Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

X.EPAMINONDAS. B. C. 371-362.Associated with one of the most notable tactical manoeuvres — the obliqueorder of battle — is the immortal name of Epaminondas. This great soldieroriginated what all skUlful generals have used frequently and to efPect, andwhat Frederick the Great showed in its highest perfection at Leuthen. Asalready observed, armies up to that time had with rare exceptions attacked inparallel order and fought until one or other gave way.At Leuctra Epaminondashad six thousand men against eleven thousand of the invincible Spartans.The Thebans were dispirited by many failures ; the Lacedaemonians in goodheart. The Spartan king was on the right of his army. Epaminondas tried adaring innovation. He saw that if he could break the Spartan right, he wouldprobably drive the enemy from the field. He therefore quadrupled the depthof his own left, making it a heavy column, led it sharply forward, and orderedhis centre and right to advance more slowly, so as not seriously to engage.effect was never doubtful.TheWhile the Spartan centre and left was held in placeby the threatening attack of the Theban centre and right, as well as by the combatof the cavalry between the lines, their right was overpowered and crushedhaving defeated which, Epaminondas wheeled around on the flank of the Spartancentre and swept it and the left wing from the field.tactician had prevailed over numbers, prestige and confidence.The genius of a greatAt Mantinaea,nine years later, Epaminondas practiced the same manoeuvre with equal success,but himself fell in the hour of victory.This greatTheban, above almost all others, has stampedhis name upon the military art as one of the world's early tacticians.To him is due the invention of a manoeuvre to the useof which many generals, and Alexander and Frederick peculiarly,owe a number of their victories, — the well-known obliqueorder of battle. Up to his day, as already noted, allbattles had been fought in parallel order, or in some variationof the parallel.The " two fair daughters " Epaminondas leftbehind him were the brilliant victories ofLeuctra and Mantinaea,in both of which he put this manoeuvre into use.