eir head, invaded Thessaly, and won the
battle of Cynocephalae, or the Dogs' Heads. Here Pelopidas was killed,
to the intense grief of the army, who cut their hair and their horses'
manes and tails, lighted no fire, and tasted no food on that sad night
after their victory, and great was the mourning at Thebes for the brave
and upright man who had been thirteen times Boeotarch. Epaminondas was
at sea with the fleet he had persuaded the Thebans to raise; but the next
year he was sent into the Peloponnesus to defend the allies there against
the Spartans. He had almost taken the city itself, when the army
hastened back to defend it, under the command of Agesilaus, who had
recovered and taken the field again.

Close to Mantinea, where Epaminondas had fought his first battle, he had
to fight again with the only general who had as yet a fame higher than
his--namely, Agesilaus--and Xenophon was living near enough to watch the
battle. It was a long, fiercely-fought combat, but at last the Spartans
began to give way and broke their ranks, still, however, flinging
javelins, one of which struck Epaminondas full in the breast, and broke
as he fell, leaving a long piece of the shaft fixed in the wound. His
friends carried him away up the hill-side, where he found breath to ask
whether his shield were safe, and when it was held up to him, he looked
down on the Spartans in full flight, and knew he had won the day. He was
in great pain, and he was told that to draw out the spear would probably
kill him at once. He said, therefore, that he must wait till he could
speak to the two next in command; and when he was told that they were
both slain, he said, "Then you must make peace," for he knew no one was
left able to contend against Agesilaus. As his friends wept, he said,
"This day is not the end of my life, but the beginning of my happiness
and completion of my glory;" and when they bewailed that he had no child,
he said, "Leuctra and Mantinea are daughters enough to keep my name
alive." Then, as those who stood round faltered, unable to resolve to
draw out the dart, he pulled it out himself with a firm hand, and the
rush of blood that followed ended one of the most beautiful lives ever
spent by one who was a law unto himself. He was buried where he died,
and a pillar was raised over the spot bearing the figure of a dragon, in
memory of his supposed dragon lineage.

[Picture: Thessalonica]

CHAP