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PELOPIDAS (d. 364 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 71 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PELOPIDAS (d. 364 B.C.) , Theban statesman and See also:general. He was a member of a distinguished See also:family, and possessed See also:great See also:wealth which he expended on his See also:friends, while content to See also:lead the See also:life of an See also:athlete. In 385 B.C. he served in a Theban contingent sent to the support of the Spartans at See also:Mantineia, where he was saved, when dangerously wounded, by See also:Epaminondas (q.v.). Upon the seizure of the Theban citadel by the Spartans (383 or 382) he fled to See also:Athens, and took the lead in a See also:conspiracy to liberate See also:Thebes. In 379 his party surprised and killed their See also:chief See also:political opponents, and roused the See also:people against the Spartan See also:garrison, which surrendered to an See also:army gathered by Pelopidas. In this and subsequent years he was elected boeotarch, and about 375 he routed a much larger Spartan force at Tegyra (near See also:Orchomenus). This victory he owed mainly to the valour of the Sacred See also:Band, a picked See also:body of 300 See also:infantry. At the See also:battle of See also:Leuctra (371) he contributed greatly to the success of Epaminondas's new See also:tactics 'by the rapidity with which he made the Sacred Band See also:close with the Spartans. In 370 he accompanied his friend Epaminondas as boeotarch into See also:Peloponnesus. On their return both generals were unsuccessfully accused of having retained their command beyond the legal See also:term. In 369, in response to a See also:petition of the Thessalians, Pelopidas was sent with an army against See also:Alexander, See also:tyrant of Pherae.

After See also:

driving Alexander out, he passed into See also:Macedonia and arbitrated between two claimants to the See also:throne. In See also:order to secure the See also:influence of Thebes, he brought See also:home hostages, including the See also:king's See also:brother, afterwards See also:Philip II., the conqueror of See also:Greece. Next See also:year Pelopidas was again called upon to interfere in Macedonia, but, being deserted by his mercenaries, was compelled to make an agreement with See also:Ptolemaeus of Alorus. On his return through See also:Thessaly he was seized by Alexander of Pherae, and two expeditions from Thebes were needed to secure his See also:release. In 367 Pelopidas went on an See also:embassy to the See also:Persian king and induced him to prescribe a See also:settlement of Greece according to the wishes of the Thebans. In 364 he received another See also:appeal from the Thessalian towns against Alexander of Pherae. Though an See also:eclipse of the See also:sun prevented his bringing with him more than a handful of troops, he overthrew the tyrant's far See also:superior force on the See also:ridge of Cynoscephalae; but wishing to slay Alexander with his own See also:hand, he rushed forward too eagerly and was cut down by the tyrant's See also:guards. See also:Plutarch and See also:Nepos, Pelopidas; Diodorus xv. 62—81; See also:Xenophon, Hellenica, vii. T. See also Timms. (M.

O. B.

End of Article: PELOPIDAS (d. 364 B.C.)

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