Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/106

88 88 HISTORY OF GREECE. Moreover Agis, having decidedly beaten and driven them back was less anxious to pursue them than to return to the rescue of his ovn defeated left wing; so that even the Athenians, whc were exposed both in flank and front, were enabled to effect their retreat in safety. The Mantineians and the Argeian Thousand, though victorious on their part of the line, yet seeing the remain- der of their army in disorderly flight, had little disposition to renew the combat against Agis and the conquering Lacedasmo- nians. They sought only to effect their retreat, which however could not be done without severe loss, especially on the part of the Mantineians ; and which Agis might have prevented alto- gether, had not the Lacedaemonian system, enforced on this occa- sion by the counsels of an ancient Spartan named Pharax, enjoyed abstinence from prolonged pursuit against a defeated enemy. 1 There fell in this battle seven hundred men of the Argeians, Kleonaeans, and Omeates ; two hundred Athenians, together with both the generals Laches and Nikostratus ; and two hundred Mantineians. The loss of the Lacedaemonians, though never cer- tainly known, from the habitual secrecy of their public proceed ings, was estimated at about three hundred men. They stripped the enemy's dead, spreading out to view the arms thus acquired, and selecting some for a trophy ; then picked up their own dead aud carried them away for burial at Tegea, granting the custom- ary burial-truce to the defeated enemy. Pleistoanax, the other Spartan king, had advanced as far as Tegea with a reinforcement composed of the elder and younger citizens ; but on hearing of the victory, he returned back home.' 2 Such was the important battle of Mantineia, fought in the month of June 418 B.C. Its effect throughout Greece was pro- digious. The numbers engaged on both sides were very consid- erable for a Grecian army of that day, though seemingly not so large as at the battle of Delium five years before: the numbei and grandeur of the states whose troops were engaged was, how ever, greater than at Delium. But what gave peculiar value tc the battle was, that it wiped off at once the preexisting stain upo.i properly i> the chief duty, as well as the chief difficulty, of an expositor (r Tliu< yiiMu-. 1 Thticyd. v, 73 Uiodor. xii, 79. * Tlmeyd. v, 7 1 *