Epaminondas
Epaminondas
c.410 BC – 362 BC
Epaminondas, an idealized figure in the
grounds of Stowe House
Place of birth
Thebes
Place of death
Mantinea
Allegiance
Thebes
Rank
Strategos, Boeotarch
Battles/wars
Battle of Leuctra,
Battle of Mantinea
Epaminondas
(Greek:
Ἐπαμεινώνδας)
(ca. 410 BC – 362 BC) was a Theban general
and statesman of the 4th century BC who
transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of
Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation
into a preeminent position in Greek politics.
In the process he broke Spartan military
power with his victory at Leuctra and liber-
ated the Messenian helots, a group of Pelo-
ponnesian Greeks who had been enslaved un-
der Spartan rule
for some 200 years.
Epaminondas reshaped the political map of
Greece, fragmented old alliances, created
new ones, and supervised the construction of
entire cities. He was militarily influential as
well, inventing and implementing several ma-
jor battlefield tactics.
The Roman orator Cicero called him "the
first man of Greece", but Epaminondas has
fallen into relative obscurity in modern times.
The changes Epaminondas wrought on the
Greek political order did not long outlive him,
as the cycle of shifting hegemonies and alli-
ances continued unabated. A mere twenty-
seven years after his death, a recalcitrant
Thebes was obliterated by Alexander the
Great. Thus Epaminondas—who had been
praised in his time as an idealist and liberat-
or—is today largely remembered for a decade
(371 BC to 362 BC) of campaigning that
sapped the strength of the great land powers
of Greece and paved the way for the Macedo-
nian conquest.
Sources
The life of Epaminondas is very poorly at-
tested in the ancient sources, especially com-
pared to some of his near contemporaries
(e.g. Philip II of Macedon, Pelopidas). One
principal reason for this is the loss of Plut-
arch’s biography of Epaminondas. Epaminon-
das was one of approximately 50 ancient fig-
ures given an extensive biography by Plut-
arch in his Parallel Lives, in which he is
paired with the Roman states