United States or Mauritius ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
At length the bleeding stopped, and he was conveyed home to Lacedæmon, but he remained ill, and unable to serve in the wars for a long time. During his illness many disasters befel the Spartans both by land and by sea. Of these, the most important was the defeat at Tegyra, where for the first time they wore beaten in a fair fight by the Thebans.
Now, as to the Sacred Band, Gorgidas originally placed them in the first rank, and so spread them all along the first line of battle, and did not by this means render their valour so conspicuous, nor did he use them in a mass for any attack, but their courage was weakened by so large an infusion of inferior soldiery; but Pelopidas, after the splendid display of their valour under his own eye at Tegyra, never separated or scattered them, but would stand the brunt of battle, using them as one body.
Near the marshes stands a temple of Apollo of Tegyra and an oracle, which is now forsaken; it has not been long so, but flourished up to the Persian War, when Echekrates was priest.
However, the affair at Tegyra, which in a manner was preliminary to that at Leuktra, won Pelopidas a great reputation; for there was no question of any other general having assisted in the design of the battle, nor of the enemy being thoroughly routed. The city of Orchomenus had taken the Spartan side, and had received two moras of Spartan troops for its protection.
When he came to the city he found that the garrison had been relieved by fresh troops from Sparta, and so he led off his men homewards through Tegyra, the only way that he could, by a circuitous route at the foot of the mountains; for the river Melas, which from its very source spreads into morasses and quagmires, made the direct way impassable.
Yet with these we may compare his deeds at Leuktra and Tegyra, the most important and glorious of all his feats of arms, while we have no exploit of Marcellus which corresponds to his management of the ambuscade by which he brought back the exiled popular party to Thebes, and destroyed the despots. Indeed, of all deeds performed by secrecy and stratagem, this takes the van.
Hannibal, no doubt, was a terrible enemy to Rome, as were the Lacedæmonians to Thebes; yet it is an established fact that at Tegyra and at Leuktra they gave way before Pelopidas, whereas Marcellus, according to Polybius, never once defeated Hannibal, but that general appears to have remained undefeated until the time of Scipio.
But having regained their ascendency, Athens became jealous of the growing power of Thebes, now mistress of Bœotia, and this jealousy, inexcusable after such reverses, was increased when Pelopidas gained a great victory over the Lacedæmonians near Tegyra, which led to the expulsion of their enemies from all parts of Bœotia, except Orchomenus, on the borders of Phocis.
XVII. At Tegyra, then, Pelopidas and the Thebans retiring from Orchomenus met the Lacedæmonians marching back from Lokris, in the opposite direction. When they were first descried coming out from the narrow gorges of the hills, some one ran to Pelopidas, and cried out, "We have fallen into the midst of the enemy!" "Why so," asked he, "more than they into the midst of us?"
Word Of The Day