front to the enemy, but in a column upon the hills, with his left wing foremost, as if he did not intend to fight that day. When he was directly opposite to them at a quarter of a league's distance, he made his troops halt and lay down their arms, as if he designed to enca np there. The enemy were in fact deceived by that stand, and reckoning no longer upon a battle, they quitted their arms, dispersed themselves about the camp, and suffered that ardour to be extinguished, which the near approach of a battle is wont to kindle in the hearts of soldiers. Epaminondas, however, by suddenly wheeling his troops to the right, having changed his column into a line, and having drawn out the choicest troops, whom he had expressly posted in front upon his march, made them double their files upon the front of his left wing, to add to its strength, and to put it into a condition to attack, in a point, the Lacedæmonian phalanx, which, by the movement he had made, faced it directly. He ordered the centre and right_wing of his army to move very slowly, and to halt before they came up with the enemy, that he might not hazard the event of the battle upon troops of which he had no great opinion. He expected to decide the victory by that body of chosen troops which he commanded in person, and which he had formed in a column to attack the enemy, in a point, like a galley. He assured himself, that if he could penetrate the Lacedæmonian phalanx, in which the enemy's principal force consisted, he should not find it difficult to put the rest to flight by charging the right and left with his victorious army. But that he might prevent the Athenians in the left wing from coming to the support of their right against his intended attack, he made a detachment of his horse and foot advance out of the line, and posted them upon the rising ground, in readiness to flank the Athenians; as well to cover his right as to alarm them, and give them reason to apprehend being taken in flank and rear themselves, if they advanced to sustain their right. After having disposed his whole army in this manner, he moved on to charge the enemy with the whole weight of his column. They were strangely sur prised when they saw Epaminondas advance towards them in this order, and resumed their arms, bridled their horses, and made all the haste they could to their ranks. While Epaminondas marched against the enemy, the cavalry that covered his flank on the left, the best at that time in Greece, entirely composed of Thebans and Thessalians, had orders to attack the enemy's horse. The Theban general, whom nothing escaped, had artfully bestowed bowmen, slingers and dartmen, in the intervals of his horse, in order to begin the disorder of the enemy's cavalry, by a previous discharge upon them, of a shower of arrows, stones, and javelins. The other army had neglected to take the same precaution, and had made another fault, not less considerable, in giving as much depth to the squadrons, as if they had been a phalanx. By this means, their horse were incapable of supporting long the charge of the Thebans. After having made several ineffectual attacks with great loss, they were obliged to retire behind their infantry. In the mean time, Epaminondas, with his body of foot, had charged the Lacedæmonian phalanx. The troops fought on both sides with incredible ardour; both the Thebans and Lacedæmonians being resolved to perish rather than yield the glory of arms to their rivals. They began by fighting with the spear; and these first arms being soon broken in the fury of the combat, they charged each other with the sword. The resistance was equally obstinate, and the siaughter very great on both sides. The troops, despising danger, and desiring only to distinguish themselves by the greatness of their actions, chose rather to die in their ranks, than to lose a step of their ground. The furious slaughter on both sides having continued a great while withou the victory inclining to either, Epaminondas, to force it to declare for him, thought it his duty to make an extraordinary effort in person, without regard to the danger of his own life. He formed, therefore, a troop of the bravest and most determined about him, and putting himself at the head of them, he made a vigorous charge upon the enemy, where the battle was most warm, and wounded the general of the Lacedæmonians with the first javelin he threw. His troop, by his example, having wounded or killed all that stood in their way, broke and penetrated the phalanx. The Lacedæmonians, dismayed by the presence of Epaminondas, and overpowered by the weight of that intrepid party, were forced to give ground. The Theban troops, animated by ther general's example and success, drove back the enemy upon his right and left, and made a great slaughter of them. But some troops of the Spartans, perceiving that Epaminondas abandoned himself too much to his ardour, suddenly rallied, and returning to the fight, charged him with a shower of javelins. While he kept off part of these darts, shunned some of them, fenced off others, and was fighting with the most heroic valour, to assure the victory to his army, a Spartan, named Callicrates, gave him a mortal wound with a javelin, in the breast, through the cuirass. The wood of the javelin being broken off, and the iron head continuing in the wound, the torment was insupportable, and he fell immediately. The battle began around him with new fury; the one side using their utmost endeavours to take him alive, and the other to save him. The Thebans gained their point at last, and carried him off, after having put the enemy to flight. They did not pursue them far, but returning immediately, contented themselves with remaining masters of the field and of the dead, without making any advantage of their victory, or undertaking any thing farther, as if they waited for the orders of their general. The cavalry, dismayed by the accident of Epaminondas, whom they believed to be dead, and seeming rather vanquished than victorious, neglected to pursue their success in the same manner, and returned to their former post. While this passed on the left wing of the Thebans, the Athenian horse attacked their cavalry on the right. But as the latter, besides the superiority cf number, had the advantage of being seconded by the light infantry posted in their intervals, they charged the Athenians rudely, and having galled ther extremely with their darts, they were broken and obliged to fly. After hav ing dispersed and repulsed them in this manner, instead of pursuing them, they thought proper to turn their arms against the Athenian foot, which they took in flank, threw into disorder, and pushed with great vigour. Just as they were ready to retreat, the general of the Elean cavalry, who commanded a body of reserve, seeing the danger of that phalanx, came upon the spur to its relief, charged the Theban horse, who little expected it, forced them to retreat, and regained from them their advantage. At the same time, the Atheman cavalry, which had been routed at first, finding they were not pursued, rallied, and instead of going to the assistance of their foot, which was severely handled, attacked the detachment posted by the Thebans upon the heights within the line, and put it to the sword. After these different movements, and this alternation of losses and advaz tages, the troops on both sides stood still, and rested upon their arms, and the trumpets of the two armies, as if by consent, sounded the retreat at the same time. Each party pretended to the victory, and erected a trophy; the Thebans, because they had defeated the right wing, and remained masters of the field of battle; the Athenians, because they had cut the detachment in pieces And from this point of honour, both sides refused at first to ask leave to bury their dead, which, with the ancients, was confessing their defeat. The Lace dæmonians, however, sent first to demand that permission; after which, the rest had no thoughts but of paying the last duties to the slain. Such was the event of the famous battle of Mantinea. Xenophon, in his re lation of it recommends the disposition of the Theban troops and the order of battle to the reader's attention, which he describes as a man of knowledge and experience in the art of war. And Monsieur Follard, who justly looks upon Epaminondas as one of the greatest generals Greece ever produced, in his description of the same battle, ventures to call it the masterpiece of that great captain. Epaminondas had been carried into the camp The surgeons, after having examined the wound, declared that he would expire as soon as the head of the dart was drawn out of it. These words gave all that were present the utmost sorrow and affliction, who were inconsolable on seeing so great a man about to die, and to die without issue. For him, the only concern he expressed, was about his arms, and the success of the battle. When they showed him his shield, and assured him that the Thebans had gained the victory, turning towards his friends with a calm and serene air, "Do not regard," said he, "this day as the end of my life, but as the beginning of my happiness, and the completion of my glory. I leave Thebes triumphant, proud Sparta humbled, and Greece delivered from the yoke of servitude. For the rest, I do not reckon that I die without issue; Leuctra and Mantinea are two illustrious daughters, that will not fail to keep my name alive, and transmit it to posterity." Having spoken to this effect, he drew the head of the javelin out of his wound, and expired. It may truly be said, that the Theban power expired with this great man, whom Cicero seems to rank above all the illustrious men Greece ever produced.* Justin is of the same opinion, when he says, "that as a dart is no longer in a condition to wound when the point of it is blunted, so Thebes, after having lost its general, was no longer formidable to its enemies; and its power seemed to have lost its edge, and to be annihilated by the death of Epaminondas. Before him, that city was not distinguished by any memorable action, and afterwards it was not famous for its virtues, but misfortunes, till it sunk into its original obscurity; so that it saw its glory take birth and expire with this great man."t It has been doubted whether he was a more excellent captain or good man. He sought not power for himself, but for his country; and was so perfectly void of self-interest, that at his death he did not possess what would pay the expenses of his funeral. Truly a philosopher, and poor out of taste, he despised riches, without affecting any reputation for that contempt; and if Justin may be believed, he coveted glory as little as he did money. It was always against his will that commands were conferred upon him; and he behaved himself in them in such a manner, as did more honour to dignities, than he derived from them.‡ Though poor himself, and without any estate, his very poverty, by drawing upon him the esteem and confidence of the rich, gave him the opportunity of doing good to others. One of his friends being in great necessity, Epaminondas sent him to a very rich citizen, with orders to ask him for a talent in his name. That rich man coming to his house, to know his motives for directing his friend to him upon such an errand; why," replied Epaminondas, "it is because this honest man is in want, and you are rich.§" 66 He had cultivated those generous and noble sentiments in himself by the study of polite learning and philosophy, which he had made his usual employ * Epaminondas, princeps, meo judicio, Græciæ.-Acad. Quæst. I. i. n. 4. ↑ Nam sicuti telo, si primam aciem præfregeris, reliquo ferro vim nocendi sustuleris; sic illo velut mu crone teli ablato duce Thebanorum, rei quoque publicæ vires hebetatæ sunt: ut non tam illum amisisse, quam cum illo omnes interiise viderentur. Nam neque hunc ante ducem ulium memorabile bellum gessere, nec postea virtutibus, sed cladibus, insignes fuer. ut manifestum sit, patriæ gloriam et natam et extinctam cum eo fuisse.-Justin. 1. vi. c. 8. Fuit incertum, vir melior an dux esset. Nam imperium non sibi semper, sed patriæ quæsivit; et pecu Biæ adeo parcus fuit, ut sumptus funeri defuerit. Gloriæ quoque non cupidior, quam pecuniæ: quippe recu anti omnia imperia ingesta sunt, honoresque ita gessit, ut ornamentum non accipere, sed dari ipsi dignitati videretur.-Justin. { Ότι χρησός, εἶπεν, ἔτος ὢν πενης έςι συ δὲ πλυτες Plut. de Præcept. Reipub Ger. p. 802 |