EPAMINONDAS (c. 418-362)

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EPAMINONDAS (c. 418-362) , Theban general and statesman, born about 418 B.C. of a noble but impoverished family. For his education he was chiefly indebted to Lysis of Tarentum, a Pythagorean

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

who had found

refuge

REFUGE

with his father Polymnis. He first comes into notice in the attack upon Mantineia in 385, when he fought on the Spartan side and saved the life of his future colleague Pelopidas. In his youth Epaminondas took little part in public affairs; he held aloof from the political assassinations which preceded the Theban insurrection of 379. But in the following campaigns against Sparta he rendered good service in organizing the Theban defence. In 371 he represented Thebes at the congress in Sparta, and by his refusal to surrender the Boeotian cities under Theban

control

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

prevented the conclusion of a general peace. In the ensuing campaign he commanded the Boeotian army which met the Peloponnesian levy at Leuctra, and by a brilliant victory on this site, due mainly to his daring innovations in the tactics of the heavy infantry, established at once the predominance of Thebes among the land-powers of Greece and his own fame as the greatest and most

original

ORIGINAL

of Greek generals. At the instigation of the Peloponnesian states which armed .against Sparta in consequence of this battle, Epaminondas in 370 led a large host into Laconia; though unable to capture Sparta he ravaged its territory and dealt a lasting blow at Sparta's predominance in Peloponnesus by liberating the Messenians and rebuilding their

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

Messene

MESSENE

. Accused on his return to Thebes of having exceeded the term of his command, he made good his defence and was re-elected boeotarch. In 369 he forced the Isthmus lines and secured Sicyon for Thebes, but gained no considerable successes. In the following year he served as a common soldier in Thessaly, and upon being reinstated in command contrived the safe retreat of the Theban army from a difficult position. Returning to
Thessaly next year at the head of an army he procured the liberation of Pelopidas from the tyrant Alexander of Pherae without striking a blow. In his third expedition (366) to Peloponnesus, Epaminondas again eluded the Isthmus garrison and won over the Achaeans to the Theban alliance. Turning his attention to the growing maritime power of Athens, Epaminondas next equipped a

fleet

FLEET

of too triremes, and during a cruise to the Propontis detached several states from the Athenian confederacy. When subsequent complications threatened the position of Thebes in Peloponnesus he again mustered a large army in order to crush the newly formed Spartan league (362). After some masterly operations between Sparta and Mantineia, by which he nearly captured both these towns, he engaged in a decisive battle on the latter site, and by his vigorous shock tactics gained a complete victory over his opponents (see MANTINETA). Epaminondas himself received a severe wound during the combat, and died soon after the issue was decided.
His title to fame rests mainly on his brilliant qualities both as a strategist and as a tactician; his influence on military art in Greece was of the greatest. For the purity and uprightness of his character he likewise stood in high repute; his culture and eloquence equalled the highest Attic standard. In politics his

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

achievement was the final overthrow of Sparta's predominance in the Peloponnese; as a constructive statesman he displayed no

special

SPECIAL

talent, and the lofty pan-Hellenic ambitions which are imputed to him at any rate never found a practical expression.
Cornelius Nepos, Vita Epaminondae; Diodorus xv. 52-88; Xenophon, Hellenica, vii. ; L. Pomtow, Das Leben des Epaminondas (Berlin, 1870) ; von Stein, Geschichte der spartanischen and thebanischen Hegemonie (Dorpat, 1884), pp. 123 sqq. ; H. Swoboda in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopeidie, v. pt. 2 (Stuttgart, 1905), pp. 2674-2707; also ARMY: History, 6. (M. O. B. C.)

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