The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 04 : $b Greece to the Roman Conquest
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 04 : $b Greece to the Roman Conquest
World history
Such was the mode in which he commenced the engagement; nor was he
deceived in his expectations; for, being successful in the part on which
he made his attack, he forced the whole body of the enemy to take to
flight. But when he himself fell, those who survived him could make no
efficient use of their victory; for though the main body of the enemy
fled before them, his heavy-armed troops killed none of them, nor even
advanced beyond the spot where the charge took place; and though the
cavalry also retreated, his own cavalry did not pursue, or make any
slaughter either of horse or foot, but, like men who had been conquered,
slipped away in trepidation amidst their fleeing adversaries. The other
parties of foot, indeed, and the peltasts, who had shared in the success
of the cavalry, advanced up to the enemy’s left wing, as if masters of
the field, but there the greater part of them were put to the sword by
the Athenians.
When the conflict was ended, the result of it was quite contrary to what
all men had expected that it would be; for as almost the whole of Greece
was assembled on the occasion, and arrayed in the field, there was no
one who did not suppose that, if a battle took place, one side would
conquer and be masters, and the other be conquered and become subjects;
but the divine power so ordered the event, that both parties erected
trophies as being victorious, neither side hindering the other in the
erection; both parties, as conquerors, restored the dead under a truce,
and both parties, as defeated, received them under truce; and neither
party, though each asserted the victory to be its own, was seen to gain
any more, either in land, or towns, or authority, than it possessed
before the battle took place. Indeed there was still greater confusion
and disturbance in Greece after the conflict than there had been before
it.[c]
GROTE’S ESTIMATE OF EPAMINONDAS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account