Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and at first ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, the reign of Philip II saw the rise of Macedonia, during which the kingdom rose to control the entire Greek world. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the sarissa pike, Philip II defeated the old powers of Athens and Thebes in the decisive Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Sparta was kept isolated and was occupied a century by Antigonus III Doson. Alexander led a roughly decade-long campaign of conquest against the Achaemenid Empire, in the ensuing wars of Alexander the Great, he overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and conquered a territory that stretched as far as the Indus River. For a brief period, his Macedonian empire was the most powerful in the world – the definitive Hellenistic state, Greek arts and literature flourished in the new conquered lands and advances in philosophy and science were spread throughout much of the ancient world.
Of particular importance were the contributions of Aristotle, who had been imported as tutor to Alexander, important cities such as Pella and Amphipolis were involved in power struggles for control of the territory. New cities were founded, such as Thessalonica by the usurper Cassander, Macedonias decline began with the Macedonian Wars and the rise of Rome as the leading Mediterranean power. At the end of the Second Macedonian War in 168 BC, a short-lived revival of the monarchy during the Third Macedonian War in 150–148 BC ended with the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia. The name Macedonia comes from the ethnonym Μακεδόνες, which itself is derived from the ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός, meaning tall and it shares the same root as the noun μάκρος, meaning length in both ancient and modern Greek. The name is believed to have meant either highlanders, the tall ones. Robert S. P. Beekes supports that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology.
Contradictory legends state that either Perdiccas I of Macedon or Caranus of Macedon were the founders of the Argead dynasty, the kingdom of Macedonia was situated along the Haliacmon and Axius rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus. Historian Malcolm Errington posits the theory one of the earliest Argead kings must have established Aigai as their capital in the mid-7th century BC. Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region corresponding to the western. Achaemenid Persian hegemony over Macedonia was briefly interrupted by the Ionian Revolt, although Macedonia enjoyed a large degree of autonomy and was never made a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, it was expected to provide troops for the Achaemenid army. Following the Greek victory at Salamis in 480 BC, Alexander I was employed as an Achaemenid diplomat to strike a treaty and alliance with Athens. Soon afterwards the Achaemenid forces were forced to withdraw from mainland Europe, although initially a Persian vassal, Alexander I of Macedon fostered friendly diplomatic relations with his former Greek enemies, the Athenian and Spartan-led coalition of Greek city-states.
Two separate wars were fought against Athens between 433 and 431 BC, spurred by an Athenian alliance with a brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who had rebelled against him
Ancient Macedonian army
The army of the Kingdom of Macedonia was among the greatest military forces of the ancient world. The latest innovations in weapons and tactics were adopted and refined by Philip II, by introducing military service as a full-time occupation, Philip was able to drill his men regularly, ensuring unity and cohesion in his ranks. In a remarkably short time, this led to the creation of one of the finest military machines of the ancient world, tactical improvements included the latest developments in the deployment of the traditional Greek phalanx made by men such as Epaminondas of Thebes and Iphicrates of Athens. Philip II improved on these military innovators by using both Epaminondas deeper phalanx and Iphicrates combination of a spear and smaller and lighter shield. However, the Macedonian king innovated, he introduced the use of a longer spear. The Macedonian pike, the sarissa, gave its wielder many advantages both offensively and defensively, for the first time in Greek warfare, cavalry became a decisive arm in battle.
The new Macedonian army was an amalgamation of different forces and other Greeks and a wide range of mercenaries from across the Aegean and Balkans were employed by Phillip. Unfortunately, most of the historical sources for this period have been lost. As a consequence, scholarship is largely reliant on the writings of Diodorus Siculus and Arrian, both of whom lived centuries than the events they describe. If Philip II of Macedon had not been the father of Alexander the Great, he would be widely known as a first-rate military innovator and strategist. The conquests of Alexander would have been impossible without the army his father created, when Philip took over control of Macedon, it was a backward state on the fringes of the Greek world and was beset by its traditional enemies, Illyrians and Thracians. Macedonian infantry in this period consisted of poorly trained shepherds and farmers, Philips first achievement was to unify Macedon through his army. Philip took pains to keep them always under arms and either fighting or drilling and drills were made into competitive events, and the truculent Macedonians vied with each other to excel.
This reform made the train of the army very small for its size. The Companion cavalry, or Hetairoi, were the arm of the Macedonian army. Along with Thessalian cavalry contingents, the Companions—raised from landed nobility—made up the bulk of the Macedonian heavy cavalry, central Macedonia was good horse-rearing country and cavalry was prominent in Macedonian armies from early times. However, it was the reforms in organisation and tactics introduced by Philip II that transformed the Companion cavalry into a battle-winning force, the hetairoi were divided into squadrons called ilai, each 200 men strong, except for the Royal Squadron, which numbered 300. The Royal Squadron was known as the Agema - that which leads, each squadron was commanded by an ilarchēs and appears to have been raised from a particular area of Macedon
Rhomboid
Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right angled. A parallelogram with sides of length is a rhombus but not a rhomboid. A parallelogram with right angled corners is a rectangle but not a rhomboid, the term rhomboid is now more often used for a parallelepiped, a solid figure with six faces in which each face is a parallelogram and pairs of opposite faces lie in parallel planes. Some crystals are formed in three-dimensional rhomboids and this solid is sometimes called a rhombic prism. The term occurs frequently in science terminology referring to both its two- and three-dimensional meaning, and let quadrilaterals other than these be called trapezia. Heath suggests that rhomboid was a term already in use. The rhomboid has no line of symmetry, but it has symmetry of order 2. In biology, rhomboid may describe a geometric rhomboid or a bilaterally-symmetrical kite-shaped or diamond-shaped outline, in a type of arthritis called pseudogout, crystals of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate accumulate in the joint, causing inflammation.
Aspiration of the joint fluid reveals rhomboid-shaped crystals under a microscope
Archery
Archery is the sport, practice or skill of using a bow to propel arrows. The word comes from the Latin arcus, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity, a person who participates in archery is typically called an archer or a bowman, and a person who is fond of or an expert at archery is sometimes called a toxophilite. The bow and arrow seems to have invented in the Paleolithic or early Mesolithic periods. The oldest signs of its use in Europe come from the Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg and dates from the late Paleolithic, about 10, 000–9000 BC. The arrows were made of pine and consisted of a mainshaft, there are no definite earlier bows, previous pointed shafts are known, but may have been launched by spear-throwers rather than bows. The oldest bows known so far come from the Holmegård swamp in Denmark and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its predynastic origins. In the Levant, artifacts that could be arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the Natufian culture, the Khiamian and PPN A shouldered Khiam-points may well be arrowheads.
Classical civilizations, notably the Assyrians, Armenians, Parthians, Koreans, akkadians were the first to use composite bows in war according to the victory stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad. The Welsh longbow proved its worth for the first time in Continental warfare at the Battle of Crécy, in the Americas archery was widespread at European contact. Archery was highly developed in Asia, the Sanskrit term for archery, came to refer to martial arts in general. In East Asia, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea was well known for its regiments of skilled archers. Central Asian tribesmen and American Plains Indians became extremely adept at archery on horseback, lightly armoured, but highly mobile archers were excellently suited to warfare in the Central Asian steppes, and they formed a large part of armies that repeatedly conquered large areas of Eurasia. Shorter bows are more suited to use on horseback, and the bow enabled mounted archers to use powerful weapons. It is possible that barbarian peoples were responsible for introducing archery or certain types of bows to their civilized counterparts—the Xiong-nu, short bows seem to have been introduced to Japan by northeast Asian groups.
The development of firearms rendered bows obsolete in warfare, albeit efforts were made to preserve archery practice. In Wales and England, for example, the government tried to practice with the Longbow until the end of the 16th century. This was because it was recognised that the bow had been instrumental to military success during the Hundred Years War, early firearms were inferior in rate-of-fire, and were very susceptible to wet weather
Phalanx
The phalanx was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, sarissas, or similar weapons. In Greek texts, the phalanx may be deployed for battle, on the march, even camped and they marched forward as one entity. The word phalanx is derived from the Greek word phalangos, meaning finger, the term itself, as used today, does not refer to a distinctive military unit or division, but to the general formation of an armys troops. Thus a phalanx does not have a combat strength or composition but includes the total number of infantry. Many spear-armed troops historically fought in what might be termed phalanx-like formations, the word has come into use in common English to describe a group of people standing, or moving forward closely together, c. f. This article focuses on the use of the phalanx formation in Ancient Greece, the Hellenistic world. The earliest known depiction of a phalanx-like formation occurs in a Sumerian stele from the 25th century BC, here the troops seem to have been equipped with spears and large shields covering the whole body.
Ancient Egyptian infantry were known to have employed similar formations, the first usage of the term phalanx comes from Homers, used to describe hoplites fighting in an organized battle line. Homer used the term to differentiate the formation-based combat from the individual duels so often found in his poems, historians have not arrived at a consensus about the relationship between the Greek formation and these predecessors of the hoplites. Traditionally, historians date the origin of the phalanx of ancient Greece to the 8th century BC in Sparta. It is perhaps more likely that the formation was devised in the 7th century BC after the introduction of the aspis by the city of Argos and this is further evidenced by the Chigi vase, dated to 650 BC, identifying hoplites armed with aspis and panoply. Two of the basic strategies seen in earlier warfare include the principle of cohesion and this would suggest that the Greek phalanx was rather the culmination and perfection of a slowly developed idea that originated many years earlier.
As weaponry and armour advanced through the years in different city-states, the hoplite phalanx of the Archaic and Classical periods in Greece was a formation in which the hoplites would line up in ranks in close order. The hoplites would lock their shields together, and the first few ranks of soldiers would project their spears out over the first rank of shields, the phalanx therefore presented a shield wall and a mass of spear points to the enemy, making frontal assaults against it very difficult. It allowed a higher proportion of the soldiers to be engaged in combat at a given time. Battles between two phalanxes usually took place in open, flat plains where it was easier to advance, rough terrain or hilly regions would have made it difficult to maintain a steady line and would have defeated the purpose of employing the use of a phalanx. As a result, battles between Greek city-states would not take place in any location, nor would they be limited to sometimes obvious strategic points. Rather, many times, the two opposing sides would find the most suitable piece of land where the conflict could be settled, the battle ended with one of the two fighting sides fleeing to safety
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit. The use of the term varies by nationality and branch of service. Typically a battalion consists of 300 to 800 soldiers and is divided into a number of companies, a battalion is typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. In some countries the word battalion is associated with the infantry, the term was first used in Italian as battaglione no than the 16th century. It derived from the Italian word for battle, the first use of battalion in English was in the 1580s, and the first use to mean part of a regiment is from 1708. The battalion must, of course, have a source of re-supply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days, the battalion is usually part of a regiment, brigade, or group, depending on the organizational model used by that service. The bulk of a battalions companies are often homogeneous with respect to type, a battalion includes a headquarters company and some sort of combat service support, typically organized within a combat support company.
The term battalion is used in the British Army Infantry and some including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. It was formerly used in the Royal Engineers, and was used in the now defunct Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Other corps usually use the term regiment instead, an infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment. It normally has a company, support company, and three rifle companies. Each company is commanded by a major, the officer commanding, the HQ company contains signals, catering, administration, training and medical elements. The support company usually contains anti-tank, machine gun, pioneer, mechanised units usually have an attached light aid detachment of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment. A British battalion in theatre during World War II had around 845 men in it, and, as of 2012, with successive rounds of cutbacks after the war, many infantry regiments were reduced to a single battalion. A battalion group or battlegroup consists of a battalion or armoured regiment with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander.
In the Canadian Forces, most battalions are reserve units of between 100–200 soldiers that include an operationally ready, field-deployable component of approximately a half-company apiece, the nine regular force infantry battalions each contain three or four rifle companies and one or two support companies. Canadian battalions are generally commanded by lieutenant-colonels, though smaller reserve battalions may be commanded by majors, with the Dutch artillery units, the equivalent of a battalion is called an afdeling. Combat companies consist of infantry, combat engineers, or tanks, in the latter case, the unit is called an eskadron, which translates roughly to squadron
Kopis
The kopis sword was a one-handed weapon. Early examples had a length of up to 65 cm. Later Macedonian examples tended to be shorter with a length of about 48 cm. The kopis had a blade that pitched forward towards the point, the edge being concave on the part of the sword nearest the hilt. Some scholars have claimed an Etruscan origin for the sword, as such swords have been found as early as the 7th century BC in Etruria, the kopis is often compared to the contemporary Iberian falcata and the more recent, and shorter, Nepalese kukri. The word itself is a Greek feminine singular noun, Greek heavy infantry hoplites favored straight swords, but the downward curve of the kopis made it especially suited to mounted warfare. Greek art shows Persian soldiers wielding the kopis or an axe rather than the straight-bladed Persian akinakes and it has been suggested that the yatagan, used in the Balkans and Anatolia during the Ottoman Period, was a direct descendant of the kopis. Falcata Khopesh Makhaira Xiphos Iron Age sword Illustration of Kopis Illustration of Kopis in Ancient Greek Art
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, in the context of prehistory and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate Latin rex or either Greek archon or basileus. In classical European feudalism, the title of king as the ruler of a kingdom is understood as the highest rank in the order, potentially subject. In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a number of modern monarchies. The title of king is used alongside other titles for monarchs, in the West prince, archduke, duke or grand duke, in the Middle East sultan or emir, etc. Kings, like other royalty, tend to wear purple because purple was a color to wear in the past. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz, the Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas.
The English term king translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx, the Germanic term is notably different from the word for king in other Indo-European languages. It is a derivation from the term *kunjom kin by the -inga- suffix, the literal meaning is that of a scion of the kin, or perhaps son or descendant of one of noble birth. English queen translates Latin regina, it is from Old English cwen queen, noble woman, the Germanic term for wife appears to have been specialized to wife of a king, in Old Norse, the cognate kvan still mostly refers to a wife generally. Scandinavian drottning, dronning is a derivation from *druhtinaz lord. The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship, the Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms. The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, in southern Europe, the kingdom of Sicily was established following the Norman conquest of southern Italy.
The Kingdom of Sardinia was claimed as a title held by the Crown of Aragon in 1324. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Serbia was established in 1217, in eastern-central Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD1000 following the Christianisation of the Magyars. The kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia were established within the Holy Roman Empire in 1025 and 1198, in Eastern Europe, the Kievan Rus consolidated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which did not technically claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia. In northern Europe, the kingdoms of the Viking Age by the 11th century expanded into the North Sea Empire under Cnut the Great, king of Denmark, England
Skirmisher
Skirmishers are light infantry or cavalry soldiers stationed to act as a vanguard, flank guard, or rearguard, screening a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line — an irregular open formation much more out in depth and breadth than a traditional line formation. Their purpose is to harass the enemy — engaging them in light or sporadic combat in order to delay their movement, disrupt their attack. Skirmishers can be either regular army units temporarily detached to perform skirmishing, light infantry, light cavalry, and irregular units often specialize in skirmishing. Though often critical in screening the army from sudden enemy attacks. In modern times, following the obsolescence of such heavy troops, all infantry has become indistinguishable from skirmishers, and those acting as skirmishers are said to skirmish. A battle with only light, relatively indecisive combat is called a skirmish. In ancient and medieval warfare, skirmishers typically carried bows, slings, skirmishers could be effectively used to surround opposing soldiers in the absence of friendly cavalry.
Once preliminary skirmishing was over, skirmishers participated in the battle by shooting into the enemy formation. Due to their mobility, skirmishers were valuable for reconnaissance, in classical Greece, skirmishers originally had low status. Often Greek historians ignored them altogether, though Xenophon distinguished them explicitly from the statary troops and it was far cheaper to equip oneself as lightly armed as opposed to a fully armed hoplite – indeed it was not uncommon for the lightly armed to go into battle equipped with stones. Hence the low status of skirmishers reflected the low status of the sections of society who made up skirmishers. Additionally and run tactics contradicted the Greek ideal of heroism, plato gives the skirmisher a voice to advocate flight without shame, but only to denounce it as an inversion of decent values. Skirmisher infantry would gain respect in the subsequent years as their usefulness was more widely recognised. Celts did not, in general, favour ranged weapons, the exceptions tended not to include the use of skirmishers.
The Britons used the sling and javelin extensively, but for siege warfare, among the Gauls likewise, the bow was employed when defending a fixed position. The Celtic lack of skirmishers cost them dearly during the Gallic Invasion of Greece of 279 BC, in the Punic Wars, despite the Roman and Carthaginian armies different organisations, skimishers had the same role in both, to screen the main armies. The Roman army of the republican and early imperial periods frequently recruited foreign auxiliary troops to act as skirmishers to supplement the citizen Legions
Hypaspists
A hypaspist is a squire, man at arms, or shield carrier. In Homer, Deiphobos advances ὑπασπίδια or under cover of his shield, hearing this, Onesilus said to his hypaspist, a Carian of great renown in war and a valiant man. A similar usage occurs in Euripidess play Rhesus and another in his Phoenissae, xenophon was deserted by his horse in a particularly sticky situation. A hypaspist would differ from a skeuophoros in most cases because the bearer is a free warrior. The word may have had Homeric and heroic connotations that led Philip II of Macedon to use it for a military unit. This unit, known as the Hypaspistai, or hypaspists, was probably armed like hoplites rather than as phalangites in Philips Macedonian army. In battle, they were armed with the Greek aspis shield, spolas or linothorax body-armor, Hoplites helmet, dory spear. In set piece battles, the Macedonian Hypaspists were positioned on the flanks of the phalanx, in turn. Their job was to guard the flanks of the large and unwieldy pike phalanx, a soldier with an 18–22 ft. pike.
The Phalangites were not particularly agile or able to turn quickly, as such an important yet vulnerable part of the Macedonian Army, it needed protection for its main vulnerability, the flanks. Arrians phrase tous kouphotatous te kai ama euoplotatous ) has frequently been rendered as lightest armed, there has been a great deal of speculation by military historians ever since the late Hellenistic period about the elite units of Philips army. The hypaspists may have raised from the whole kingdom rather than on a cantonal basis, if so. In the Hellenistic period, hypaspists apparently continued to exist, albeit in different capacities, the name lived on in the Seleucid and Antigonid kingdoms, yet they were now seen as royal bodyguards and military administrators. Polybius mentions a hypaspist being sent by Philip V of Macedon, after his defeat at the Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, to Larisa to burn state papers. Originally consisting of 3,000 men, by the Third Macedonian War there were 5,000, most likely to accommodate their elite formation, skeuophoros Kambouris Manousos Dr, The Hypaspist Corps, One identity three units and many functions, koryvantesstudies. org
Ancient Rome
In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, politics, art, architecture, warfare, religion and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires.
Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent and unwanted.
This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
Epaminondas
Epaminondas reshaped the political map of Greece, fragmented old alliances, created new ones, and supervised the construction of entire cities. He was influential and invented and implemented several major battlefield tactics. The changes Epaminondas wrought on the Greek political order did not long outlive him, a mere twenty-seven years after his death, a recalcitrant Thebes was obliterated by Alexander the Great. The life of Epaminondas is very poorly attested in the ancient sources, one principal reason for this is the loss of Plutarchs biography of him. Some details of Epaminondass life can be found in Plutarchs Lives of Pelopidas and Agesilaus II, there is a surviving biography of Epaminondas by the Roman author Cornelius Nepos from the first century BC, in the absence of Plutarchs, that becomes a major source for Epaminondass life. The period of Greek history from 411–362 BC is primarily attested by the historian Xenophon, who idolized Sparta and its king, avoids mentioning Epaminondas wherever possible and does not even note his presence at the Battle of Leuctra.
Epaminondass role in the conflicts of the 4th century is described by Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus was writing in the 1st century BC, and is very much a secondary source. Epaminondas was born into the Theban aristocracy in the late 5th century BC, Cornelius Nepos claims that his father, had been left impoverished by his ancestors. He was educated in his childhood by Lysis of Tarentum, one of the last major Pythagorean philosophers, Epaminondas evidently excelled as a student, and was devoted to Lysis. He trained in running and wrestling, but most of all, Epaminondas evidently began serving as a soldier after adolescence, Plutarch refers to an incident involving Epaminondas that occurred during a battle at Mantinea. Epaminondas was certainly not old enough to have served at the First Battle of Mantinea which was in 418 BC and it was at this battle, regardless of exactly when and where this occurred, that a defining moment of Epaminondass early life would happen. Plutarch says that this incident firmly cemented their friendship, and Pelopidas would be Epaminondass partner in politics for the twenty years.
Epaminondas was considered the greatest warrior-statesmen of ancient Thebes by many, Diodorus does not have anything to say about the sexual orientation of Epaminondas or the Sacred Band, nor does he say anything about the following account, again from Plutarch. According to Plutarchs dramatic dialogue, Epaminondas had two lovers and Caphisodorus, the latter died with him at Mantineia in battle. They were buried together, something reserved for a husband. Epaminondas lived at a turbulent point in Greek history. Following the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC, Sparta had embarked upon an aggressively unilateralist policy towards the rest of Greece, meanwhile, had greatly increased its own power during the war and sought to gain control of the other cities of Boeotia
