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The Trial of Epaminondas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. Cary
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Extract

The story of Epaminondas' trial has come down to us in two divergent traditions, which differ as to the occasion, the ground, and the result of the action. One group of authors, of whom Plutarch may be taken as the chief representative, gives the following data:

(1) The trial took place after Epaminondas' first campaign in Peloponnesus— i.e. in spring 369 b.c.

(2) The charge preferred against Epaminondas was that he had outstayed his term of office as boeotarch.

(3) The trial resulted in his acquittal.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 3-4 , July 1924 , pp. 182 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1924

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References

page 182 note 1 Pelopidas, chs. 24–5. The same story is given more briefly in Pausanias IX. 14. 5–7, and with rhetorical enlargements in Nepos, Epaminondas, chs. 7–8.

page 182 note 2 XV. 72.

page 182 note 3 History of Greece (1903 ed.), VIII., pp. 227–9.

page 182 note 4 Geschichte der spartanischen und thebanischen Hegemonie, pp. 181–2.

page 182 note 5 History of Greece III., p. 109.

page 182 note 6 Rheinisches Museum, 1900, pp. 460–475.

page 182 note 7 A new chronology for 370–364 has been proposed by Niese, (Hermes, 1904, pp. 84–132)Google Scholar, according to which Epaminondas' second expedition into Peloponnesus did not befall until 368. But Niese's system creates more difficulties than it dispels (see Beloch, , Griechische Geschichte, 2nd ed., Vol. III., Pt. 2, pp. 238 sqq.)Google Scholar.

page 182 note 8 Strictly speaking, at the winter solstice.

page 182 note 9 Geschichte des Altertums V., pp. 436–7.

page 182 note 10 History of Greece, p. 608.

page 182 note 11 Op. cit. III. 1, p. 181; III. 2, pp. 247–250.

page 183 note 1 On this point Plutarch and Diodorus are agreed.

page 183 note 2 Xenophon, , Hellenica VI. 5. 30Google Scholar.

page 183 note 3 Ibid. I. 7. 1. The trial of Pericles in 430 was on a different footing, for Pericles was convicted and suffered τιμα. In this instance a suffectio almost certainly took place.

page 184 note 1 Nepos and Pausanias state that the court acquitted Epaminondas without troubling to vote on him. If this is anything more than a rhetorical touch, it may be explained by the fact that Pelopidas' previous acquittal had established a precedent which none could disregard.

page 184 note 2 Col. XII., l. 27.