THE HUMILIATION OF SPARTA. 265

The two armies were not long in coming to blows.
The Spartans and their allies much exceeded the
Thebans in numbers. But Epaminondas prepared
to make the most of his small force by drawing it
up in a new array, never before seen in Greece.

Instead of forming the narrow line of battle always
before the rule in Greek armies, he placed in front
of his left wing Pelopidas and the Sacred Band, and
behind them arranged a mass of men fifty shields
deep, a prodigious depth for a Grecian host. The
centre and right were drawn up in the usual thin
lines, but were kept back on the defensive, so that
the deep column might join battle first.

Thus arrayed, the army of Thebes marched to
meet its foe, in the valley between the two declivi-
ties on which the hostile camps were placed. The
cavalry met first, and the Theban horsemen soon put
the Spartan troop to flight. Then the footmen came
together with a terrible shock. Pelopidas and his
Sacred Band, ‘and behind them the weight of the
fifty shields, proved more than the Spartans, with
all their courage and discipline, could endure. Both
sides fought bravely, hand to hand; but soon Cleom-
brotus fell, mortally hurt, and was with difficulty
carried off alive. Around him fell others of the
Spartan leaders. The resistance was obstinate, the
slaughter terrible; but at last the Spartan right
wing, overborne by the heavy Theban mass and
utterly beaten, was driven back to its camp on the
hill-side above. Meanwhile the left wing, made up
of allies, did little fighting, and quickly followed the
Spartans back to the camp.

M 23