"This was a soul of a rich composition: he married goodness and humanity, nay, even the tenderest and most delicate in the whole school of philosophy, to the roughest and most violent human actions. Was it nature or art that had intenerated that great courage of his, so full, so obstinate against pain and death and poverty, to such an extreme degree of sweetness and compassion? Dreadful in arms and blood, he overran and subdued a nation invincible by all others but by him alone; and yet in the heat of an encounter, could turn aside from his friend and guest. Certainly he was fit to command in war who could so rein himself with the curb of good nature, in the height and heat of his fury, a fury inflamed and foaming with blood and slaughter. ‘Tis a miracle to be able to mix any image of justice with such violent actions: and it was only possible for such a steadfastness of mind as that of Epaminondas therein to mix sweetness and the facility of the gentlest manners and purest innocence."
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Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book III, Chapter I, Charles Cotton translation
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Epaminondas
(Ἐπαμεινώνδας; circa 419/411–362 BC) was a Greek general and statesman of the 4th century BC who transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of , leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a pre-eminent position in Greek politics called the . He broke Spartan military power at the and liberated the Messenian .
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