"His eloquence shone most at Sparta (when he was ambassador before the battle of Leuctra), where, when the ambassadors from all the allies had met, Epaminondas, in a full assembly of the embassies, so clearly exposed the tyranny of the Lacedaemonians, that he shook their power by that speech not less than by the battle of Leuctra; for he was at that time the cause (as it afterwards appeared) that they were deprived of the support of their allies."