(371 B.C.)
For the battle everything was adverse on the side of the
Lacedæmonians, while to the enemy everything was rendered favorable by
fortune. It was after dinner 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 Lacedæmonians
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 Lacedæmonians 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 Lacedæmonians 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
Lacedæmonians 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 the royal tent, and Cleonymus, his son, were killed, and
the horse-guard, those who are called supporters of the polemarch,
and the rest, being overpowered by the mass of the enemy, were forced
to fall back, the Lacedæmonians on the left, seeing the right wing
thus repulsed, also gave way; yet, tho many were killed, and they were
quite defeated, they were able, when they had repassed the trench
which was in front of the camp, to form themselves under arms in the
place from which they had set out. Their camp was nevertheless not on
level ground, but rather somewhat on an acclivity.
Some of the Lacedæmonians, at the time, who thought their disaster an
insupportable disgrace, exclaimed that they ought to prevent the enemy
from erecting a trophy, and endeavor to recover the dead, not by
making a truce, but by fighting another battle. However, the
polemarchs, seeing that of the Lacedæmonians in all nearly a thousand
had lost their lives; and that of the Spartans, who were in the field
to the number of about seven hundred, about four hundred had fallen;
and observing, also, that all the auxiliaries were too dispirited to
renew the combat, and some of them not even concerned at what had
happened, called a council of the chief officers, and deliberated what
course they ought to pursue; and as all were of opinion that "they
ought to fetch off the dead by truce," they accordingly despatched a
herald to treat respecting a truce. The Thebans soon afterward erected
a trophy, and gave up the dead under truce.
After these occurrences, the messenger who was sent with the news of
the calamity to Lacedæmon arrived there on the last day of the
gymnopædiæ and after the chorus of men had made their entry. The
ephors, when they heard of the calamity, were greatly concerned, as, I
think, they naturally must have been; yet they did not order that
chorus to withdraw, but allowed them to finish the entertainment. They
then sent the names of the dead to their several relatives, and gave
notice to the women to make no lamentations, but to bear their
affliction in silence. The day after, a person might have seen those
whose relatives had died appearing in public with looks of
cheerfulness and joy; however, of those whose relatives were said to
be alive, he would have seen but few, and those going about with
gloomy and dejected countenances.