Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/143

 EPAMINONDAS. 12] those Gentes called Sparti, whcee heroic progenitors were said to have sprung from the dragon's teeth sown by Kadmus. 1 He seems to have been now of middle age ; Pelopidas was younger, and of a very rich family ; yet the relations between the two were those of equal and intimate friendship, tested in a day of battle, wherein the two were ranged side by side as hoplites, and where Epaminondas had saved the life of his wounded friend, at the cost of several wounds, and the greatest possible danger, to himself. 2 Epaminondas had discharged, with punctuality, those military and gymnastic duties which were incumbent on every Theban citizen. But we are told that in the gymnasia he studied to ac- quire the maximum of activity rather than of strength ; the nimble movements of a runner and wrestler, not the heavy muscular- ity, purchased in part by excessive nutriment, of the Boeotian pugilist. 3 He also learned music, vocal and instrumental, and 1 Pausan. viii, 11, 5. Dikaearchus, only one generation afterwards, complained that he could not find out the name of the mother of Epaminondas (Plutarch, Agesil. c. 19. 3 Plutarch, Pelop. c. 4 ; Pausan. ix, 13, 1. According to Plutarch, Epami- nondas had attained the age of forty years, hefore he became publicly known (De Occult. Vivendo, p. 1129 C.). Plutarch affirms that the battle (in which Pelopidas was desperately wounded, and saved by Epaminondas) took place at Mantinea, when they were fighting on the side of the Lacedaemonians, under king Agesipolis, against the Arcadians ; the Thebans being at that time friends of Sparta, and having sent a contingent to her aid. I do not understand what battle Plutarch can here mean. The Thebans were never so united with Sparta as to send any contingent to her aid, after the capture of Athens (in 404 B. c.). Most critics think that the war refer- red to by Plutarch, is, the expedition conducted by Agesipolis against Man- tinea, whereby the city was broken up into villages in 385 B. c. ; see Mr. Clinton's Fasti Hellenici ad 385 B. c. But, in the first place, there cannot have been any Theban contingent then assisting Agesipolis; for Thebes was on terms unfriendly with Sparta, and certainly was not her ally. In the next place, there does not seem to have been any battle, according to Xenophon's account. I therefore am disposed to question Plutarch's account, as to this alleged battle of Mantinea ; though I think it probable that Epaminondas may have saved the life of Pelopidas at some earlier conflict, before the peace of An- talkidas. stophan. Acharn. 872. VOL. X.
 * Cornel. Nepos, Epamin. c. 2 ; Plutarch, Apophth. Reg. p. 192 D. ; Ari