13.6
In Crete he waged war in the service of the Gortynians; not the straightforward and honourable warfare of a Peloponnesian and Arcadian, but one in which he adopted the Cretan practices, and turning their tricks and wiles and stolen marches and ambuscades against themselves, speedily showed them that they were children opposing foolish and vain mischievousness to genuine military experience.
14.1
Having thus won admiration, and having come back to Peloponnesus with a brilliant reputation from his exploits in Crete, he found that Philip had been defeated and subdued by Titus Flamininus,In the battle of Cynoscephalae, 197 B.C. See the Flamininus, xiii. and that the Achaeans and the Romans were waging war upon Nabis. He was at once chosen general against Nabis, and by hazarding the issue on a naval battle would seem to have fared as Epaminondas once did, since he fought on the sea in a manner which fell far short of his great reputation.
14.2
Epaminondas, however, as some say, was reluctant to give his fellow-citizens a taste of the advantages accruing from naval superiority, in order that they might not surprise him by becoming, instead of steadfast hoplites, to use Plato’s words, Laws, iv. p. 706. Cf. the Themistocles, iv. 3. degenerate mariners; and therefore he purposely came back from Asia and the islands without achieving anythingIn 364 B.C., two years before his death, Epaminondas successfully inaugurated a naval policy for Thebes, which enabled her to cope with Athens on the sea.
