Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/354

 332 HISTORY OF GREECE. of defence, with a small company of one hundred hoplites, scram- bled over some difficult ground in his front, and charged the The- bans even up the hill, with such gallantry, that he actually beat them back with some loss ; pursuing them.for a space, until he was himself repulsed and forced to retreat. 1 The bravery of the Spar- tan Isidas, too, son of Phrebidas the captor of the Theban Kadmeia, did signal honor to Sparta, in this day of her comparative decline. Distinguished for beauty and stature, this youth sallied forth naked and unshielded, with his body oiled as in the palasstra. Wielding in his right hand a spear and in his left a sword, he rushed among the enemy, dealing death and destruction ; in spite of which he was suffered to come back unwounded : so great was the awe inspired by his singular appearance and desperate hardihood. The ephors decorated him afterwards with a wreath of honor, but at the same time fined him for exposing himself without defensive armor. 2 Though the Spartans displayed here an honorable gallantry, yet these successes, in themselves trifling, are magnified into im- portance only by the partiality of Xenophon. The capital fact was, that Agesilaus had heen accidentally forewarned so as to get back to Sparta and put it in defence before the Thebans arrived. As soon as Epaminondas ascertained this, he saw that his project was no longer practicable ; nor did he do more than try the city round, to .see if he could detect any vulnerable point, without involving himself in a hazardous assault. Baffled in his first scheme, he applied himself, with equal readiness of resource and celerity of motion, to the execution of a second. He knew that the hostile ar- my from Mantinea would be immediately put in march for Sparta, to ward off all danger from that city. Now the straight road from Mantinea to Sparta (a course nearly due south all the way) lying through Tegea, was open to Epaminondas, but not to the enemy, who would be forced to take another and more circuitous route, probably by Asea and Pallantion ; so that he was actually nearer to Mantinea than they. He determined to return to Tegea forth- with, while they were on their march towards Sparta, and before 1 Xen. Hellen. vii, 5, 12, 13. Justin (vi, 7) greatly exaggerates the magnitude and violence of the contest. He erroneously represents that Agesilaus did not reach Spartn till after Epaminondas.
 * Plutarch, Agesilaus, c. 34.