Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/367

 VICTORY OF THE THEBANS. 345 completely realized. The irresistible charge, both of infantry and cavalry, made by himself with his left wing, not only defeated the troops immediately opposed, but caused the enemy's whole army to take flight. It was under these victorious circumstances^ and while he was pressing on the retiring enemy at the head of his Theban column of infantry, that he received a mortal wound with a spear in the breast. He was by habit and temper, always foremost in braving danger, and on this day probably exposed himself preeminently, as a means of encouraging those around him, and ensuring the success of his own charge, on which so mueh depended ; moreover, a Grecian general fought on foot in the ranks, and carried the same arms (spear, shield, etc.) as a private soldier. Diodorus tells us that the Lacedaemonian infan- try were making a prolonged resistance, when Epaminondas put himself at the head of the Thebans for a fresh and desperate effort ; that he stepped forward, darted his javelin, and slew the Lacedaemonian commander ; that having killed several warriors, and intimidated others, he forced them to give way; that the Lacedemonians, seeing him in advance of his comrades, turned upon him and overwhelmed him with darts, some of which he avoided, others he turned off with his shield, while others, after they had actually entered his body and wounded him, he plucked out and employed them in repelling the enemy. At length he received a mortal wound in his breast with a spear. 1 I cannot altogether admit to notice these details ; which once passed as a portion of Grecian history, though they seem rather the offspring of an imagination fresh from the perusal of the Iliad than a reci- tal of an actual combat of Thebans and Lacedaemonians, both eminent for close-rank fighting, with long spear and heavy shield. Unfortunately, Polybius has not given us his own description of this bat- tle of Mantinea. He only says enough to make us feel how imperfectly we know its details. There is too much reason to fear that the account which we now read in Diodorus may be borrowed in large proportion from that very narrative of Ephorus here so much disparaged. 1 Diodor. xv, 87. Cornelius Nepos (Epam. c. 9) seems to copy the same authority as Diodorus, though more sparing of details. He does not seem to have read Xenophon. I commend the reader agiin to an excellent note of Dr. Arnold, on Thu- cydides, iv, 11; animadverting upon similar exaggerations and embellish- ments of Diodorus, in the description of the conduct of Brasidas at Pylu?