What I say will be made plainer by the instance I am about to adduce, as, for example, in the first place, from what happened to Ephorus in certain parts of his history. Ephorus seems to me in dealing with war to have a certain notion of naval warfare, but he is entirely in the dark about battles on land.
When, therefore, we study attentively his accounts of the naval battles near <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cyprus&groupId=119&placeId=356">Cyprus</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cnidus&groupId=481&placeId=902">Cnidus</a> in which the Persian king\'s commanders were engaged with Euagoras of Salamis, and on the second occasion with the Lacedaemonians, we are compelled to admire this writer for his descriptive power and knowledge of tactics, and we carry away much information useful for similar circumstances.
But when he describes the battle of Leuctra between the Thebans and Lacedaemonians, or that at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mantinea&groupId=731&placeId=1339">Mantinea</a> between the same peoples, the battle in which Epaminondas lost his life, if we pay attention to every detail and look at the former and reformation of the armies during the actual battle, he provokes out laughter and seems perfectly inexperienced in such things and never to have seen a battle.
It is true that the battle of Leuctra, a special affair in which only one part of the army was engaged, does not make the writer\'s ignorance very conspicuous, but while the battle of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mantinea&groupId=731&placeId=1339">Mantinea</a> has the appearance of being described with much detail and military science, the description is quite imaginary, and the battle was not in the least understood by the writer.
This becomes evident if we get a correct idea of the ground and then number the movements he describes as being carried out on it.
The same is the case with Theopompus,
and more especially with Timaeus of whom we are now speaking. For where they give a summary account of such matters, their errors escape notice, but when they wish to describe and point out the nature of any detailed movement they are both seen to be exactly like Ephorus.
Walbank Commentary