Epaminondas
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Epaminondas. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an ancient Greek hero, who, for a time, raised his country, Thebes, to the summit of power and prosperity. He was born about 418 b. c. He led in the struggle during which Spartan supremacy in Greece was destroyed, and the supremacy of Thebes temporarily secured. Four times he successfully invaded the Peloponnesus, at the head of the Thebans, but after his death Thebes soon sank to her former secondary condition. He was distinguished for the friendship subsisting between him and Pelopidas, with whom he served in the Spartan Spa campaign 385 B. c. His virtues have been praised by both Xenophon and Plutarch. He was killed at the battle of Mantineia 362 b. c. ÉPÉE (e-pā'), CHARLES MICHEL, ABBÉ DE L', instructor of the deaf and dumb; born in Versailles, France, Nov. 25, 1712. Taking orders, he became a preacher and canon at Troyes, but later ÉPERNAY lived in retirement in Paris. In 1765 he first began to occupy himself with the education of two deaf and dumb sisters; and invented a language of signs, by which persons thus afflicted might be enabled to hold intercourse with their fellow-creatures. At his own expense he founded an institution for the deaf and dumb, which was first publicly examined things the fate of NESTORIUS (q. v.), in 1771, and from 1778 received an annual subsidy. He died in 1789. sement, in the department of the Marne, on both banks of the river Marne, about 12 miles S. from the city of Rheims. It is the center of a rich champagne wine producing district. Important railroad shops are located there. The population before the World War was about 21,- 000. It was captured by the Germans during the first German advance toward Paris, after the beginning of military operations, in August, 1914, and held by them until, driven back during the battles of the Marne, their lines were established from ten to fifteen miles to the northward.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
e-pam-i-non'das (418-362 B. C.), a famous Greek general. He was a native of Thebes,--the greatest statesman and military genius that city ever produced. By his military genius he enabled Thebes to set aside Sparta, as Sparta had set aside Athens. The period of Theban supremacy in Grecian affairs began with the battle of Leuctra in 371 B. C. The flower of the Spartan army had marched on Thebes--it matters little what the immediate pretext might be. The Spartans were drawn up as usual in battle array, eight or twelve men deep. Epaminondas hit upon the plan of massing his forces, fifty men deep, opposite the wing in which the king and the choicest soldiers of the Spartans were arrayed. A thin line of Thebans threatened the rest of the Spartan front, but came slowly into action. The Spartan wing was crushed by the heavy attack. The king and 400 men were slain, and the day was lost to the Spartans and the supremacy of Greece was lost to Sparta. In 362 the same military tactics won for Thebes the victory of Mantinea, but Epaminondas fell on the field of battle, pierced with a javelin. He was told that he would die as soon as the javelin was extracted. Hearing that his army had won a complete victory, he drew out the javelin with his own hand, exclaiming, "I have lived long enough." A monument was erected to mark the spot. See Thebes
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A famous Theban descended from the ancient kings of Boeotia . At the head of the Theban armies he defeated the Spartans at the celebrated battle of Leuctra about в. c. 370. He was killed in battle in the forty-eighth year of his age.