Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/277

SECOND THEBAN INVASION. 255 Grulf from Prasiae to Halieis, or round Cape Skyllaeum to tha Saronic Gulf and Kenchreas ; for no Spartan troops could march by land across Arcadia or Argos. This difficulty however was surmounted, and a large allied force (not less than twenty thou sand men according to Diodorus), consisting of Athenians with auxiliary mercenaries under Chabrias, Lacedaemonians, Pellenians, Epidaurians, Megarians, Corinthians, and all the other aUies still adhering to Sparta, was established in defensive position along the line of Oneium. It was essential for Thebes to reopen communication with her Peloponnesian allies. Accordingly Epaminondas', at the head of the Thebans and their northern allies, arrived during the same summer in front of this position, on his march into Peloponnesus. His numbers were inferior to those of his assembled enemies, whose position prevented him from joining his Arcadian, Argeian, and Eleian allies, already assembled in Peloponnesus. After having vainly challenged the enemy to come down and fight in the plain, Epaminondas laid his plan for attacking the position. Moving from his camp a little before daybreak, so as to reach the enemy just when the night-guards were retiring, but before the general body had yet risen and got under arms, 1 he directed an assault along the whole line. But his principal effort, at the head of the chosen Theban troops, was made against the Lacedaemo- nians and Pellenians, who were posted in the most assailable part of the line. 2 So skilfully was his movement conducted, that he 1 Xen. Hellen. vii, 1, 16; Polysenus, ii, 2, 9. This was an hour known to be favorable to sudden assailants, affording a considerable chance that the enemy might be off their guard; It was at the same hour that the Athenian Thrasybulus surprised the troops of the Thirty, near Phyle in Attica (Xen. Hellen. ii, 4, 6). 2 Xen. Hellen. ih. ; Pausanias, ix, 15, 2. Pausanias describes the battle as having been fought -irspl Aexaiov ; not very exact, topographically, since it was on the other side of Corinth, be tween Corinth and Kenchreaa. Diodorus (xv, 68) states that the whole space across, from Kenchrese on one sea to Lechaeum on the other, was trenched and palisaded by the Athe- nians and Spartans. But this canrot be true, because the Long Walls were a sufficient defence between Cf inth and Lechaeum ; and even between Corinth and Kenchreae, it is not probable that any such continuous line of defence was drawn, though the assailable points were probably thus guard ed. Xenopnoi does not mention either trench or palisade.