Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/142

 120 HISTORY OF GREECE. hundred hoplites, called the Lochus, or regiment of the city, as being consecrated to the defence of the Kadmeia, or acropolis. 1 It was put under constant arras and training, at the public ex pense, like the Thousand at Argos, of whom mention was made in my seventh volume. 2 It consisted of youthful citizens from the best families, distinguished for their strength and courage amidst the severe trials of the palaestra in Thebes, and was marshalled in such manner, that each pair of neighboring soldiers were at the same time intimate friends ; so that the whole band were thus kept together by ties which no dangers could sever. At first its destination, under Gorgidas its commander (as we see by the select Three Hundred who fought in 424 B. c. at the battle of Delium),3 W as to serve as front rank men, for the general body of hoplites to follow. But from a circumstance to be mentioned pres- ently, it came to be employed by Pelopidas and Epaminondas as a regiment by itself, and in a charge was then found irresistible. 4 We must remark that the Thebans had always been good sol- diers, both as hoplites and as cavalry. The existing enthusiasm, therefore, with the more sustained training, only raised good sol- diers into much better. But Thebes was now blessed with another good fortune, such as had never yet befallen her. She found among her citizens a leader of the rarest excellence. It is now for the first time that Epaminondas, the son of Polymnis, begins to stand out in the public life of Greece. His family, poor rather than rich, was among the most ancient in Thebes, belonging to 1 Plutarch. Pelopid. c. 18, 19. 2 Hist, of Greece, Vol. VII, ch. lv, p. 11. 3 Diodor. xii, 70. These pairs of neighbors who fought side by side at Delium, were called Heniochi and Parabatse, Charioteers and Side Companions ; a name bor- rowed from the analogy of chariot-fighting, as described in the Illiad and probably in many of the lost epic poems ; the charioteer being himself an excellent warrior, though occupied for the moment with other duties, Diomedes and Sthenelus, Pandarus and JEneas, Patroklus .and Automedon, etc. Plutarch, Pelopidas, c. 18, 19. um, xiii, p. 602 A.). There was a Carthaginian military division which bore the same title, composed of chosen and wealthy citizens, two thousand five hundred in number (Diodor. xvi, 80).
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