performed with the trepidation of furprlfe and liafte, 
rather than with the ardour of hope and courage; and 
the whole army had the appearance of men prepared 
rather to fufter, than to inflift, any thing terrible or de- 
cilive. The Spartans and Mantinasans, however, drawn 
up in firm order, fternly waited the firft onfet of the af- 
' failants. The battle was fierce and cruel ; and after 
their fpears were broken, both parties had recourfe to 
their fwords. The wedge of Epaminondas at length 
forced the Spartan line, and this advantage encouraged 
his centre and right wing to attack and repel the corre- 
I’ponding divifions of the enemy. The Theban and 
Tliellalian cavalry were equally fuccefsful. In the in¬ 
tervals of their ranks Epaminondas had placed a body 
of liglit infantry, whofe miffile weapons greatly annoyed 
tlie enemy’s horfe, who were drawn up two deep. He 
had likewife taken the precaution to occupy a rifing 
ground on his right with a confiderable detachment, 
■which might take the Athenians in flank and rear, fliould 
they advance from their poll:. Thefe prudent difpofi- 
tions produced a vifibory, which Epaminondas did not 
live to improve. In the heat of the battle he received 
a mortal wound, and was carried to an eminence, which 
ivas afterwards called the Watch-tower, probably that 
he might the better obferve the fubfequent operations 
of the field. But with the departure of their leader was 
withdrawn the fpirit which animated the Theban army. 
Having impetuoufly broke through the hofiile ranks, 
thdy knew not how to profit by tfffs advantage. The 
enemy rallied in different parts of the field, and pre¬ 
vailed in feveral partial encounters. All was confufion 
and terror. The .light infantry, which had been polled 
amidfi: the Theban and Theffalian horfe, being left be¬ 
hind in the purfuit, were received and cut to pieces 
by the Athenian cavalry, commanded by Hegelochus. 
Jtlated with this fuccefs, the Athenians turned their 
arms againfl the detachment placed on the heights, con- 
lifting chiefly of Eubceans, whom they routed and put 
to flight, after a terrible flaughter. With fuch alter¬ 
nations of vitlory and defeat ended this memorable en¬ 
gagement. Both armies, as conquerors, erebted a tro- 
piiy ; both craved their dead, as conquered; and this 
battle, which, being certainly the greateft, was expebled 
to prove the moft decifive, ever fought among the 
Greeks, produced no other confequence than that gene¬ 
ral languor and debility long remarkable in the fubfe¬ 
quent operations of thofe hofiile republics. 
When the tumult of the abtion ceafed, the moft dif- 
tinguifiled Thebans affembled round their dying gene- 
J'al. His body had been pierced with a javelin; and the 
lurgeons declared, that it was impoflible for him to fur- 
vive the extraflion of the weapon. He afked whether 
his Ihield ivas fafe; which being prefented to him, he 
viewed it with a languid fmile of melancholy joy. He 
then demanded, whether the Thebans had obtained the 
viifory. Being anfwered in the affirmative, (for the 
Lacedaemonians indeed had firft fent to demand the bo¬ 
dies of their flain,) he declared himfelf ready to quit life 
without regret, fince he left his country triumphant. 
The fpeilators lamented, among other objebts of forrow, 
that he fhould die without children, who might inherit 
the glory of his name, and the fame of his virtues. 
“ You miftake,” faid he, with a cheerful prefence of 
mind; “ I,leave two fair daughters, the battles of Leuc- 
tra and Mantinaea, who will tranfmit my renown to the 
latell ages,” bo laying, he ordered the weapon to be 
extracted, and immediately expired. The awful folem- 
iiity of his deatJi correfponded with the dignified fplen- 
dour of an adtive and ufeful life. He is ufually deferibed 
as a perfet'c character ; nor does the truth of hiftory 
oblige us to detrabt any thing from this defeription. He 
was bur.ed in the field of battle, where his monument 
Itiil exifted, after four centuries, in the time of Paufa. 
mas, witlvan infeription in elegiac verfe, enumerating 
Ids explo.ts. Adrian, then malter of the Homan world, 
added a fecond column, with a new infeription, in ho¬ 
nour of a charabter, whom that celebrated emperor had 
genius to admire, but wanted firmnefs to imitate. 
Soon after the battle of Mantinasa, in the year before 
Chrift 362, a general peace was propofed under the me¬ 
diation of Artaxerxes, who wanted Grecian auxiliaries 
to check the infurreblions in Egypt and LelTer Afia, 
which difturbed the two laft years of his reign. The 
only condition annexed to this treaty was, that each re¬ 
public fliould retain its refpeblive pofteftions. , The 
Spartans determined to rejebl every accommodation 
until they had recovered Meftenia ; and as Artaxerxes 
had uniformly oppofed this demand, they tranfported 
forces into Egypt, to foment the defebtion of that pro¬ 
vince. At the head of a thoufand heavy-armed Lace- 
djemonians, and ten thoufand mercenaries, Agefilaus 
fupported one rebel after another, having fucceftively 
fet on the throne Taches and Nebfanebus, In this dif. 
graceful war he amalTed confiderable wealth, by means 
of which he probably expebled to retrieve the affairs of 
liis country. But returning home by Cyrenaica, in tlie 
year before Chrift 361, he died on that coaft, in the 
eighty-fourth year of his age, and forty-firft of his reign. 
He was the greateft, and the moft unfortunate, of the 
Spartan kings. He had feen the higheft grandeur of 
Sparta, and he beheld her fall. During the time that 
he governed the republic, his country fullered more 
Calamities and difgrace than in feven centuries preced¬ 
ing his reign. His ambition and his obftinacy, doubt- 
lels, contributed to her difafters ; yet fo natural were 
the principles from which he abled, fo probable his 
hopes of fuccefs, and fo firm and manly his ftruggles 
for viblory, that a contemporary writer, who co^ild fee 
through the cloud of fortune, ventured to beftoiv on 
Agefilaus a panegyric, which exalts him beyond the re¬ 
nown of his moft illuftrious predeceffors. 
With the battle of Mantinrea ended the bloody ftrug- 
gle for dominion, which had long exhaufted Thebes and 
Sparta. No Tlieban arofe to emulate the magnanimity 
of Epaminondas; nor did Archidamus, who fucceeded 
to the Spartan throne, juftify the high opinion conceived 
of his early wifdom and valour. Weakened by their 
wounds, and worn down by exertions which exhaufted 
their ftrengtli, thofe republics funk into a ftate of fupine- 
nefs, which encouraged the pretenfions of neighbours who 
had long waited for fuch an event. While this unufual 
defpondency ftrengtheped the foederal union, and tended 
to reftore the primitive equality, of the Grecian ftates,. 
various circumftances concurred to revive tlie afpiring 
ambition of Athens. During the Boeotian war, the 
Atlienians had abled as auxiliaries only; without mak¬ 
ing Inch efforts as enfeebled their llrength, their arms 
had acquired frefti lullre. Their powerful rivals were 
humbled; experience had taught them the danger of 
attempting to fubdue, and the impoffibility of keeping 
in fubjeblion, tlie territories of their warlike neighbours: 
but the numerous illaiids of the .i^geaii and Ionian feas, 
the remote coafts of 1 brace and Alia, invited the abti- 
vity of their fleet, which they might now employ in fo¬ 
reign conqiiefts, fearlefs of domeftic eiivy. It appears, 
that foon after the death of Epaminondas, Euboea again 
acknowledged the authority of Athens; an event facili¬ 
tated by the deftrublion of the Theban partifans belong, 
ing to that place, in the battle of Mantinfea. From the 
Thracian Bofphorus to Rhodes, feveral places along 
both Ihores fubmitted to the arms of Timotlieus, Cha- 
brias, and Iphicrates; men, who having furvived Age- 
■filaus and Epaminondas, were far fuperiof in abilities to 
the contemporary generals of the other republics. The 
Cyclades and Corcyra courted the friendfliip of a people 
who were at once either to protebl or deftroy their navi¬ 
gation and commerce. Byzantium had become their 
ally, and,„there was reafon to hope that Ampliipolis 
ivouldTopn be reqdered tlieir fubjebl. Such multiplie'd 
advantages revived the ancient' grandeur of Athens, 
.■whick 
