Epaminondas

(born c. 410, Thebes—died 362 BC, Mantineia) Theban statesman, tactician, and leader. He defeated the Spartans at Leuctra in 371, using a new strategy that attacked the opponent's strongest point first with overwhelming power, and made Thebes the most powerful state in Greece. He led four more successful expeditions into the Peloponnese. In 370–369 he freed the Messenian helots from Spartan enslavement. In 362, at the head of a large allied force, he defeated Sparta, Athens, and their allies at Mantineia, but he was mortally wounded.

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