Book 9
15.5
On reaching Mantineia with his army, he was killed in the hour of victory by an Athenian.362 B.C In the painting at Athens of the battle of the cavalry the man who is killing Epaminondas is Grylus, the son of the Xenophon who took part in the expedition of Cyrus against king Artaxerxes and led the Greeks back to the sea.
15.6
On the statue of Epaminondas is an inscription in elegiac verse relating among other things that he founded Messene, and that through him the Greeks won freedom. The elegiac verses are these:—By my counsels was Sparta shorn of her glory,And holy Messene received at last her children.By the arms of Thebe was Megalopolis encircled with walls,And all Greece won independence and freedom.
16.1
Such were the claims to fame of Epaminondas. Not far away is a temple of Ammon; the image, a work of Calamis, was dedicated by Pindar, who also sent to the Ammonians of Libya a hymn to Ammon. This hymn I found still carved on a triangular slab by the side of the altar dedicated to Ammon by Ptolemy the son of Lagus. After the sanctuary of Ammon at Thebes comes what is called the bird-observatory of Teiresias, and near it is a sanctuary of Fortune, who carries the child Wealth.
