Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/357

 VIEWS OF EPAMINONDAS. 335 together with Gryllus (son of the historian Xenophon), then serv- ing with his brother Diodorus among the Athenian horse, were both slain in the battle. A memorable picture at Athens by the contemporary painter Euphranor, commemorated both the battle and the personal gallantry of Gryllus, to whose memory the Manti- neans also paid distinguished honors. Here were two successive movements of Epaminondas, both well-conceived, yet both disappointed by accident, without any omission of his own. He had his forces concentrated at Tegea, while his enemies on their side, returning from Sparta, formed a united camp in the neighborhood of Mantinea. They comprised Lacedaemonians, Eleians, Arcadians, Achzeans, and Athenians ; to the number, in all, of twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse, if we could trust the assertion of Diodorus ; ] who also gives the numbers of Epaminondas as thirty thousand foot and three thou- sand horse. Little value can be assigned to either of these esti- mates ; nor is it certain which of the two armies was the more numerous. But Epaminondas saw that he had now no chance left for striking a blow except through a pitched battle, nor did he at all despair of the result. 2 He had brought out his northern allies for a limited time ; which time they were probably not dis- posed to prolong, as the season of harvest was now approaching. Moreover, his stock of provisions was barely sufficient ; 3 the new crop being not yet gathered in, while the crop of the former year was probably almost exhausted. He took his resolution therefore to attack the enemy forthwith. wherein Epaminondas was slain. Gryllus is sometimes said to have been slain in the battle of Mantinea, and even to have killed Epaminondas with his own hand. It would seem as if the picture of Euphranor represented . Gryllus in the act of killing the Theban commander ; and as if the latter tradition of Athens as well as of Thebes, erroneously bestowed upon that Theban commander the name of Epaminondas. See this confusion discussed and cleared up, in a good article on the Bat tie of Mantinea, by Arnold Schafer, p. 58, 59, in the Kheinisches Museum fiii- Philologie (1846 Fiinfter Jahrgang, Erstes Heft). 1 Diodor. xv, 84. etc, 3 Xen. Hellen. vii, 5, 19. nmivin ? TU kmrrjieia defaiv etc.
 * Xen. Hellen. vii, 5, 8. Kal p/v oiofievoe Kpeirruv TUV avTirrdTiuv flvai,