{"id":24774,"date":"2025-06-19T19:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T16:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=24774"},"modified":"2025-06-19T19:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T16:13:07","slug":"epaminondas-the-theban-universal-military-genius-according-to-j-f-c-fuller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=24774","title":{"rendered":"Epaminondas the Theban: Universal military genius according to J.F.C. Fuller"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Theban Epaminondas (418-362 BC). He was poor and unknown and his mother’s name has not been preserved. He trained in military duties, but he also acquired a great education. Thus he was freed from the superstitions that wanted natural phenomena to play a role in decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was distinguished for his rhetorical ability, but he preferred to use it sparingly, but also for his skills as a politician. He was modest and completely indifferent to money. He remained poor throughout his life and when he died from his wounds in the battle of Mantinea, he did not even have money for his burial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epaminondas’ activity begins in 378 BC when Thebes was liberated. Together with his compatriot and friend Pelopidas, they formed the Sacred Company, a select body of 300 men. K. Paparrigopoulos writes that Pelopidas was the best of the Thebans, and Epaminondas the best of the Greeks. In the battle of Leuctra against the Spartans in 371 BC, the Thebans, thanks to Epaminondas and Pelopidas, achieved a great victory against the Spartans led by their king Cleombrotus. Almost 120 years after Miltiades, Epaminondas decided to implement a new phalanx formation, completely achieving his goal and finding imitators in the following centuries. The tactic of the oblique phalanx, inspired by Epaminondas, remained immortal and can be summarized as follows: engaging the enemy everywhere with the fewest possible forces and attacking with the bulk of the forces at a decisive point in his formation. More generally, with the oblique phalanx.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The red blocks show the placement of the elite troops within each phalanx.
Top: Traditional\u00a0hoplite order of battle and advance.
Bottom: Epaminondas’s strategy at Leuctra. The strong left wing advanced more than the weaker right wing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a)<\/strong> Epaminondas applied the principle of economy of force by concentrating a large force at the decisive point. Thus, a weak but well-managed army could defeat a numerically larger but poorly managed or poorly organized army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

b)<\/strong> In order to achieve his objective, he distributed the missions to the various divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

c)<\/strong> He understood the importance of reserves, which he utilized to ensure his maneuver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

d)<\/strong> It is imperative that each commander take care of the safety of his divisions. Epaminondas achieved this by using the Sacred Company and his cavalry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epaminondas’ tactics at Lefktra demonstrated that a well-organized force under the leadership of a strong personality could lead the Greeks to domination of the entire then known world, something that Alexander the Great achieved to a large extent more than 40 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epaminondas’ oblique phalanx was used with particular success many centuries later, by Frederick II of Prussia and Napoleon the Great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epaminondas changed the form of the classical Greek phalanx. Many centuries before the principles of war and the theories of Clausewitz were formulated, he applied the combined force of their strength to the weak point of the opponent. Epaminondas went down in history for ending the hegemony of Sparta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Theban Epaminondas (418-362 BC). He was poor and unknown and his mother’s name has not been preserved. He trained in military duties, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,2845,7],"tags":[4702,7048,7049,7050],"class_list":["post-24774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-science","category-military-strategy-doctrines","category-research","tag-ancient-greece","tag-epaminondas-the-theban","tag-j-f-c-fuller","tag-military-genius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24779,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24774\/revisions\/24779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}