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Epaminondas had to find a way to gain tactical advantage despite the numerical superiority of the enemy.
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Epaminondas and had
* Epaminondas briefly returns to Arcadia, then marches south to Messenia, a territory which the Spartans had conquered some 200 years before.
The Roman orator Cicero called him " the first man of Greece ", and Montaigne judged him one of the three " worthiest and most excellent men " that had ever lived, but Epaminondas has fallen into relative obscurity in modern times.
Thus Epaminondas — who had been praised in his time as an idealist and liberator — is today largely remembered for a decade ( 371 BC to 362 BC ) of campaigning that sapped the strength of the great land powers of Greece and paved the way for the Macedonian conquest.
Epaminondas briefly returned to Arcadia, before marching south again, this time to Messenia, a region which the Spartans had conquered some 200 years before.
" In mere months, Epaminondas had created two new enemy states that opposed Sparta, shaken the foundations of Sparta's economy, and all but devastated Sparta's prestige.
In order to accomplish all that he wished in the Peloponnesus, Epaminondas had persuaded his fellow Boeotarchs to remain in the field for several months after their term of office had expired.
By the middle of the next decade, even some Arcadians ( whose league Epaminondas had helped establish in 369 BC ) had turned against them.
Furthermore, the Lacedaemonian and Mantinean troops which had been stationed at Mantinea had marched to Sparta during the course of the day, and dissuaded Epaminondas from attacking again.
Now hoping that his adversaries had left Mantinea defenseless in their haste to protect Sparta, Epaminondas counter marched his troops back to his base at Tegea, and then dispatched his cavalry to Mantinea.
Epaminondas had the larger army, 30, 000 strong infantry and 3, 000 cavalry, whilst his opponents numbered 20, 000 infantry and 2, 000 cavalry.
Epaminondas, who had been at the head of the column ( now the left wing ), brought some companies of infantry from the extreme right wing, behind the battle line, to reinforce the left wing.
The battle unfolded as Epaminondas had planned.
Diodorus says that the Athenian cavalry on the Mantinean right wing, although not inferior in quality, could not withstand the missiles from the light-troops that Epaminondas had placed among the Theban cavalry.
With Epaminondas removed from the scene, the Thebans returned to their more traditional defensive policy, and within a few years, Athens had replaced them at the pinnacle of the Greek political system.
Those same Spartans, however, had been at the center of resistance to the Persian invasions of the 5th century BC, and their absence was sorely felt at Chaeronea ; the endless warfare in which Epaminondas played a central role weakened the cities of Greece until they could no longer hold their own against their neighbors to the north.
Because Epaminondas had stacked his left wing to a depth of fifty shields, the rest of his units were naturally left with far fewer troops than normal.
Because Epaminondas was already outnumbered, he had no choice but to form fewer companies and march them diagonally toward the much longer Spartan line in order to engage as much of it as possible.
Epaminondas invited the return to their native land of all the families that had gone into exile from Messenia during its long struggle with and servitude under the military state of Sparta, now finished as a conquering state.
He supposed that the region around Ithome would already have had that name, to be reutilized by Epaminondas a thousand years later.
Thebes reaffirmed Epaminondas ' position at the peace conference, pointing out that Thebans have never interfered with Sparta and her Laconian cities, and thus Spartans had no right interfering with Boeotian affairs.
Less than a month, or at most six weeks, had passed since the confrontation between Agesilaus and Epaminondas.
Three of the boeotarchs, led by Epaminondas, felt that they had no choice but to fight, in accordance with the wishes of the Theban citizens, or lose all of Boeotia.
Epaminondas and find
However, the Spartan king Archidamus was alerted to this move by an informant, probably a Cretan runner, and Epaminondas arrived to find the city well-defended.
All the same, if you should compare the qualities of these with the generalship and reputation of Epaminondas, you would find the qualities possessed by Epaminondas far superior ".
Epaminondas and way
Epaminondas decided to attack the weakest spot, guarded by the Lacedaemonians ; in a dawn attack he forced his way through the Spartan position, and joined his Peloponnesian allies.
The battle was to decide the hegemony over Greece, but the death of Epaminondas and the defeat of the Spartans paved the way for Macedonian conquest by Phillip II of Macedon.
Epaminondas and gain
The battle is fictionalised, though in some detail, in David Gemmell's book, Lion of Macedon, which includes the significant deviation from historical canon in that it is credited to a young Parmenio ( n ) instead of Epaminondas, who serves merely to gain permission to carry out the echelon tactic.
Epaminondas and tactical
Epaminondas wins the battle with a tactical innovation which involves striking the enemy first at their strongest, instead of their weakest, point, with such crushing force that the attack is irresistible.
However, needing to counter the Spartans ' numerical advantage, Epaminondas implemented two tactical innovations.
Many of the tactical innovations that Epaminondas implemented would also be used by Philip of Macedon, who in his youth spent time as a hostage in Thebes and may have learned directly from Epaminondas himself.
Epaminondas and despite
On his deathbed, Epaminondas, upon hearing of the deaths of his fellow leaders, instructed the Thebans to make peace, despite having won the battle.
Epaminondas and superiority
Epaminondas, an intuitive and genius general, used at Leuctra for the first time the oblique order in which a local superiority of numbers can be used to defeat a superior force.
Epaminondas and enemy
Epaminondas then gave the order to advance, catching the enemy off guard, and causing a furious scramble in the Mantinean camp to prepare for battle.
Anticipating the standard Spartan tactic of flanking enemy armies with their right wing, Epaminondas concentrated his forces on his own left wing, directly opposite the strongest spartiate phalanx led by Cleombrotus.
Thus by localising the attacking power of the hoplites, Epaminondas was able to defeat an enemy previously thought invincible.
Epaminondas and .
In the congress of 371 BC an altercation is recorded between him and the Theban general Epaminondas, and due to his influence Thebes was peremptorily excluded from the peace, and orders given for Cleombrotus to march against Thebes in 371 BC.
His prudence and heroism preserved an un-walled Sparta against the revolts and conspiracies of helots, perioeci and even Spartans, and against her enemies, four different armies led by Epaminondas, that penetrated Laconia that same year, and again in 362 BC when they all but succeeded in seizing the city by a rapid and unexpected march.
The destruction of the whole Theban army is said to only have been averted by the ability of Epaminondas, who was serving in the campaign, but not as general.
A fresh Theban expedition into Thessaly, under Epaminondas resulted, according to Plutarch, in a three-year truce and the release of prisoners, including Pelopidas.
If the death of Epaminondas in 362 BC freed Athens from fear of Thebes, it appears at the same time to have exposed it to further aggression from Alexander of Pherae, who made a piratical raid on Tinos and other cities of the Cyclades, plundering them, and making slaves of the inhabitants.
Late on in the hoplite era, more sophisticated tactics were developed, in particular by the Theban general Epaminondas.
* 371 BC – The Battle of Leuctra, where Epaminondas defeats Cleombrotus I, takes place.
Philip II spent much of his youth as a hostage at Thebes, where he studied under the renowned general Epaminondas, whose reforms were the basis for the phalanx.
* The Theban general and statesman, Epaminondas, takes command of Thebes.
Sparta entered its long-term decline after a severe military defeat to Epaminondas of Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra.
** Epaminondas of Thebes, Theban general and statesman ( d. 362 BC )
While a captive there, Philip received a military and diplomatic education from Epaminondas, became eromenos of Pelopidas, and lived with Pammenes, who was an enthusiastic advocate of the Sacred Band of Thebes.
* Epaminondas of Thebes, Theban general and statesman ( d. 362 BC )
Epaminondas, although associated with the anti-Spartan faction, is allowed to remain.
The Theban general, Epaminondas, heads the large allied army in the Peloponnesus.
In the battle, Epaminondas is victorious, but is killed.
* Epaminondas of Thebes, Greek general and statesman ( b. c. 418 BC )
Epaminondas and Gorgidas lead a group of young men who break into the city's armories, take weapons, and surround the Spartans on the Cadmea, assisted by a force of Athenian hoplites.
In the Theban assembly the next day, Epaminondas and Gorgidas bring Pelopidas and his men before the audience and exhort the Thebans to fight for their freedom.
The Theban statesman Epaminondas, who is boeotarch ( one of the five magistrates of the Boeotian federation ), maintains Thebes ' position, even when it leads to the exclusion of Thebes from the peace treaty.
Epaminondas of Thebes arrives with an army, finds the Spartan have retired and follows them.
* After driving off the Spartan army that has threatened Mantinea, Epaminondas of Thebes moves south and crosses the Evrotas River ( the frontier of Sparta ), which no hostile army has breached in historical memory.
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