Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/241

Rh Epaminondas, who had taken the lead during the congress in supporting the claims of Thebes. He was a man of unusually high character, and had many of the most important qualifications of a great general. He had introduced the system of the phalanx, and had brought the army of Thebes to a high state of perfection. Still, he had to direct or carry out the policy of his country, which was narrow and mischievous, though some of the worst acts of the Thebans during their supremacy were done against his will. His policy was to carry the war into the enemy's country, to set up in the Peloponnese a power great enough to counterbalance that of Sparta. Fifty-five years earlier this had been the policy of Alcibiades, who looked to Argos as best supplying what was needed. Now Epaminondas, or his agents selected Arcadia. Mantineia was restored, the Arcadian cities were induced to form a league, and a new town, to be called MegaclopolisMegalopolis [sic], was founded, to be the capital and seat of government. This measure alarmed both Sparta and Athens. We therefore have a new combination—these two ancient enemies joining to resist the ambition of Thebes. The war went on. Epaminondas four times invaded the Peloponnese—once almost surprising Sparta itself. The quarrel was complicated by another between the Arcadians and Elis, and by the Corinthians and Phliasians making terms with Thebes, and trying to put force upon Sparta to acknowledge the independence of Messenia (B.C. 366). Both sides also endeavoured to enlist the support of the king of Persia. But the Thebans