Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/145

 EPAMINONDAS. 123 friendly, growing at length into alliance and joint war against the Spartans, we may reasonably presume that he profited hy teachers at the latter city as well as at the former. But the per- son to whom he particularly devoted himself, and whom he not only heard as a pupil, but tended almost as a son, during the close of an aged life, was a Tarentine exile, named Lysis ; a member of the Pythagorean brotherhood, who, from causes which we cannot make out, had sought shelter at Thebes, and dwelt there until his death. 1 With him, as well as with other philosophers, Epaminondas discussed all the subjects of study and inquiry then afloat. By perseverance in this course for some years, he not only acquired considerable positive instruction, but also be- came practised in new and enlarged intellectual combinations ; and was, like Perikles, 2 emancipated from that timorous interpretation of nature, which rendered so many Grecian commanders the slaves of signs and omens. His patience as a listener, and his indiffer- ence to showy talk on his own account, were so remarkable, that Spintharus (the father of Aristoxenus), after numerous conversa- tions with him, affirmed that he had never met with any one who understood more, or talked less. 3 'Aristoxenus, Frag. 11, ed. Diclot; Plutarch, De Gen. Socr. p. 583, Cicero, De Offic. i, 44, 155; Pausan. ix, 13, 1 ; JElian, V. H. iii, 17. The statement (said to have been given by Aristoxenus, and copied by Plutarch as well as by Jamblichus) that Lysis, who taught Epaminondas, had been one of the persons actually present in the synod of Pythagoreans at Kroton when Kylon burnt down the house, and that he with another had been the only persons who escaped cannot be reconciled with chronology. 2 Compare Diodor. xv, 52 with Plutarch, Perikles, c. 6, and Plutarch, De- mosthenes, c. 20. 3 Plutarch, De Gen. Sokrat. p. 576 D. ^eret'/Uyi/ie naidsiac 6iatf>6pov KO.L ire- piTTr/c (p. 585 D.) TTJV upiaTTjv Tpo(f>r/v tv tyCkoGotyia (p. 592 F.) S7ra>$a- po 6 Tapavrlvof OVK bhiyov avru (Epaminondas) avvSiaTptyas evrav-da Xpovov, uel 6rjnov Aeyet, /j.7}6evi TTOV TUV KOI?' eavruv uv&pUTcuv ivTerev^Kvai, HTJT nheiova yiyvucnovn. [if/re e/larrova fyds-y-yo/uevy. Compare Cornel. Nepos, Epamin. c. 3 and Plutarch, De Audiend. c. 3, p. 39 F. We may fairly presume that this judgment of Spintharus was communi- cated by him to his son Aristoxenus, from whom Plutarch copied it ; and we know that Aristoxenus in his writings mentioned other particulars respecting Epaminondas (Athenaeus, iv, p. 184). "We see thus that Plutarch had access to good sources of information respecting the latter. And as he Lad composed a life of Epaminondas (Plutarch, Agesil. c. 28), though un- fortunately it has not reached us, we may be confident that he had taken