Dr. Roel Konijnendijk

Epaminondas says, let's just do it and be legends.

According to the tradition, yeah.

There is some very interesting evidence that some of the other Boeotarchs, some of the other Theban generals, want an equal claim to this bravery.

But in the later tradition, it's Epaminondas who puts his foot down and says, no, we're fighting.

And Pelopidas shows up late and casts the tie-breaking vote to fight.

This is the dramatic moment, the movie scene, essentially, that you can almost picture in your minds.

He shows up late, there's seven of them.

He shows up late, he's the seventh, and he casts the tie-breaking vote.

And so they fight.

And this is sort of something that generally, as we've seen, is a bad idea, fighting a Spartan army.

But it's become clear the Spartan army has become much more weakened than it was before.

Its numbers are shrinking.

It can't rely on its allies like it used to.

There's a lot of discontent in that alliance as well.

No one wants to fight for Sparta.

And so the Thebans figure out how to beat this army, which is you just got to beat the Spartans themselves.

You just got to fight them, put a stop to them, ideally kill their command structure, like just cut off the head as they put it, cut off the head of the snake.

Yeah, that is the origin.

So crush the head of the snake and then the rest of the body is useless.

That is how Epaminondas supposedly sells his plan to his troops.