Epaminondas

Epaminondas (c. 418 BC in Thebes, † July 3 362 BC at Mantinea ), and Epaminondas, Greek Ἐπαμεινώνδας, was a Greek statesman and general. He is considered the greatest statesman of Thebes and developed the so-called skewness battle.

Life

Epaminondas was the son of Polymnis and came from a noble, but little wealthy family. Important in his youth was the Pythagorean Lysis of Tarentum, who had fled from Italy and hospitably received by Epaminondas ' father. Lysis was tutor of the young Epaminondas and may have influenced him in terms of Pythagorean philosophy.

Epaminondas was 385 BC in an auxiliary corps, sent the Thebans their allies, the Spartans to the rescue to pull against Mantinea in Arcadia. He saved his friend Pelopidas life, although he himself was wounded. After the occupation of the Theban citadel Kadmeia by the Spartans in 382 BC Epaminondas lived retired and pursued his philosophical studies. Secretly, however, he ran with the eventual liberation of Thebes comrades from the yoke of Sparta 379 BC At the end of the murder of the oligarchic rulers refused to vote.

371 BC he was appointed Böotarchen and sent with other Theban deputies to a peace congress in Sparta. Here he represented the claims of Thebes to the rule over the other Boeotian cities with unbending determination. As then the Spartans under the leadership of King Cleombrotus I. with 10,000 Spartan hoplites and 300 horsemen invaded Boeotia, it came on July 6, 371 BC, in the plain of Leuctra battle. The Theban army, which had been reformed by Gorgidas from the ground up, the Spartans came against under the command of Epaminondas. The Theban forces totaled 6,000 hoplites and 1,000 cavalry. At this battle his friend Pelopidas had great proportion with his Sacred Band. Epaminondas turned here as the first battle of the skewness, which was a kind of continuous reserve. This enabled him to beat the Spartans. This was the first defeat for a Spartan army in a pitched battle, and simultaneously the beginning of the decline of the hegemony of Sparta. 400 of 700 full citizens of Sparta lost in this battle their lives.

Now Epaminondas was the Boeotians and Phocians for the recognition of Theban supremacy necessary, but also the Aetolians and Locrians allied themselves with them. Due to reorganization of the state and army structures ( armament with long sarissae, establishment of vigilante and development of shock troops ), he offered Thebes the opportunity to advance to the third great power in Greece.

370 BC Epaminondas was re-elected Böotarchen. He moved to the Peloponnese and persuaded the Argives, Arcadians and Eleians, to join him. In December, he invaded Laconia itself and ran through this area that had trod since time immemorial by any hostile army. Only Sparta who defended by Agesilaus II capital, Epaminondas could not conquer.

In order to break the supremacy of Sparta, Epaminondas persuaded the inhabitants of southern and western Arcadia, and through him back to independence came Messenians to join together in a unitary state. As the center of the political world, the Arcadians had founded before the activities Epaminondas ' megalopolis. Now Messene was founded as the capital of Messinia. On his return to Thebes, Epaminondas was simultaneously charged with Pelopidas of their radical democratic opponents "because of arbitrary extension of his term of office " and threatened with the death penalty. But when he was able to explain the success of his campaign, the court broke up without a vote.

It again gave him the Böotarchiat and in the year 369 BC, he made ​​a second invasion of the Peloponnese. This time he was removed after a new accusation of his opponents of his office. He served thereafter as a common soldier in the Theban army, which had in Thessaly. This he could save himself by his prudence before complete destruction, prompting him the supreme command was retransmitted.

After three successful campaigns in the Peloponnese, he reached 367 BC, Thebes that has been recognized as the dominant Greek power also of Persia. Since 365 BC Epaminondas tried to persuade the Thebans establishing a formidable fleet, which the forces of the country would have more than claimed. He wanted to win the leadership of the Greek states, this time against the Athenians. With a rich fleet he could 364 BC Byzantium, Chios and Rhodes cause to fall away from Athens.

The decrease of the Arcadians of Thebes led a fourth campaign in the summer of 362 BC to the Peloponnese, again under the leadership of Epaminondas. He came down to the Agora in Sparta, but was repulsed. At Mantinea (10 km north of the modern Tripoli), there was a battle. 33,000 fighters on the Theban and 22,000 men on the opposing side ( Spartans, Athenians, Arcadians and Mantineans ) were involved. Even before the battle was decided, Epaminondas was wounded by a javelin of Gryllus, the son of Xenophon, mortal, so that he was carried behind the battle line. Here he learned yet that victory was assured, and then died on 3 July 362 BC. He was buried on the battlefield.

With the death of Epaminondas ' the power position of Thebes in Greece was terminated because no one said Epaminondas evenly matched men had available. Cornelius Nepos has written a short biography of Epaminondas. The double biography of Epaminondas - Scipio, who supplied paralleloi at the beginning of his Bioi Plutarch, has been lost.

310062
de