[502] Thucyd. v, 66.
[503] Xen. Hellen. vii, 4, 21.
[504] Xen. Hellen. vii, 4, 12; Diodor. xv, 64.
[505] The exact number of eighty-five days, given by Diodorus (xv. 67), seems to show that he had copied literally from Ephorus or some other older author.
Plutarch, in one place (Agesil. c. 32), mentions “three entire months,” which differs little from eighty-five days. He expresses himself as if Epaminondas spent all this time in ravaging Laconia. Yet again, in the Apophth. Reg. p. 194 B. (compare Ælian, V. H. xiii, 42), and in the life of Pelopidas (c. 25), Plutarch states, that Epaminondas and his colleagues held the command four whole months over and above the legal time, being engaged in their operations in Laconia and Messenia. This seems to me the more probable interpretation of the case; for the operations seem too large to have been accomplished in either three or four months.
[506] See a remarkable passage in Plutarch—An Seni sit gerenda Respublica (c. 8, p. 788 A.).
[507] Pausan. viii, 27, 2. Pammenes is said to have been an earnest friend of Epaminondas, but of older political standing; to whom Epaminondas partly owed his rise (Plutarch, Reip. Ger. Præcep. p. 805 F.).
Pausanias places the foundation of Megalopolis in the same Olympic year as the battle of Leuktra, and a few months after that battle, during the archonship of Phrasikleides at Athens; that is, between Midsummer 371 and Midsummer 370 B.C. (Pausan. viii, 27, 6). He places the foundation of Messênê in the next Olympic year, under the archonship of Dyskinêtus at Athens; that is, between Midsummer 370 and Midsummer 369 B.C. (iv, 27, 5).
The foundation of Megalopolis would probably be understood to date from the initial determination taken by the assembled Arcadians, soon after the revolution at Tegea, to found a Pan-Arcadian city and federative league. This was probably taken before Midsummer 370 B.C., and the date of Pausanias would thus be correct.
The foundation of Messênê would doubtless take its æra from the expedition of Epaminondas,—between November and March 370-369 B.C. which would be during the archonship of Dyskinêtus at Athens, as Pausanias affirms.