Pelopidas

but when Pelopidas exhorted the lamenting Pheraeans to be of good cheer, since now certainly the tyrant would meet with punishment, and when he sent a message to the tyrant himself, saying that it was absurd to torture and slay the wretched and innocent citizens day by day, while he spared him, a man most certain, as he knew, to take vengeance on him if he made his escape;

then the tyrant, amazed at his high spirit and his fearlessness, said: And why is Pelopidas in haste to die? To which Pelopidas replied: That thou mayest the sooner perish, by becoming more hateful to the gods than now. From that time the tyrant forbade those outside of his following to see the prisoner. But Thebe, who was a daughter of Jason, and Alexander’s wife, learned from the keepers of Pelopidas how courageous and noble the man was, and conceived a desire to see him and talk with him.

But when she came to him, woman that she was, she could not at once recognize the greatness of his nature in such dire misfortune, but judging from his hair and garb and maintenance that he was suffering indignities which ill befitted a man of his reputation, she burst into tears. Pelopidas, not knowing at first what manner of woman she was, was amazed; but when he understood he addressed her as daughter of Jason; for her father was a familiar friend of his. And when she said, I pity thy wife, he replied, And I thee, in that thou wearest no chains, and yet endurest Alexander.

This speech deeply moved the woman, for she was oppressed by the savage insolence of the tyrant, who, in addition to his other debaucheries, had made her youngest brother his paramour. Therefore her continued visits to Pelopidas, in which she spoke freely of her sufferings, gradually filled her with wrath and fierce hatred towards Alexander.

When the Theban generals had accomplished nothing by their invasion of Thessaly, but owing to inexperience or ill fortune had retired disgracefully, the city fined each of them ten thousand drachmas, and sent out Epaminondas with an armed force.[*](367 B.C.)

At once, then, there was a great stir among the Thessalians, who were filled with high hopes in view of the reputation of this general, and the cause of the tyrant was on the very verge of destruction; so great was the fear that fell upon his commanders and friends, and so great the inclination of his subjects to revolt, and their joy at what the future had in store, for they felt that now they should behold the tyrant under punishment.

Epaminondas, however, less solicitous for his own glory than for the safety of Pelopidas, and fearing that if confusion reigned Alexander would get desperate and turn like a wild beast upon his prisoner, dallied with the war, and taking a roundabout course, kept the tyrant in suspense by his preparations and threatened movements, thus neither encouraging his audacity and boldness, nor rousing his malignity and passion.