that the last council of war was held by
Cleombrotus; and, as the officers had drunk a little at noon, it was
said that the wine in some degree inspired them. And as, when both
sides were fully armed, and it was now evident that a battle would
take place, the people who had provisions for sale, with some of the
baggage-carriers and others who were unwilling to fight, were
proceeding first of all to quit the camp of the Boeotians, the
mercenaries under Hiero the Phocian peltasts, and the Heraclean and
Phliasian cavalry, making a circuit, fell upon them as they were going
off, turned them back, and pursued them to the Boeotian camp; so
that they made the army of the Boeotians larger and more numerous
than before.

Besides, as there was a plain between the armies, the Lacedaemonians
drew up their cavalry before their main body and the Thebans drew up
theirs over against them; but the cavalry of the Thebans had been
exercised in wars with the Orchomenians and Thespians, while that of
the Lacedaemonians was at that time in a very inefficient condition;
for the richest men maintained the horses, and, when notice of an
expedition was given, the men appointed came to ride them, and each
taking his horse, and whatever arms were given him, proceeded at once
to the field; and thus the weakest and least spirited of all the men
were mounted on horseback. Such was the cavalry on either side. Of the
foot, it was said that the Lacedaemonians advanced with each enomoty
drawn up three deep, this arrangement making them not more than twelve
deep in all. The Theban infantry, in close array, were not less than
fifty deep, considering that if they could defeat the body of the
enemy posted around the king, the rest of the army would be an easy
conquest.

As soon as Cleombrotus began to lead forward against the enemy, and
even before the troops about him were aware that he was putting them
in motion, the cavalry had already engaged, and those of the
Lacedaemonians were at once defeated, who, as they fled, fell in among
their own heavy-armed infantry, on which the troops of the Thebans
were also pressing. But that the troops round Cleombrotus had at first
the advantage in the contest, any one may be convinced by certain
proof; for they would not have been able to take him and carry him off
alive unless those who fought in front of him had been at that time
victorious. When, however, Deimon the polemarch, Sphodrias, one of the
attendants at