178 HISTORY OF GREECE. masters of the Kadmeia. Some encouraging omens, however, were transmitted to the camp, from the temples in Thebes as well as from that of Trophonius at Lebadeia r 1 and a Spartan exile named Leandrias, serving in the Theban ranks, ventured to assure them that they were now on the very spot foredoomed for the overthrow of the Lacedaemonian empire. Here stood the tomb of two females (daughters of a Leuktrian named Skedasus) who had been violated by two Lacedaemonians and had afterwards slain themselves. Ske- dasus, after having in vain attempted to obtain justice from the Spartans for this outrage, came back, imprecating curses on them, and slew himself also. The vengeance of these departed sufferers would now be sure to pour itself out on Sparta, when her army was in their own district and near their own tomb. And the The- ban leaders, to whom the tale was full of opportune encourage- ment, crowned the tomb with wreaths, invoking the aid of its inmates against the common enemy now present. 2 While others were thus comforted by the hope of superhuman aid, Epaminondas, to whom the order of the coming battle had been confided, took care that no human precautions should we wanting. His task was arduous ; for not only were his troops dispirited, while those of the enemy were confident, but their numbers were inferior, and some of the Bosotians present were hardly even 1 Kallisthenes, apud Cic. de Divinatione, i, 34, Fragm. 9, ed. Didot. 2 Xen. Hellcn. vi, 4, 7 ; Diodor. xv, 54; Pausan. ix, 13, 3; Plutarch, Pe- lopid. c. 20, 21 ; Polyaenus, ii, 3, 8. The latter relates that Pelopidas in a dream saw Skedasus, who directed him to offer on this tomb " an auburn virgin " to the deceased females. Pe- lopidas and his friends were greatly perplexed about the fulfilment of this command ; many urged that it was necessary for some maiden to devote herself, or to be devoted by her parents, as a victim for the safety of the country, like Menoekeus and Makaria in the ancient legends ; others de- nounced the idea as cruel and inadmissible. In the midst of the debate, a mare, with a chestnut filly, galloped up. and stopped not far off ; upon which the prophet Theokritns exclaimed, " Here comes the victim required, Bent by the special providence of the gods." The chestnut filly was caught and offered as a sacrifice on the tomb ; every one being in high spirits from a conviction that the mandate of the gods had been executed. The prophet Theokritus figures in the treatise of Plutarch De Genio So- cratis (c. 3, p. 576 D.) as one of the companions of Pelopidas in the con- spiracy whereby the Theban oligarchy was put down and the Lacedaemo- nians expelled from the Kadmeia
