Epaminondas was one of those who are called the Sparti, the seed of the dragon’s teeth. And there are two pillars on his tomb, one ancient with a Bœotian inscription, and the other erected by the Emperor Adrian with an inscription by him upon it. As to Epaminondas one might praise him as one of the most famous Greek generals for talent in war, indeed second to none. For the Lacedæmonian and Athenian generals were aided by the ancient renown of their states and the spirit of their soldiers: but the Thebans were dejected and used to obey other Greek states when Epaminondas in a short time put them into a foremost position. Epaminondas had been warned by the oracle at Delphi before this to beware of Pelagos. Taking this word in its usual meaning of the sea he was careful not to set foot on a trireme or transport: but Apollo evidently meant this oak plantation Pelagos and not the sea. Places bearing the same name deceived Hannibal the Carthaginian later on, and the Athenians still earlier. For Hannibal had an oracle from Ammon that he would die and be buried in Libyssa. Accordingly he hoped that he would destroy the power of Rome, and return home to Libya and die there in old age. But when Flaminius the Roman made all diligence to take him alive, he went to the court of Prusias as a suppliant, and being rejected by him mounted his horse, and in drawing his sword wounded his finger. And he had not gone on many stades when a fever from the wound came on him, and he died the third day after, and the place where he died was called Libyssa by the people of Nicomedia. The oracle at Dodona also told the Athenians to colonize Sicily. Now not far from Athens is a small hill called Sicily. And they, not understanding that it was this Sicily that the oracle referred to, were induced to go on expeditions beyond their borders and to engage in the fatal war against Syracuse. And one might find other similar cases to these. CHAPTER XII. And about a stade from the tomb of Epaminondas is a temple of Zeus surnamed Charmo. In the Arcadian oak-plantations there are different kinds of oaks, some they call broadleaved, and others they call fegi. A third kind have a thin bark so light, that they make of it floats for anchors and nets. The bark of this kind of oak is called cork by some of the Ionians and by Hermesianax the Elegiac Poet.