Pelopidas

There came also letters from the Lacedaemonians charging the Athenians not to harbour or encourage the exiles, but to expel them as men declared common enemies by the allied cities.

The Athenians, however, not only yielding to their traditional and natural instincts of humanity, but also making a grateful return for the kindness of the Thebans, who had been most ready to aid them in restoring their democracy,[*](In 403 B.C., when Thrasybulus set out from Thebes on his campaign against the Thirty Tyrants at Athens (Xenophon, Hell. ii. 4, 2).) and had passed a decree that if any Athenians marched through Boeotia against the tyrants in Athens, no Boeotian should see or hear them, did no harm to the Thebans in their city.

But Pelopidas, although he was one of the youngest of the exiles kept inciting each man of them privately, and when they met together pleaded before them that it was neither right nor honourable for them to suffer their native city to be garrisoned and enslaved, and, content with mere life and safety, to hang upon the decrees of the Athenians, and to be always cringing and paying court to such orators as could persuade the people;

nay, they must risk their lives for the highest good, and take Thrasybulus and his bold valour for their example, in order that, as he once sallied forth from Thebes[*](In 403 B.C., when Thrasybulus set out from Thebes on his campaign against the Thirty Tyrants at Athens (Xenophon, Hell. ii. 4, 2).) and overthrew the tyrants in Athens, so they in their turn might go forth from Athens and liberate Thebes. When, therefore, they had been persuaded by his appeals, they sent secretly to the friends they had left in Thebes, and told them what they purposed.

These approved their plan; and Charon, a man of the highest distinction, agreed to put his house at their disposal, while Phillidas contrived to have himself appointed secretary to Archias and Philip, the polemarchs. Epaminondas,[*](There is no mention either of Epaminondas or Pelopidas in Xenophon’s account of these matters (Hell. v. 4, 1-12) and his story differs in many details from that of Plutarch.) too, had long since filled the minds of the Theban youth with high thoughts; for he kept urging them in the gymnastic schools to try the Lacedaemonians in wrestling, and when he saw them elated with victory and mastery, he would chide them, telling them they ought rather to be ashamed, since their cowardice made them the slaves of the men whom they so far surpassed in bodily powers.