EPAMINONDAS (EPAMEINONDAS, 'Euajsecvtovbas) (c. 418 362), Theban general, was born about 418 B.C. He was edu cated by Lysis of Tarentum, a Pythagorean philosopher in exile. In 385 he was fighting on the Spartan side in the attack on Mantineia, where he saved the life of Pelopidas. In 371 he represented Thebes at the congress at Sparta, and by his refusal to surrender the Boeotian cities under Theban control prevented the conclusion of a general peace. In the ensuing campaign he commanded the Boeotian army that met the Peloponnesian levy at Leuctra, and by a brilliant victory, due mainly to his innova tions in tactics, at once established the predominance of Thebes among the land-powers of Greece.
These innovations were substantially the use of a 50-deep phalanx as a striking head, with the centre and left en echelon behind it, in close co-operation with cavalry on the flank. In 370, in support of the new Arcadian league, he took a large army into Laconia ; here he dealt a lasting blow at Sparta's predomi nance in the Peloponnese by liberating the Messenians and re building Messene. In 369 he forced the isthmus lines and se cured Sicyon for Thebes ; it was probably in this campaign that he founded Megalopolis, the centre of the Arcadian league. Somewhere about this time he seems to have been put on trial on some charge connected with his command ; the evidence is conflicting; Plutarch says it was after the 37o campaign, that the charge was of exceeding his term, and that he was acquitted.
Diodorus' account is that it was after the 369 campaign, that the charge was laxity, and that he was removed from the com mand. Plutarch's account is to be preferred, but Diodorus may be right about the charge.
In the following year he served as a common soldier in Thes saly, and upon being reinstated in command contrived the safe retreat of the Theban army from a difficult position. Returning to Thessaly next year at the head of an army he procured the liberation of Pelopidas from the tyrant Alexander of Pherae without striking a blow. In his third expedition (366) to Pelo ponnesus, Epameinondas again eluded the isthmus garrison and won over the Achaeans to the Theban alliance. When subsequent complications threatened the position of Thebes in Peloponnesus he again mustered a large army in order to crush the newly formed Spartan league (362). After some masterly operations between Sparta and Mantineia, by which he nearly captured both these towns, he engaged in a battle on the latter site. His tactics (see MANTINEIA) were similar to those of Leuctra. His death on the field converted what was practically a complete vic tory into an unprofitable draw.
His title to fame rests mainly on his brilliant qualities both as a strategist and as a tactician ; his influence on military art in Greece was of the greatest. For the purity and uprightness of his character he likewise stood in high repute ; his culture and eloquence equalled the highest Attic standard. In politics his chief achievement was the final overthrow of Sparta's predomin ance in the Peloponnese ; as a constructive statesman he displayed no special talent, and the lofty pan-Hellenic ambitions which are imputed to him at any rate never found a practical expression. Cornelius Nepos, Vita Epaminondae; Diodorus xv. 52-88; Xeno phon, Hellenica, vii.; L. Pomtow, Das Leben des Epaminondas (Berlin, 187o) ; von Stein, Geschichte der spartanischen and thebanischen Hegemonie (Dorpat, 1884) , pp. 123 sqq.; H. Swoboda in Pauly Wissowa, Realencyclopddie, v. pt. 2 (Stuttgart, , pp. 2674-2707; also ARMY ; History, N. Cay in Classical Quarterly, xviii. (1924) 182.