Pagondas: Encyclopedia II - Pagondas - Delium

Pagondas - Delium

At the battle, the Boeotians faced off against a group of Athenians led by Hippocrates. The Boeotians charged down a hill at the Athenian army, while the Athenians, having been surprised by their sudden appearance, got themselves together and charged up the hill. On the Boeotian left were men from the town of Thespiae. On their right, Pagondas had placed his own Thebans. Remarkably though, he chose to stack his Thebans twenty-five shields deep, rather than the standard eight, to give them more pushing-power and punch. This marks the first recorded instance of any Greek general ever changing the standard depth of a hoplite unit.

This novel technique worked wonders, as the Thebans rapidly broke through the Athenian left, and moved to encircle the rest of the Athenian army. However, the Thespians on the Boeotian left were up against the Athenians' crack troops, and were themselves quickly overwhelmed, surrounded, and killed almost to a man. Sensing that his victorious Thebans could not outflank the enemy before the Athenian right broke into his rear, Pagondas chose to do something utterly unprecedented in the annals of Greek warfare. He called in a reserve force (the mere creation of which was itself unprecedented) of several hundred cavaliers to support the now decimated Thespians. The Athenians on the right were stunned by this -- so much so that they apparently fell into a confusion and turned tail. This was perhaps fortunate for Pagondas's cavaliers, as Greek cavalry, made up of light-armed aristocrats without saddles or stirrups, was no match for a company of hoplites. Nevertheless, the use of the cavalry reserve broke the Athenian right and, because the Thebans had by now moved into the Athenian rear, caused a general Athenian rout.

Pagondas's victory at Delium helped guarantee Boeotian security, and prevented further Athenian incursions into their territory for the remainder of the Peloponnesian War.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Delium", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki