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 FORBEARANCE OF EPAMINONDAS. 259 One proceeding of Epaminondas during this expedition merits especial notice. It was the general practice of the Thebans to put to death all the Boeotian exiles who fell into their hands as prison- ers, while they released under ransom all other Greek prisoners. At the capture of a village named Phoebias in the Sikyonian ter- ritory, Epaminondas took captive a considerable body of Boeotian exiles. With the least possible delay, he let them depart under ransom, professing to regard them as belonging to other cities. 1 We find him always trying to mitigate the rigorous dealing then customary towards political opponents. Throughout this campaign of 369 B. c., all the Peloponnesian allies had acted against Sparta cheerfully under Epaminondas and the Thebans. But in the ensuing year the spirit of the Arcadians had been so raised, by the formation of the new Pan- Arcadian com- munion, by the progress of Messene and Megalopolis, and the con- spicuous depression of Sparta, that they fancied themselves not only capable of maintaining their independence by themselves, but also entitled to divide headship with Thebes, as Athens divided it with Sparta. Lykomedes the Mantinean, wealthy, energetic, and able, stood forward as the exponent of this new aspiration, and as the champion of Arcadian dignity. He reminded the Ten Thou- sand (the Pan- Arcadian synod), that while all other residents in Peloponnesus were originally immigrants, they alone were the indigenous occupants of the peninsula ; that they were the most numerous section, as well as the bravest and hardiest men, who bore the Hellenic name, of which pi-oof was afforded by the fact, that Arcadian mercenary soldiers were preferred to all others ; that the Lacedaemonians had never ventured to invade Attica, nor the Thebans to invade Laconia, without Arcadian auxiliaries "Let us follow no man's lead (he concluded), but stand up for our- selves. In former days, we built up the power of Sparta by serv- ing in her armies ; and now, if we submit quietly to follow the The- bans, without demanding alternate headship for ourselves, we shall presently find them to be Spartans under another name."- Such exhortations were heard with enthusiasm by the assembled Arcadians, to whom political discussion and the sentiment of col- lective dignity was a novelty. Impressed with admiration for Ly 1 Pausnnias, ix, 15, 2- * Xen. Hellcn. vii, I, 23.