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

,I T^,I''FIRST COLUMN OF ATTACK. 117At Leuctra (b. c. 371) Epaminondas had a force of aboutsix thousand men. By some it is stated as high as eight thousand.The Thebans spartansIwere in a dispiritedcondition. Fortune had'I ! I,I—,—Inot smiled upon them. 1^ 1^ 1^They lacked self-con-[""'fidence. The Spartan .r^n f^.—army was about eleven ,thousand strong, and thebans(iin the best of heart and Battle of Leuctra, b. c. 371.discipline. AVhen the armies came ijito presence of eachother, Cleombrotus, the Spartan king, drew up the Lacedsemoniansin the usual phalangial shape prescribed by generationsof usage and success, of twelve men in depth, and with thecavah'y in front. He expected, as usual, to fight in parallelorder and all along the line.force or originality.was at the post of honor, the right.Cleombrotus was not a man ofHis own position, with his chief officers,The Spartan idea was toswing round its wings into concave order when the battleshould have been engaged, and thus inclose the Theban flanks.The fact that Cleombrotus was on the Spartan right Epaminondaswell knew, and he determined to make up for hisnumerical weakness by a daring innovation.We do not know whether Epaminondas had long agothought out this manoeuvre, or whether it was theinspirationof the moment. His phalanx on the right and centre consistedprobably of eight men in a file. But thirty-two of thefiles in his left vnng he made forty-eight men deep, thus formingthe firstnarrow, deep column of attack of which we haveany knowledge. On the left of this column and in a linewith it marched the Theban Sacred Band under Pelopidas.Here again was a master's conception in thus protecting the