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After these events, Arcadians, Argives, and Eleians, making common cause, decided to take the field against the Lacedaemonians, and having sent a commission to the Boeotians prevailed on them to join in the war. They appointed Epameinondas commander1 along with other boeotarchs and dispatched seven thousand foot and six hundred horse. The Athenians, hearing that the Boeotian army was about to pass into the Peloponnese, dispatched an army and Chabrias as general against them. [2] He arrived in Corinth, added to his number Megarians,2 Pellenians,3 and also Corinthians, and so gathered a force of ten thousand men. Later, when the Lacedaemonians and other allies arrived at Corinth, there were assembled no less than twenty thousand men all told. [3] They decided to fortify the approaches and prevent the Boeotians from invading the Peloponnese. From Cenchreae4 to Lechaeum they fenced off the area with palisades and deep trenches, and since the task was quickly completed owing to the large number of men and their enthusiasm, they had every spot fortified before the Boeotians arrived. [4] Epameinondas came with his army, inspected the fortifications, and, perceiving that there was a spot very easy of access where the Lacedaemonians were on guard, first challenged the enemy to come forth to a pitched battle, though they were almost three times his number, then when not a man dared to advance beyond the fortified line, but all remained on the defensive in their palisaded camp, he launched a violent attack upon them. [5] Accordingly, throughout the whole area heavy assaults were made, but particularly against the Lacedaemonians, for their terrain was easily assailed and difficult to defend. Great rivalry arose between the two armies, and Epameinondas, who had with him the bravest of the Thebans, with great effort forced back the Lacedaemonians, and cutting through their defence and bringing his army through, passed into the Peloponnese, thereby accomplishing a feat no whit inferior to his former mighty deeds.

1 An account of this expedition is in Xen. Hell. 7.1.15-22. See also Paus. 9.15.4.

2 According to Isocrates (Isoc. 8.118), Megara remained neutral. It is obvious here that she afforded passage to both parties.

3 Pellene was the easternmost town of Achaia, slightly north-west of Sicyon and Corinth.

4 The line from Cenchreae (on the Saronic Gulf) to Lechaeum (on the Corinthian Gulf) crossed the neck of the isthmus close to the Peloponnese and just included the city of Corinth. Mentioned in Book 11.16.3.

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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    • Isocrates, On the Peace, 118
    • Xenophon, Hellenica, 7.1.15
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