[48]
Furthermore, they were obliged to look on while all the Peloponnesians, who formerly had followed the lead of Lacedaemon against the rest of the world, united with the Thebans and invaded their territory; and against these the Lacedaemonians were compelled to risk battle, not in the country to save the crops, but in the heart of the city,1 before the very seat of their government, to save their wives and children—a crisis in which defeat meant instant destruction,
1 Epaminondas （see 44 and note） actually entered Sparta. Xen. Hell. 7.5.11.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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