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:For information about the modern board game of
the same name, see Epaminondas (game).

Epaminondas (c. 418 BC|418-362 BC), was a Thebes,
Greece|Theban general and statesman, born about
418 BC of a noble but impoverished family.

For his education he was chiefly indebted to Lysis
of Tarentum, a Pythagorean exile who had found
refuge with his father Polymnis. He first comes
into notice in the attack upon Mantineia in 385
BC|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 BC|379. But in the following
campaigns against Sparta he rendered good service
in organizing the Theban defence.

In 371 BC|371 he represented Thebes at the
congress in Sparta, and by his refusal to
surrender the Boeotian cities under Theban control
prevented the conclusion of a general peace. In
the ensuing campaign he commanded the Boeotian
army which met the Peloponnesian levy at Battle of
Leuctra|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 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 at 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 BC|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 BC|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 of 100 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 BC|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
(see Battle of Mantinea (362 BC)), and by his
vigorous shock tactics gained a complete victory
over his opponents. 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 Military_strategy|strategist
and as a Military tactic|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 achievement was the final
overthrow of Sparta's predominance in the
Peloponnese; as a constructive statesman he
displayed no special talent, and the lofty
pan-Hellenic ambitions which are imputed to him at
any rate never found a practical expression.

1911