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[3] And when the boeotarchs held a conference1 to decide whether they ought to remain and fight it out with an army that many times outnumbered them, or whether they should retreat and join battle in a commanding position, it chanced that the votes of the leaders were equal. For of the six boeotarchs, three thought that they should withdraw the army, and three that they should stay and fight it out, and among the latter Epameinondas was numbered. In this great and perplexing deadlock, the seventh boeotarch came to vote, whom Epameinondas persuaded to vote with him, and thus he carried the day. So the decision to stake all on the issue of battle was thus ratified.

1 See Plut. Pelopidas 20.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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