Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/380

 S58 HISTORY OF GREECE. to have indulged. 1 Among the countrymen of Pindar, 2 devoted attachment between mature men and beautiful youths was more frequent than in other parts of Greece. It was confirmed by interchange of mutual oaths at the tomb of lolaus, and was reck- oned upon as the firmest tie of military fidelity in the hour of battle. Asopichus and Kaphisodorus are named as youths to whom Epaminondas was much devoted. The first fought with desperate bravery at the battle of Leuktra, and after the victory caused an image of the Leuktrian trophy to be carved on his shield, which he dedicated at Delphi ; 3 the second perished along with his illustrious friend and chief on the field of Mantinea, and was buried in a grave closely adjacent to him. 4 It rather appears that the Spartans, deeply incensed against their allies for having abandoned them in reference to Messene, began to turn their attention away from the affairs of Greece to those of Asia and Egypt. But the dissensions in Arcadia were not wholly appeased even by the recent peace. The city of Me- galopolis had been founded only eight years before by the coales- tence of many smaller townships, all previously enjoying a sepa- rate autonomy more or less perfect. The vehement anti-Spartan impulse, which marked the two years immediately succeeding the battle of Leuktra, had overruled to so great a degree the prior instincts of these townships, that they had lent themselves to the plans of Lykomedes and Epaminondas for an enlarged commu- nity in the new city. But since that period, reaction Lad taken place. The Mantineans had come to be at the head of an anti- Megalopolitan party in Arcadia ; and several of the communities which had been merged in Megalopolis, counting upon aid from them and from the Eleians, insisted on seceding, and returning to 1 Plutarch, Apophtheg. Reg. p. 192 E. Athense. xiii, p. 590 C. 2 Hieronymus ap. Athenae. xiii, p. 602 A.; Plutarch, Pelopidas, c. 18; Xen. Rep. Laceda:mon. ii, 12. See the striking and impassioned fragment of Pindar, addressed by hiro when old to the youth Theoxenus of Tenedos, Fragm. 2 of the Skolia, in Dissen's edition, and Boeckh's edition of Pindar, vol. iii, p. 611, ap, Athe- nseum, xiii, p. 605 C. 3 See Theopompus, Frag. 182, ed. Didot, ap. At'ienjc. xiii, p. 605 A. 4 Plutarch, Pelopid. ttt sup.; Plutarch, Air.iK*ias, p. 761 D. ; compare Xenoph. Iicllcn. iv. 8, 39.