 Epaminondas had the larger army, 30,000 strong infantry and 3,000 cavalry, whilst his opponents numbered 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry.Xenophon says that, having decided to fight, Epaminondas arranged the army into battle order, and then marched it in a column "parallel" to the Mantinean lines, so that it appeared that the army was marching elsewhere, and would not fight that day.Having reached a certain point in the march, he then had the army down arms, so it appeared they getting ready to camp.