342 HISTORY OF GREECE. It was apparently only the Boeotian hoplites who were thus formed in column, projecting forward in advance ; while the re- maining allies were still left in their ordinary phalanx or lines. 1 Epaminondas calculated, that when he should have once broken through the enemy's phalanx at a single point, the rest would either take flight, or become so dispirited, that his allies coming up in phalanx could easily deal with them. Against the cavalry on the enemy's right, which was marshaled only with the ordinary depth of a phalanx of hoplites, four, six, or perhaps eight deep), 2 and without any light infantry intermingled with the ranks the Theban general opposed on his left his own excellent cavalry, Theban and Thessalian, but in strong and deep column, so as to ensure to them also a superior weight of attack. He farther mingled in their ranks some active footmen, darters and slingers, of whom he had many from Thessaly and the Maliac Gulf.3 There remained one other precaution to take. His deep The- ban and Boeotian column, in advancing to the charge, would be exposed on its right or unshielded side to the attack of the Athe- nians, especially the Athenian cavalry, from the enemy's left. To guard against any such movement, he posted, upon some rising ground near his right, a special body of reserve, both horse and 1 I agree with Folard ( Traite de la Colonne, p. Iv-lxi, prefixed to thf translation of Polybius) in considering efiflohov to be a column, rather than a wedge tapering towards the front. And I dissent from Schneider's explanation, who says, Epaminondas phalangem contrahit sensim et col- ligit in frontem, ut cunei seu rostri navalis formam efficeret. Copiie igitur ex utroque latere explicatae transeunt in frontem ; hoc est, Trapuyeiv elf //- TWTTOV." It appears to me that the troops which Epaminondas caused to wheel into the front and to form the advancing column, consisted only of the left or Theban division, the best troops in the army, r fiev iaxvpora- T(J TtapsaKevd&TO uyuvifeo&ai, TO 6s uaftevEOTarov Troppu uTreaTTjcev. More- over, the whole account of Xenophon implies that Epaminondas made the attack from his own left against the enemy's right, or right-centre. He was afraid that the Athenians would take him in flank from their own left. z Compare a similar case in Xen. Hellen. iii, 4, 13. where the Grecian cavalry, in the Asiatic army of Agesilaus, is said to be drawn up wa-ep (fta- ^ayf ETtl TEaaupuv, etc.
- Theso TTE&I afiimroi light-armed footmen, intermingled with the
ranks of the cavalry, are numbered as an important item in the military tstablishment of the Syracusan despot Gelon (Herod')t. vii, 158).
