the Thebans.

XXIX. In spite of the unparalleled disaster which had befallen the
Lacedaemonians, for the Theban victory was the most complete ever won
by one Greek state over another, the courage of the vanquished is
nevertheless as much to be admired as that of the victors. Xenophon
remarks that the conversation of good and brave men, even when jesting
or sitting at table, is always worth remembering, and it is much more
valuable to observe how nobly all really brave and worthy men bear
themselves when in sorrow and misfortune. When the news of the defeat
at Leuktra arrived at Sparta, the city was celebrating the festival of
the Gymnopaedia, and the chorus of grown men was going through its
usual solemnity in the theatre. The Ephors, although the news clearly
proved that all was lost and the state utterly ruined, yet would not
permit the chorus to abridge its performance, and forbade the city to
throw off its festal appearance. They privately communicated the names
of the slain to their relatives, but they themselves calmly continued
to preside over the contest of the choruses in the theatre, and
brought the festival to a close as though nothing unusual had
occurred. Next morning, when all men knew who had fallen and who had
survived, one might see those whose relations had been slain, walking
about in public with bright and cheerful countenances: but of those
whose relatives survived, scarce one showed himself in public, but
they sat at home with the women, as if mourning for the dead; or if
any one of them was forced to come forth, he looked mournful and
humbled, and walked with cast-down eyes. Yet more admirable was the
conduct of the women, for one might see mothers receiving their sons
who had survived the battle with silence and sorrow, while those whose
children had fallen proceeded to the temples to return thanks to the
gods, and walked about the city with a proud and cheerful demeanour.

XXX. Yet, when their allies deserted them, and when the victorious
Epameinondas, excited by his success, was expected to invade
Peloponnesus, many Spartans remembered the oracle about the lameness
of Agesilaus, and were greatly disheartened and cast down, fearing
that they had incurred the anger of Heaven, and that the misfortunes
of the city were due to their own conduct in having excluded the sound
man from the throne, and chosen the lame one; the very thing which the
oracle had bidden them beware of doing. Nevertheless, A