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Well, on this occasion Epaminondas sacrificed with prayers to Scedasus and his girls, implying that the battle would be to avenge them no less than to secure the salvation of
So divergent were the views of the six. The seventh Boeotarch, whose name was Brachyllides, was guarding the pass by Cithaeron, and on his return to the army added his vote to the side of Epaminondas, and then there was a unanimous decision to try the ordeal of battle.
9.13.8But Epaminondas had his suspicions of some of the Boeotians especially of the Thespians. Fearing, therefore, lest they should desert during the engagement, he permitted all who would to leave the camp and go home. The Thespians left with all their forces, as did any other Boeotians who felt annoyed with the Thebans.
9.13.9When the battle joined, the allies of the Lacedaemonians, who had hitherto been not the best of friends, now showed most clearly their hostility, by their reluctance to stand their ground, and by giving way wherever the enemy attacked them. The Lacedaemonians themselves and the Thebans were not badly matched adversaries. The former had their previous experience, and their shame of lessening the reputation of
But when king Cleombrotus with several Lacedaemonian magistrates had fallen, the Spartans were bound by necessity not to give way, in spite of their distress. For among the Lacedaemonians it was considered the greatest disgrace to allow the body of a king to come into the hands of enemies.
9.13.11
The victory of
Some of the allies took up no dead at all, as not a man of them had fallen; others had but slight loss to report. So when the Lacedaemonians proceeded to bury their own, it was at once proved that the fallen were Spartans. The loss of the Thebans and of such Boeotians as remained loyal amounted to forty-seven, but of the Lacedaemonians themselves there fell more than a thousand men.
ch. 14
9.14.1
After the battle Epaminondas for a while, having proclaimed that the other Peloponnesians should depart home, kept the Lacedaemonians cooped up in Leuctra. But when reports came that the Spartans in the city were marching to a man to the help of their countrymen at Leuctra, Epaminondas allowed his enemy to depart under a truce, saying that it would be better for the Boeotians to shift the war from The Thespians, apprehensive because of the ancient hostility of and received the following response:— On the latter occasion Epaminondas captured the Thespians who had taken refuge in Ceressus, and immediately afterwards devoted his attention to the situation in the The period of his office as Boeotarch had now expired, and death was the penalty fixed if a man exceeded it. So Epaminondas, disregarding the law as out of date, remained in office, marched to
A care to me is shady Leuctra, and so is the Alesian soil;
A care to me are the two sorrowful girls of Scedasus.
There a tearful battle is nigh, and no one will foretell it,
Until the Dorians have lost their glorious youth,
When the day of fate has come.
Then may Ceressus be captured, but at no other time.
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