Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/331

DEATJI OF PELOPIDAS. $09 trophy the arms of the slain enemies. Many, refusing either tc kindle fire, or to touch their evening meal, testified their affliction by cutting off their own hair as well as the manes of their horses. The Thessalian cities vied with each other in tokens of affection- ate respect, and obtained from the Thebans permission to take the chief share in his funeral, as their lost guardian and protector. At Thebes, the emotion was no less strikingly manifested. Endeared to his countrymen first as the head of that devoted handful of ex- iles who braved every peril to rescue the city from the Lacedaemo- nians, Pelopidas had been reflected without interruption to the annual office of Boeotarch during all the years that had since elapsed 1 (378-364 B. c.). He had taken a leading part in all their strug- gles, and all their glories ; he had been foremost to cheer them in the hour of despondency ; he had lent himself, with the wisdom of a patriot and the generosity of a friend, to second the guiding ascendency of Epaminondas, and his moderation of dealing towards conquered enemies. 2 All that Thebes could do, was, to avenge the death of Pelopidas. The Theban generals, Malkitas and Diogeiton, 3 conducted a pow- 1 Diodor. xv, 81. Plutarch (Pclop. c. 34) states substantially the same. 2 Plutarch, Compar. Pelopid. and Marcell. c. 1. 8 Diodor. (xv, 78) places in one and the same year both, 1. The mari- time project of Epaminondas, including his recommendation of it, the equipment of the fleet, and the actual expedition. 2. The expedition of Pelopidas into Thessaly, with its immediate consequences. He men- tions the former of the two first, but he places both in the first year of Olym- piad 104, the year in which Timokrates was archon at Athens ; that is, from Midsummer 364 to Midsummer 363 B. c. He passes immediately from the maritime expedition into an allusion to the battle of Mantinea, which (he says) proved fatal to Epaminondas and hindered him from fol lowing up his ideas of maritime activity. The battle of Mantinea took place in June or July 362 B. c. The mari- time expedition, immediately preceding that battle, would therefore natu- rally take place in the summer of 363 B. c ; the year 364 B. c. having been occupied in the requisi te naval equipments. I incline to :hink that the march of Pelopidas into Thessaly also took place during 353 B. c., and that his death thus occurred while Epaminondas was absent on ship-board. A probable reason is thus supplied why the second ' Theban army which went to avenge Pelopidas. was commanded, not by his friend and colleague Epaminondas, tut by other generals. Had Epaminon- das been then at home, this would hardly have been. The eclipse of the sun, which both Plutarch and Diodoru.s mention tc