[Picture: Decorative chapter heading]
By the peace of Antaleidas things had been so settled that the Spartans
had the chief power over Greece, and they used it in their proud, harsh
way. In the year 387 they called the Thebans to assist in besieging the
city of Mantinea, in a valley between Argos and Arcadia. The Mantineans
sallied out, and there was a battle, in which they were defeated; but in
the course of it a Theban youth of a rich and noble family, named
Pelopidas, was surrounded by enemies. He fought desperately, and only
fell at last under seven wounds just as another Theban, a little older,
named Epaminondas, broke into his rescue, and fought over him until the
Spartans made in and bore them off, but not till Epaminondas had likewise
been badly wounded. He was the son of a poor but noble father, said to
be descended from one of the men who had sprung from the dragon's teeth;
and he had been well taught, and was an earnest philosopher of the
Pythagorean school, striving to the utmost of his power to live a good
and virtuous life. A close friendship grew up between him and Pelopidas,
though the one loved books, and the other, dogs and horses; but Pelopidas
tried to be as upright and noble as his friend, and, though a very rich
man, lived as hardily and sparingly as did Epaminondas, using his wealth
to help the poor. When some foolish friends asked him why he did not use
his riches for his own ease and pomp, he laughed at them, and, pointing
to a helpless cripple, said that riches were only useful to a man like
that.
Every high-spirited Theban hated the power that Sparta had taken over
their free state, and wanted to shake it off; but some of those who were
bribed by Sparta sent word of their intentions to a Spartan general in
the neighbourhood, whereupon he came down on Thebes in the middle of a
festival, seized the citadel called the Cadmea, put in a Spartan
garrison, and drove 300 of the best Thebans into exile. Pelopidas was
among them, while Epaminondas was thought of only as a poor student, and
was unnoticed; but he went quietly on advising the Theban young men to
share the warlike exercises of the Spartans in the Cadmea, so as to get
themselves trained to arms in case there should be a chance of fighting
for their freedom. In the fourth year of the exile, Pelopidas wrote to
beg his friend to join in a plot by which some of the banished were to
creep into the city, go to a banquet that was to be given to the chief
friends of the Spartans disguised as women, kill them, proclaim liberty,
raise the citizens, and expel the Spartans. But Epaminondas would have
nothing to do with a scheme that involved falsehood and treachery,
however much he longed to see his country free. But on a dark, winter
evening, Pelopidas and eleven more young exiles came one by one into
Thebes, in the disguise of hunters, and met at the house of the friend
who was going to give the feast. They were there dressed in robes and
veils, and in the height of the mirth the host brought them in, and they
fell upon the half-tipsy guests and slew them, while Pelopidas had gone
to the house of the most brave and sober among them, challenged him, and
killed him in fair fight. Then they shouted, "Freedom! Down with the
foe!" The citizens rose, Epaminondas among the first; the rest of the
exiles marched in at daybreak, and the Cadmea was besieged until the
Spartans were obliged to march out, and Thebes was left to its own
government by Boeotarchs, or rulers of Boeotia, for a year at a time, of
whom Pelopidas was at once chosen to be one.
Of course there was a war, in which the Thebans were helped by Athens,
but more from hatred to Sparta than love to Thebes. After six years
there was a conference to arrange for a peace, and Epaminondas, who was
then Boeotarch, spoke so well as to amaze all hearers. Agesilaus
demanded that the Thebans should only make terms for themselves, and give
up the rest of Boeotia, and Epaminondas would not consent unless in like
manner Sparta gave up the rule over the other places in Laconia. The
Athenians would not stand by the Thebans, and all the allies made peace,
so that Thebes was left alone to resist Sparta, and Epaminondas had to
hurry home to warn her to defend herself.
The only thing in favour of Thebes was that Agesilaus' lame leg had
become so diseased that he could not for five years go out to war; but
the other king, Cleombrotus, was at the head of 11,000 men marching into
Boeotia, and Epaminondas could only get together 6000, with whom he met
them at Leuctra. No one doubted how the battle would end, for the
Spartans had never yet been beaten, even by the Athenians, when they had
the larger numbers, and, besides, the quiet scholar Epaminondas had never
been thought of as a captain. The omens went against the Thebans, but he
said he knew no token that ought to forbid a man from fighting for his
country. Pelopidas commanded the horsemen, and Epaminondas drew up his
troop in a column fifty men deep, with which he dashed at the middle of
the Spartan army, which was only three lines deep, and Pelopidas' cavalry
hovered about to cut them down when they were broken. The plan succeeded
perfectly. Cleombrotus was carried dying from the field, and Epaminondas
had won the most difficult victory ever yet gained by a Greek. So far
from being uplifted by it, all he said was how glad he was that his old
father and mother would be pleased. The victory had made Thebes the most
powerful city in Greece, and he was the leading man in Thebes for some
time; but he had enemies, who thought him too gentle with their foes,
whether men or cities, and one year, in the absence of Pelopidas, they
chose him to be inspector of the cleanliness of the streets, thinking to
put a slur on him; but he fulfilled the duties of it so perfectly that he
made the office itself an honourable one.
Pelopidas was soon after sent on a message to Alexander, the savage
tyrant of Thessaly, who seized him and put him in chains in a dismal
dungeon. The Theban army marched to deliver him, Epaminondas among them
as a common soldier; but the two Boeotarchs in command managed so ill
that they were beset by the Thessalian horsemen and forced to turn back.
In the retreat they were half-starved, and fell into such danger and
distress, that all cried out for Epaminondas to lead them, and he brought
them out safely. The next year he was chosen Boeotarch, again attacked
Thessaly, and, by the mere dread of his name, made the tyrant yield up
Pelopidas, and beg for a truce. Pelopidas brought home such horrible
accounts of the cruelties of Alexander, that as soon as the truce was
over, 7000 men, with him at their head, invaded Thessaly, and won the
battle of Cynocephalae, or the Dogs' Heads. Here Pelopidas was killed,
to the intense grief of the army, who cut their hair and their horses'
manes and tails, lighted no fire, and tasted no food on that sad night
after their victory, and great was the mourning at Thebes for the brave
and upright man who had been thirteen times Boeotarch. Epaminondas was
at sea with the fleet he had persuaded the Thebans to raise; but the next
year he was sent into the Peloponnesus to defend the allies there against
the Spartans. He had almost taken the city itself, when the army
hastened back to defend it, under the command of Agesilaus, who had
recovered and taken the field again.
Close to Mantinea, where Epaminondas had fought his first battle, he had
to fight again with the only general who had as yet a fame higher than
his--namely, Agesilaus--and Xenophon was living near enough to watch the
battle. It was a long, fiercely-fought combat, but at last the Spartans
began to give way and broke their ranks, still, however, flinging
javelins, one of which struck Epaminondas full in the breast, and broke
as he fell, leaving a long piece of the shaft fixed in the wound. His
friends carried him away up the hill-side, where he found breath to ask
whether his shield were safe, and when it was held up to him, he looked
down on the Spartans in full flight, and knew he had won the day. He was
in great pain, and he was told that to draw out the spear would probably
kill him at once. He said, therefore, that he must wait till he could
speak to the two next in command; and when he was told that they were
both slain, he said, "Then you must make peace," for he knew no one was
left able to contend against Agesilaus. As his friends wept, he said,
"This day is not the end of my life, but the beginning of my happiness
and completion of my glory;" and when they bewailed that he had no child,
he said, "Leuctra and Mantinea are daughters enough to keep my name
alive." Then, as those who stood round faltered, unable to resolve to
draw out the dart, he pulled it out himself with a firm hand, and the
rush of blood that followed ended one of the most beautiful lives ever
spent by one who was a law unto himself. He was buried where he died,
and a pillar was raised over the spot bearing the figure of a dragon, in
memory of his supposed dragon lineage.
[Picture: Thessalonica]