Pausanias Analysis

After the battle with the Peloponnesians, Epaminondas initially kept the Lacedaemonians hemmed in at Leuctra, though he had permitted the other survivors to depart each to their homes. When he learned, however, that the Spartans from the city were marching to aid their people at Leuctra with their full forces, he allowed the men held at Leuctra to withdraw under truce. He declared it would be better for the Thebans to push the war away from Boeotia and into Lacedaemonian territory itself.

The Thespians, perceiving both the long-standing hostility of the Thebans and their present misfortune, resolved to abandon their city and retreat to Keressos. Keressos is a fortified site in Thespian territory, where they had also in former times sought refuge during the Thessalian invasion. On that occasion, when the Thessalians discovered that capturing Keressos seemed beyond their hopes despite their efforts, they went to Delphi to consult the god, and

An oracle was delivered to them as follows: "Shady Leuctra concerns me, and the soil of Alesium; I care also for the ill-fated daughters of Scedasus. There a tearful battle is coming, which no mortal shall foresee until the Dorians destroy glorious youth in the flower of its prime, when the destined day arrives. Only then shall Ceressus be taken; at no other time."

Then Epaminondas, after removing the Thespians who had fled to Ceresus, immediately turned his attention toward affairs in the Peloponnese, as the Arcadians also were eagerly summoning him. When he arrived, the Argives willingly joined him as allies, and he reunited the Mantineans, who had been dispersed by Agesipolis into separate villages, back into their original city. Likewise, he persuaded the Arcadians to abandon the villages that were weakly held, settling them together into a common homeland, a city that even in our own time continues to be called Megalopolis.

The period prescribed by law for Epaminondas to serve as Boeotarch had already expired, and he was liable to the penalty of death if he retained his command beyond the appointed time. Yet Epaminondas, disregarding this ordinance as ill-timed, continued on as Boeotarch. When he led the army against Sparta and Agesilaus chose not to oppose him in battle, Epaminondas proceeded towards the founding of Messene. Thus Epaminondas became the founder of the city of the present-day Messenians. I will explain further on about the settlement and matters concerning the Messenians themselves.

At this time, the allies of the Thebans, scattered about the countryside, were ravaging the land of Laconia and plundering all they could seize from it. This circumstance led Epaminondas to decide to lead the Thebans back to Boeotia. As he marched with his army toward Lechaeum, and was about to traverse narrow and difficult terrain, Iphicrates, the son of Timotheus, commanding peltasts and other Athenian forces, launched an attack against the Thebans.

Epaminondas routed those who attacked him and proceeded to the city of the Athenians itself; however, as Iphicrates prevented the Athenians from coming forth to battle, Epaminondas returned again to Thebes. Afterwards, he stood trial on a capital charge because he had continued to serve as Boeotarch after his allotted term had expired. It is said, however, that those assigned to judge his case refused outright even to cast their votes concerning him.