We are fully justified, I think, on this occasion in noting with admiration the high courage and determined spirit which both Romans and Carthaginians displayed in the war.
To take a somewhat similar instance, Epaminondas of Thebes is universally admired for his conduct in the following circumstances. On reaching <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> with the allies, and discovering that the Lacedaemonians had arrived at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mantinea&groupId=731&placeId=1339">Mantinea</a> in full strength and had collected their allies there with the object of giving battle to the Thebans,
he ordered his troops to take their supper at an early hour, and a little after nightfall led them out as if he was anxious to occupy in time some favourable ground for the battle.
Having conveyed this impression to people in general he advanced and marched straight on <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, and reaching that city in about the third hour of the day took it by surprise, and finding no one there to defend it forced his way as far as the market-place, occupying all that part of the town which faces the river.
A mischance however occurred, a deserter having escaped in the night to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mantinea&groupId=731&placeId=1339">Mantinea</a> and informed King Agesilaus of the facts, so that upon the Spartans coming up to help just as the city was being occupied,
Epaminondas was disappointed of his hope, but after breakfasting on the banks of the Eurotas, and refreshing his troops after their hard march, he marched back again by the same road,
reckoning that since the Lacedaemonians and their allies had come to the help of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mantinea&groupId=731&placeId=1339">Mantinea</a> would now be left without defenders,
as indeed was the case. Exhorting the Thebans, therefore, to exert themselves, and marching rapidly all night, he reached <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mantinea&groupId=731&placeId=1339">Mantinea</a> about midday, finding it with scarcely a soul to defend it.
But just at this time the Athenians, who were anxious to take part in the battle against the Thebans, arrived to help the Lacedaemonians, as stipulated in their treaty of alliance.
So at the very time that the leading column of the Thebans had reached the temple of Poseidon, which is at seven stades distance from the town, the Athenians happened as if by design to appear on the hill above <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mantinea&groupId=731&placeId=1339">Mantinea</a>.
When the few Mantineans who were left in the town saw the Athenians, they just managed to pluck up enough courage to man the wall and keep off the assault of the Thebans.
Writers, therefore, very properly apportion the blame for the ill-success of these operations, when they tell us that the commander di all that behoved a good general, and that Epaminondas here overcame his enemies but was worsted by Fortune.
Walbank Commentary