Quote Originally Posted by Arjos View Post
I don't know, think the deep Theban left wing had to tire the Spartans, don't forget the cavarly was put there too...
Was summer it was hot, the Thebans could have even afforded to lose lots of men on the left, but collapsing the Spartan right meant victory, so in the end was the 300-400 hippeis against the Thebans in way...
I find that unlikely, the Thebans were heavily outnumbered in infantry (~4000), it would have been madness to adopt such "cannon fodder" tactics when facing an enemy with superior numbers and training.

The whole crux of the victory rested upon the fact that the Theban left was able to defeat the Spartan right before the weaker centre and right gave way against the more numerous and better trained Spartan soldiers opposing them.

This is why Epaminondas used the echelon formation in the first place, to keep the weaker parts of his army away from the Spartans for as long as possible. If the clash on the Spartan right had been a prolonged slogging match to grind the Spartans down, the Theban left and centre would have given way before a victory could have been achieved.

They needed a quick victory.