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 330 HISTORY OF GREECE. servable by the enemy.' He next marched to Mantinea, to provoke the enemy to an action before the Spartans and Athenians joined ; but they kept carefully on their guard, close to Mantinea, too strongly posted Lo be forced. 2 On returning to his camp in Te- gea, he was apprised that Agesilaus with the Spartan force, having quitted Sparta on the march to Mantinea, had already made some progress and reached Pellene. Upon this he resolved to attempt the surprise of Sparta by a sudden night-march from Tegea, which lay in the direct road from Sparta to Mantinea, while Agesilaus in getting from Sparta to Mantinea had to pursue a more circuitous route to the westward. Moving shortly after the evening meal, Epaminondas led the Theban force with all speed towards Sparta ; and he had well-nigh come upon that town, " like a nest of unpro- tected young birds," at a moment when no resistance could have been made. Neither Agesilaus, nor any one else, expected so dar- ing and well-aimed a blow, the success of which would have changed the face of Greece. Nothing saved Sparta except the providen- tial interposition of the gods, 3 signified by the accident that a Kre- tan runner hurried to Agesilaus, with the news that the Thebans were in full march southward from Tegea, and happened to arrest in time his farther progress towards Mantinea. Agesilaus instantly returned back with the troops around him to Sparta, which was thus put in a sufficient posture of defence before the Thebans ar- rived. Though sufficient for the emergency, however, his troops were not numerous ; for the Spartan cavalry and mercenary forces were still absent, having been sent forward to Mantinea. Orders were sent for the main army at that city to hasten immediately to the relief of Sparta.4 1 Xen. Hellen. vii, 5, 8. 2 Plutarch, De Gloria Athcn. p, 346 B. 3 Xcn. Hellen. vii, 5, 10. Kal el //# Kp^f, -&ela rivl fioipa KpoceWuv, k%T]Yyih.e ru t A.-yrjffi^-u( t ) irpoaibv rb arpaTevpa, eTiapev uv TTJV -xoXiv uatrep veomuv, iravTuxacriv eprj/iov ruv u/ivvovfisvuv. Diodorus coincides in the main fact (xv, 82, 83), though with many inac- curacies of detail. He gives a very imperfect idea of this narrow escape of Sparta, which is fully attested by Xenophon, even against his owi par- tialities. Kallisthenes asserted that the critical intelligence had been conveyed to Agesilaus by a Thespian named Euthynus (Plutarch, Agesilaus, c. 34). 4 Xenophon (Hellen. vii, 5, 10, 11) describes these facts in a manner dif- ferent on several points from Polybius (ix, 8), and from Diodorus (xv, 83).