INVASION OF LACONIA. 217 revenge upon Sparta her long career of pride and abused ascend- ency, Epaminondas was at length induced to give the order of invasion. 1 That he should have hesitated in taking this responsibility, will not surprise us, if we recollect, that over and above the real diffi- culties of the country, invasion of Laconia by land was an unpar- alleled phenomenon, that the force of Sparta was most imper- fectly known, that no such thought had been entertained when he left Thebes, that the legal duration of command, for himself and his colleagues, would not permit it, and that though his Pelo- ponnesian allies were forward in the scheme, the rest of his troops and his countrymen might well censure him, if the unknown force of resistance turned out as formidable as their associations from old time led them to apprehend. The invading army was distributed into four portions, all pene- trating by different passes. The Eleians had the westernmost and easiest road, the Argeians the easternmost ; 2 while the Thebans themselves and the Arcadians formed the two central divisions. The latter alone experienced any serious resistance. More dar- ing even than the Thebans, they encountered Ischolaus the Spartan at lum or Oeum in the district called Skiritis, attacked him in the village, and overpowered him by vehemence of assault, by supe- rior numbers, and seemingly also by some favor or collusion 3 on the part of the inhabitants. After a desperate resistance, this brave Spartan with nearly all his division perished. At Karyae, the Thebans also found and surmounted some resistance ; but the vic- tory of the Arcadians over Ischolaus operated as an encouragement to all, so that the four divisions reached Sellasia 4 and were again 1 Xen. Hellen. vi, 5, 24, 25. 2 Diodor. xv, 64. See Colonel Leake's Travels in the Morea, vol. iii, ch. 23, p. 29. 3 Xen. Hellen. vi, 5, 26. When we read that the Arcadians got on the roofs of the houses to attack Ischolaus, this fact seems to imply that they were admitted into the houses by the villagers. 4 Kespecting the site of Sellasia, Colonel Leakc thinks, and advances various grounds for supposing, that Sellasia was on the road from Sparta to the north-east, towards the Thyreatis ; and that Karyae was on the road from Sparta northward, towards Tegea. The French investigators of the Morca, as well, as Professor Ross and Kiepert, hold a different opinion, and place Sellasia on the road from Sparta northward towards Tcgea (Leuke, VOL. X, 10
