Book 9
8
But the Athenians, who were at that time zealously supporting the Lacedaemonians in their contest with the Thebans, had arrived in virtue of their treaty of alliance; and just as the Theban vanguard reached the temple of Poseidon, seven stades from the town, it happened that the Athenians showed themselves, by design, as if on the brow of the hill overhanging Mantinea. And when they saw them, the Mantineans who had been left behind at last ventured to man the wall and resist the attack of the Thebans. Therefore historians are justified in speaking with some dissatisfaction of these events,That is blaming Fortune or Providence. Schw. quotes Xenophon Hellen. 7, 5, 12, ἔξεστι μὲν τὸ θεῖον αἰτιᾶσθαι. when they say that the leader did everything which a good general could, but that, while conquering his enemies, Epaminondas was conquered by Fortune.
