Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/278

 256 HISTORY OF GREECE. completely succeeded in surprising them. The Lacedaemonian polemarch, taken unprepared, was driven from his position, and forced to retire to another point of the hilly ground. He pres- ently sent to solicit a truce for burying his dead ; agreeing to abandon the line of Oneium, which had now become indefensible. The other parts of the Theban army made no impression by their attack, nor were they probably intended to do more than occupy attention, while Epaminondas himself vigorously assailed the weak point of the position. Yet Xenophon censures the Lace- dsemonian polemarch as faint-hearted, for having evacuated the whole line as soon as his own position was forced ; alleging, that he might easily have found another good position on one of the neighboring eminences, and might have summoned reinforcements from his allies, and that the Thebans, in spite of their partial success, were so embarrassed how to descend on the Peloponne- sian side of Oneium, that they were half disposed to retreat. The criticism of Xenophon indicates doubtless an unfavorable judgment pronounced by many persons in the army ; the justice of which we are not in a condition to appreciate. But whether the Lacedaemonian commander was to blame or not, Epaminon- das, by his skilful and victorious attack upon this strong position, enhanced his already high military renown. 1 Having joined his Peloponnesian allies, Arcadians, Eleians, and Argeians, he was more than a match for the Spartan and Athenian force, which appears now to have confined itself to Corinth, Lechaeum, and Kenchreae. He ravaged the territories of Epidaurus, Troezen, and Phlius ; and obtained possession of Sikyon as well as of Pellene. 2 At Sikyon, a vote of the people being taken, it was resolved to desert Sparta, to form alliance with Thebes, and to admit a Theban harmost and garrison into the acropolis ; Euphron, a citizen hitherto preponderant in the city by means of Sparta and devoted to her interest, now altered 1 Xen. Hellen. vii, 1, 14-17 ; Diodor. xv, 68. This march against Sikyon seems alluded to by Pausanias (vi, 3, 1) ; the Eleian horse were commanded by Stomius, whc slew the enemy's com- mander with his own hand. The stratagem of the Boeotian Pammenes in attacking the harbor of Sikyon (Polyaenus, v, 16, 4) may perhaps belong to this undertaking.
 * Xen. Hellen. vii, 1, 18; vii, 2, 11 ; Diodor. xv, 69.