Note 748 — Chapter LXXX · FROM THE DEATH OF PELOPIDAS TO THE BATTLE OF MANTINEA.

I agree with Folard (Traité de la Colonne, p. lv-lxi, prefixed to the translation of Polybius) in considering ἔμβολον to be a column,—rather than a wedge tapering towards the front. And I dissent from Schneider’s explanation, who says,—“Epaminondas phalangem contrahit sensim et colligit in frontem, ut cunei seu rostri navalis formam efficeret. Copiæ igitur ex utroque latere explicatæ transeunt in frontem; hoc est, παράγειν εἰς μέτωπον.” It appears to me that the troops which Epaminondas caused to wheel into the front and to form the advancing column, consisted only of the left or Theban division, the best troops in the army,—τῷ μὲν ἰσχυροτάτῳ παρεσκευάζετο ἀγωνίζεσθαι, τὸ δὲ ἀσθενέστατον πόῤῥω ἀπέστησεν. Moreover, the whole account of Xenophon implies that Epaminondas made the attack from his own left against the enemy’s right, or right-centre. He was afraid that the Athenians would take him in flank from their own left.