Cornelius Nepos
While pressing forward with the troops at Mantinea, Epaminondas was hit in the chest by a spear (or, in some accounts, a sword or large knife). Cornelius Nepos suggests the Spartans were deliberately aiming at Epaminondas in the hope of killing him, and thereby demoralizing the Thebans. The enemy who struck the killing blow was variously identified as Anticrates, Machaerion, or Gryllus, son of Xenophon.