Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/375

 EPAMINONDAS. 353 ble chagrin and antipathy, that in the two first he keeps back the name, and in the third, suppresses the thing done. But in the last campaign, preceding the battle of Mantinea (whereby Sparta incur- red no positive loss, and where the death of Epaminondas softened eveiy predisposition against him), there was no such violent pres- sure upon the fidelity of the historian. Accordingly, the concluding chapter of Xenophon's ' Hellenica' contains a panegyric, 1 ample and unqualified, upon the military merits of the Theban general ; upan his daring enterprise, his comprehensive foresight, his care to avoid unnecessary exposure of soldiers, his excellent discipline, his well-combined tactics, his fertility of aggressive resource in striking at the weak points of the enemy, who content themselves" with following and parrying his blows (to use a simile of Demos- thenes 2 ) like an unskilful pugilist, and only succeed in doing so by signal aid from accident. The effort of strategic genius, then for the first time devised and applied, of bringing an irresistible force of attack to bear on one point of the hostile line, while the rest of his army was kept comparatively back until the action had been thus decided, is clearly noted by Xenophon, together with its triumphant effect, at the battle of Mantinea ; though the very same combination on the field of Leuktra is slurred over in his descrip- tion, as if it were so common-place as not to require any mention of the chief with whom it originated. Compare Epaminondas with Agesilaus, how great is the superiority of the first, even in the narrative of Xenophon, the earnest panegyrist of the other ! How manifestly are we made to see that nothing except the fatal spear- wound at Mantinea, prevented him from reaping the fruit of a series of admirable arrangements, and from becoming arbiter of Peloponnesus, including Sparta herself! The military merits alone of Epaminondas, had they merely belonged to a general of mercenaries, combined with nothing praise- worthy in other ways, would have stamped him as a man of high and original genius, above every other Greek, antecedent or con- temporary. But it is the peculiar excellence of this great man that we are not compelled to borrow from one side of his character in ordei to compensate deficiencies in another. 3 His splendid mili- 1 Xenoph. Hellen. vii, 5, 8, 9. 3 The remark of Diodcras (xv, 88) upon Epaminondas is more emphatic VOL. x. 23oc.
 * Demosthenes, Philipp. I, p. 51, s. 46.