A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

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Results of
the battle.
Ancient
World, 266 f.
264 Thebes Attempts to Gain Supremacy
ous hoplites slay,
not an inch forward did they advance
from the ground on which the collision took place. Although
the cavalry had fled before them, there was no
pursuit; not a man, horseman or hoplite, did the conquering
cavalry cut down; but like men who have suffered a
defeat, as if panic-stricken they slipped back through the
ranks of the fleeing foemen. Only the footmen fighting
amongst the cavalry and the light infantry, who had
together shared the victory of the cavalry, found their
way round to the left wing as masters of the field, but it
cost them dear; here they encountered the Athenians, and
most of them were cut down.
The effective result of these achievements was the very
opposite of that which the world at large anticipated.
Here, where well-nigh the whole of Hellas was met together
in one field, and the combatants stood rank against
rank confronted, there was no one who doubted that, in
the event of battle, the conquerors this day would rule;
and that those who lost would be their subjects. But
God so ordered it that both belligerents alike set up
trophies as claiming victory, and neither interfered with
the other in the act. Both parties alike gave back their
enemy's dead under a truce, and in right of victory; both
alike, in symbol of defeat, under a truce took back their
dead. And though both claimed to have won the day,
neither could show that thereby he had gained any accession
of territory, or state, or empire, or was better
situated than before the battle.
Uncertainty and confusion,
indeed, had gained ground, being tenfold greater
throughout the length and breath of Hellas after the battle
than before.