so terrified at the thought of
the coming day that they gave themselves neither respite nor repose
that night, but fell to chopping up the carefully-compacted booths and
constructing them into palisades; so that when the Eleians did again
advance the next day and saw the strength of the barriers and the number
mounted on the temples, they withdrew to their city. They had proved
themselves to be warriors of such mettle as a god indeed by the breath
of his spirit may raise up and bring to perfection in a single day, but
into which it were impossible for mortal men to convert a coward even in
a lifetime.

B.C. 363. The employment of the sacred treasures of the temple by the
Arcadian magistrates (29) as a means of maintaining the Eparitoi (30)
aroused protest. The Mantineans were the first to pass a resolution
forbidding such use of the sacred property. They set the example
themselves of providing the necessary quota for the Troop in question
from their state exchequer, and this sum they sent to the federal
government. The latter, affirming that the Mantineans were undermining
the Arcadian league, retaliated by citing their leading statesmen to
appear before the assembly of Ten Thousand; and on their refusal to
obey the summons, passed sentence upon them, and sent the Eparitoi to
apprehend them as convicted persons. The Mantineans, however, closed
their gates, and would not admit the Troop within their walls. Their
example was speedily followed: others among the Ten Thousand began to
protest against the enormity of so applying the sacred treasures; it
was doubly wrong to leave as a perpetual heirloom to their children the
imputation of a crime so heinous against the gods. But no sooner was a
resolution passed in the general assembly (31) forbidding the use of the
sacred moneys for profane purposes than those (members of the league)
who could not have afforded to serve as Eparitoi without pay began
speedily to melt away; while those of more independent means, with
mutual encouragement, began to enrol themselves in the ranks of the
Eparitoi--the feeling being that they ought not to be a mere tool in
the hands of the corps, but rather that the corps itself should be their
instrument. Those members of the government who had manipulated the
sacred money soon saw that when they came to render an account of
their stewardship, in all likelihood they would lose their heads. They
therefore sent an embassy to Thebes, with instructions