+11.+ Machanidas had now acquired great confidence, and looked upon
the determination of the Achaeans as extremely favourable to his
plans. As soon as he heard of their being in force at Mantinea, he
duly harangued his Lacedaemonians at Tegea, and the very next morning
at daybreak advanced upon Mantinea. He led the right wing of the
phalanx himself; his mercenaries marched in two parallel columns on
each side of his front; and behind them were carts carrying quantities
of field artillery and bolts for the catapults. Meanwhile Philopoemen
too had arranged his army in three divisions, and was leading them
out of Mantinea, the Illyrians and the men with body armour by the
gate leading to the temple of Poseidon, and with them all the rest
of the foreign contingent and light-armed troops; by the next gate,
toward the west, the phalanx; and by the next the Achaean cavalry. He
sent his light-armed men forward to occupy the hill, which rises to a
considerable height above the road called Xenis and the above-mentioned
temple: he stationed the men with body armour next, resting on this
hill to the south; next them the Illyrians; next them, in the same
straight line, the phalanx, drawn up in companies, with an interval
between each, along the ditch which runs towards the temple of
Poseidon, right through the middle of the plain of Mantinea, until it
touches the range of mountains that forms the boundary of the territory
of the Elisphasii. Next to them, on the right wing, he stationed the
Achaean cavalry, under the command of Aristaenetus of Dyme; while on
the left wing he led the whole of the foreign contingent, drawn up in
lines one behind the other.
+12.+ As soon as the enemy were well in sight, Philopoemen went down
the ranks of the phalanx, and addressed to them an exhortation which,
though short, clearly pointed out to them the nature of the battle
in which they were engaged. But most of what he said was rendered
inaudible by the answering shouts of the troops. The affection and
confidence of the men rose to such a pitch of enthusiasm and zeal
that they seemed to be almost acting under a divine inspiration, as
they cried out to him to lead them on and fear nothing. However he
tried, when he could get the opportunity, to make this much clear to
them, that the battle on the one side was to establish a shameful and
ignominious servitude, on the other to vindicate an ever-memorable and
glorious liberty.
[Sidenote: The attack of Machanidas.]
[Sidenote: The battle begun by light-cavalry charges.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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