Pelopidas

Pelopidas the Theban, better known to historians than to the common people. How to set forth his virtues I am in doubt; for I fear that, if I begin to unfold the matter, I shall seem not to narrate his life but to write a history; but if I touch only the chief points, I fear it may appear less clearly to those untrained in Greek letters how great a man he was. And so I shall meet both difficulties, so far as I can, and shall provide a remedy both against the surfeit and against the ignorance of my readers. Phoebidas the Lacedaemonian, when he was leading an army to Olynthus and making his march through Thebes, seized the citadel of the town, which is called the Cadmea, at the instigation of a few Thebans who, that they might the more easily resist the opposing faction, favoured the cause of the Laconians; and this he did on his own private, not on public, counsel. For this deed the Lacedaemonians removed him from the command and fined him money, yet for all that did not give the citadel back to the Thebans, because, the enmity having been taken up, they thought it better that they be held in subjection than be set free. For after the Peloponnesian War and the defeat of Athens they thought they had to do with the Thebans, and that these alone were they who would dare to stand against them. With this thought they had given the highest powers to their friends, and had partly slain, partly driven into exile, the leaders of the other faction: among whom this Pelopidas, of whom we have begun to write, driven from his country, was in banishment.

These had nearly all betaken themselves to Athens, not that they sought leisure, but that, from whatever place nearest at hand chance offered, they might thence strive to recover their country. And so, when the time seemed right for action, they jointly with those who at Thebes were of the same mind chose, for crushing their enemies and freeing the state, that day on which the chief magistrates were wont to feast together. Great enterprises have often been accomplished with no very great forces, but assuredly never has so great a power been overthrown from so slight a beginning. For twelve young men banded together out of those who had been punished with exile, although in all there were no more than a hundred who offered themselves to so great a peril. By this small number the power of the Lacedaemonians was struck down. For these at that time made war no more upon the opposing faction than upon the Spartans, who were the leading men of all Greece: whose imperial majesty, not long after, struck by the battle of Leuctra from this beginning, fell. Those twelve, then, whose leader was Pelopidas, having gone out from Athens by day, in order that they might reach Thebes as the sky grew dark, went out with hunting dogs, carrying nets, in rustic dress, that they might make their journey with the less suspicion. When they had arrived at the very time they had aimed at, they turned aside to the house of Charon, by whom both the time and the day had been appointed.

At this point I may interpose — although it is apart from my proposed subject — to what great calamity excessive confidence is wont to lead. For it at once came to the ears of the Theban magistrates that the exiles had come into the city. They, given over to wine and feasting, so far made light of it that they did not even take the trouble to inquire about so great a matter. There was added what laid open their folly still more. For a letter was brought from Athens, from Archias — one of those who presided over the sacred rites at Eleusis — to Archias, who at that time held the chief magistracy at Thebes, in which everything about their coming was set down. When this had been given to him as he was already reclining at the banquet, just as it was sealed, slipping it under his cushion, he said: 'Serious matters I put off till tomorrow.' But all of them, when night had now advanced, drunken, were slain by the exiles, with Pelopidas as leader. These things accomplished, the common people being summoned to arms and to liberty, not only those who were in the city, but also from every quarter out of the fields they came running together, drove the garrison of the Lacedaemonians from the citadel, freed their country from siege, and of the authors of the seizure of the Cadmea slew some and drove others into exile.

At this so troubled time, as we have shown above, Epaminondas, so long as there was fighting with fellow-citizens, kept quietly at home. And so this glory of having freed Thebes belongs properly to Pelopidas, while almost all the rest he shared with Epaminondas. For in the battle of Leuctra, Epaminondas being commander, Pelopidas was leader of the chosen band which first overthrew the phalanx of the Laconians. Besides, in all his perils he was at his side (as, when he assailed Sparta, he held the other wing); and, that Messene might the more quickly be restored, he set out as envoy to the Persians. In short, he was the second figure at Thebes, yet so second that he was next to Epaminondas.

He struggled too with adverse fortune. For at the outset, as we have shown, an exile he was deprived of his country; and when he wished to bring Thessaly under the power of the Thebans, and thought himself sufficiently protected by the right of an embassy — which is wont to be held sacred among all peoples — he was, together with Ismenias, seized by the tyrant Alexander of Pherae and cast into prison. This man Epaminondas recovered, pursuing Alexander in war. After that deed he could never be appeased in spirit toward the man by whom he had been outraged. And so he persuaded the Thebans to set out to the aid of Thessaly and to drive out its tyrants. When the chief command of that war had been given to him, and he had set out with his army, he did not hesitate, as soon as he caught sight of the enemy, to engage. In that battle, when he marked Alexander, fired with anger he spurred his horse against him, and, having got too far from his own men, was pierced by a shower of weapons and fell. And this befell amid a victory: for the forces of the tyrants were already giving way. For which deed all the states of Thessaly honoured the slain Pelopidas with golden crowns and bronze statues, and bestowed much land upon his children.