Editing Epaminondas (section)

==Assessments==

===Character===
In matters of character, Epaminondas was above reproach in the eyes of the ancient historians who recorded his deeds. Contemporaries praised him for disdaining material wealth, sharing what he had with his friends, and refusing bribes. One of the last heirs of the Pythagorean tradition, he appears to have lived a simple and ascetic lifestyle even when his leadership had raised him to a position at the head of all Greece. Cornelius Nepos notes his incorruptibility, describing his rejection of a [[Achaemenid Dynasty|Persia]]n ambassador who came to him with a [[bribe]]. These aspects of his character contributed greatly to his renown after his death.

Epaminondas never married and as such was subject to criticism from countrymen who believed he was duty-bound to provide the country with the benefit of sons as great as himself. In response, Epaminondas said that his victory at Leuctra was a daughter destined to live forever. He is known, however, to have had several [[Pederasty in Ancient Greece|young male lovers]], a standard pedagogic practice in ancient Greece, and one that Thebes in particular was famous for; Plutarch records that the Theban lawgivers instituted the practice "to temper the manners and characters of the youth".{{sfn|Plutarch|1955|p=387}} An anecdote told by Cornelius Nepos indicates that Epaminondas was intimate with a young man by the name of Micythus. Plutarch also mentions two of his beloveds (''[[eromenos|eromenoi]]''): [[Asopichus]], who fought together with him at the battle of Leuctra, where he greatly distinguished himself;<ref>Athenaeus, ''Deipnosophists'', [https://topostext.org/work/218#13.83 13.83]</ref> and [[Caphisodorus]], who fell with Epaminondas at Mantineia and was buried by his side.<ref>Plutarch, ''Amatorius'', [https://topostext.org/work/298#761d 761d]</ref>

In ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', he is described as one of the six most virtuous and noble men who have lived.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html#part43|title=Fifty Orwell Essays|website=gutenberg.net.au}}</ref>

===Military record===
Extant biographies of Epaminondas universally describe him as one of the most talented generals ever produced by the Greek city-states. Even Xenophon, who fails to note his presence at Leuctra, says of his Mantinean campaign: "Now I for my part could not say that his campaign proved fortunate; yet of all possible deeds of forethought and daring the man seems to me to have left not one undone." Diodorus is effusive in his praise for Epaminondas's military record:{{sfn|Diodorus Siculus|1952|pp=197{{ndash}}199}}
<blockquote>For it seems to me that he surpassed his contemporaries...in skill and experience in the art of war. For among the generation of Epaminondas were famous men: Pelopidas the Theban, [[Timotheus (general)|Timotheus]] and [[Conon]], also [[Chabrias]] and [[Iphicrates]]...[[Agesilaus]] the Spartan, who belonged to a slightly older generation. Still earlier than these, in the times of the Medes and Persians, there were [[Solon]], [[Themistocles]], [[Miltiades]], and [[Cimon]], [[Myronides]], and [[Pericles]] and certain others in Athens, and in Sicily [[Gelo]]n, son of Deinomenes, and still others. All the same, if you should compare the qualities of these with the generalship and reputation of Epaminondas, you would find the qualities possessed by Epaminondas far superior.</blockquote>

As a tactician, Epaminondas stands above every other general in Greek history, except kings Philip II and [[Alexander the Great]], although modern historians have questioned his larger strategic vision.{{sfn|Hornblower|Spawforth|2003|p=527}} According to Richard A. Gabriel, his tactics "marked the beginning of the end of traditional Greek methods of war". His innovative strategy at Leuctra allowed him to defeat the vaunted Spartan phalanx with a smaller force, and his decision to refuse his right flank was the first recorded instance of such a tactic.{{sfn|Gabriel|2001|pp=90{{ndash}}91}} Many of the tactical innovations that Epaminondas implemented would also be used by Philip II, who in his youth spent time as a hostage in Thebes and may have learned directly from Epaminondas himself.{{sfn|Bose|2003|p=8}}{{refn|1= Philip also "revived Epaminondas' strategy of mobilizing Sparta's neighbors".{{sfn|Luraghi|2008|p=18}}|group=note}}

===Legacy===
In some ways Epaminondas dramatically altered the face of Greece during the 10 years in which he was the central figure of Greek politics. By the time of his death, Sparta had been humbled, Messenia freed, and the Peloponnese completely reorganized. In another respect, however, he left behind a Greece no different from that which he had found; the bitter divides and animosities that had poisoned international relations in Greece for over a century remained as deep as or deeper than they had been before Leuctra. The brutal internecine warfare that had characterized the years from 432 BC onwards continued unabated until all the states involved were defeated by Macedon.{{citation required|date=January 2022}}

At Mantinea, Thebes had faced down the combined forces of the greatest states of Greece, but the victory brought it no spoils. With Epaminondas removed from the scene, the Thebans returned to their more traditional defensive policy, and within a few years, Athens had replaced them at the pinnacle of the Greek political system. No Greek state ever again reduced Boeotia to the subjection it had known during the Spartan hegemony, but Theban influence faded quickly in the rest of Greece.{{sfn|Roy|2000|pp=207{{ndash}}208}} Finally, at [[Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)|Chaeronea]] in 338 BC, the combined forces of Thebes and Athens, driven into each other's arms for a desperate last stand against Philip of Macedon, were crushingly defeated, and Theban independence was put to an end. Three years later, heartened by a false rumor that Alexander had been assassinated, the Thebans revolted; Alexander squashed the revolt, then destroyed the city, slaughtering or enslaving all its citizens. A mere 27 years after the death of the man who had made it preeminent throughout Greece, Thebes was wiped from the face of the Earth, its 1,000-year history ended in the space of a few days.{{citation required|date=January 2022}}

Epaminondas, therefore, is remembered both as a liberator and a destroyer. He was celebrated throughout the ancient Greek and Roman worlds as one of the greatest men of history. [[Cicero]] eulogized him as "the first man, in my judgement, of Greece,"{{sfn|Cawkwell|1972|p=254}} and Pausanias records an honorary poem from his tomb:{{sfn|Pausanias|1965|p=239}}

{{Poem quote
|text=<!-- or: 1= -->By my counsels was Sparta shorn of her glory,
  And holy Messene received at last her children.
By the arms of Thebes was Megalopolis encircled with walls,
  And all Greece won independence and freedom.
|char=
|sign=
|source=<!-- or 4= -->
|title=<!-- or: 3= -->
|style=<!-- standard CSS style goes here -->
}}

Epaminondas's actions were certainly welcomed by the Messenians and others whom he assisted in his campaigns against the Spartans. Those same Spartans, however, had been at the center of resistance to the Persian invasions of the 5th century BC, and their absence was sorely felt at Chaeronea; the endless warfare in which Epaminondas played a central role weakened the cities of Greece until they could no longer hold their own against their neighbors to the north. As Epaminondas campaigned to secure freedom for the Boeotians and others throughout Greece, he brought closer the day when all of Greece would be subjugated by an invader. [[Victor Davis Hanson]] has suggested that Epaminondas may have planned for a united Greece composed of regional democratic federations, but even if this assertion is correct, no such plan was ever implemented. [[Simon Hornblower]] asserts that Thebes' great legacy to fourth century and Hellenistic Greece was federalism, "a kind of alternative to imperialism, a way of achieving unity without force", which "embodies a representative principle".{{sfn|Hornblower|2006|p=236}}

For all his noble qualities, Epaminondas was unable to transcend the Greek city-state system, with its endemic rivalry and warfare, and thus left Greece more war-ravaged but no less divided than he found it. Hornblower asserts that "it is a sign of Epaminondas' political failure, even before the battle of Mantinea, that his Peloponnesian allies fought to reject Sparta rather than because of the positive attractions of Thebes".{{sfn|Hornblower|2006|p=236}} On the other hand, Cawkwell concludes that "Epaminondas must be judged not in relation to these inevitable limitations of Boeotian power. To have established the power of Boeotia and ended the Spartan domination of the Peloponnese was the most and the best that a Boeotian could have done."{{sfn|Cawkwell|1972|p=275}}