Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/501

P E L P E L 479 remained till his death, assisting the marchesa in her charities, and writing chiefly upon religious themes. Of these works the best known is the Dei Doveri d?cjli Uomini, a series of trite maxims which do honour to his piety rather than to his critical judgment. A fragmentary biography of the marchesa by Pellico was published in Italian and English after her death. He died 31st January 1854, and was buried in the Campo Santo at Turin. His writings, whether in prose or verse, are chaste and graceful, but defective in virility and breadth of thought, and his tragedies display neither the insight into character nor the constructive power of a great dramatist. It is in the simple narrative and naive egotism of Le Mie Prvjioni that he has established his strongest claim to remembrance, winning fame by his misfortunes rather than by his genius. Cf. Piero Maroncelli, Addizioni (die Mie Prigioni,^ Paris, 1834 ; the biographies by Latour ; Gabriele Ros.selli ; Didier, Revue des Deux Mondes, September, 1842 ; De Lomenie, Galerie des Contemp. Illustr., iv., 1842; Chiala, Turin, 1852; Nollet-Fabert, 1854; Giorgio Briano, 1854 ; Bourdon, 1868 ; and the life of the Mar chesa di Barolo. PELOPIDAS, a distinguished Greek general, who, in conjunction with Epaminondas, raised his native city Thebes to a pitch of power such as she never attained to before or afterwards. He was the son of Hippoclus and member of an illustrious Theban family. The large property to which lie succeeded in his youth, and which he seems to have in creased by a brilliant marriage, was liberally employed by him in the relief of the destitute. When he could not persuade his friend Epaminondas to share his wealth, he imitated that great man in the stern simplicity and fru gality of his life and in his cheerful endurance of hard ships. Though his taste for hunting and gymnastics, and his fiery temper, contrasted with the studious habits and the "gentle and majestic patience" of his friend, no one appreciated better than Pelopidas the greatness of Epami nondas, to whom, if inferior as a general and a statesman, he was equal in romantic courage and unselfish devotion to his fatherland. Their friendship continued unbroken till death. It was cemented by a battle in which Epami nondas saved the life of Pelopidas. When the Spartans under Phoebidas seized the Cadmea or citadel of Thebes (summer of 383 or 382 B.C.), Pelopidas, as a member of the democratic club which was opposed to the Spartans, was forced to flee. Along with other exiles he found a refuge at Athens. Epaminondas, protected from suspicion by his poverty and his studies, was suffered to remain in Thebes. Though a very young man, Pelopidas took a lead ing part in persuading his fellow -exiles to strike a blow for the liberation of Thebes. Having concerted a plan with their friends in Thebes, Pelopidas, with a few com panions, entered the city in disguise, surprised and slew the magistrates favourable to Sparta, and roused the people to attack the Spartan garrison in the citadel. But the Spartans capitulated and marched out. This happened in the early winter of 379. Pelopidas and two others of the liberators were elected " boeotarchs," or chief magistrates of Boeotia, an office which had been in abeyance for some years. Henceforward to the end of his life Pelopidas was annually elected to one of the chief offices of the state. The treacherous attempt made soon afterwards by the Spartan Sphodrias to seize the Piraeus was said, with little probability, to have been instigated by Pelopidas in order to embroil Sparta with Athens. The liberation of Thebes Avas followed by some years of desultory warfare with Sparta. At Tanagra, however, Pelopidas defeated the enemy and slew the Spartan governor. Still more brilliant was the victory gained by him at Tegyra over a numerically superior force of two Spartan divisions. His success was due chiefly to the disciplined valour of the Sacred Band, a picked regiment of 300 men, whom Pelopidas led to glory on many a bloody field. The battle of Tegyra, as the first occasion on which the Spartans had ever been worsted by an inferior force, made a deep impression on Greece. At the great battle of Leuctra (July 371), which permanently crippled the power of Sparta, Pelopidas and the Sacred Band were again conspicuous. Pelopidas was one of the generals in command of the Theban army which invaded the Peloponnesus in 370-369, and he joined with Epaminondas in persuading their colleagues to prosecute the campaign even after the expiry of their year of office. For this the two friends were tried for their life, but acquitted. Soon afterwards (apparently in 369), in response to a petition of the Thessalians, Pelopidas was despatched with an army to Thessaly against Alexander, tyrant of Pherae. After occupying Larissa and freeing the Thessalians from the oppression of the tyrant, Pelopidas marched into Macedonia, where, at the request of the belli gerents, he acted as arbitrator between Alexander king of Macedonia and the pretender Ptolemceus. Having con cluded an alliance with the Macedonian king, he brought back to Thebes, amongst other hostages, the youthful Philip, brother of the king and afterwards father of Alex ander the Great. In the following year (368), Pelopidas returned to Thessaly as ambassador and without an army. Learning that Ptolemaeus had killed Alexander of Mace donia and seized the throne, he collected a body of mer cenaries and marched against him. Ptolemaeus induced the troops of Pelopidas to desert their leader, but he was too prudent to press his advantage, and agreed to act as regent for the brothers of the late king and to be an ally of Thebes. On his return from Macedonia Pelopidas was seized and detained by Alexander of Pherae. From this captivity, in which his scornful bearing excited the wonder of his captor, he was released by a Theban force under Epaminondas. By the exertions of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, Thebes had by this time become the most powerful state in Greece ; and that she might be formally recognized as such Pelopidas was sent as ambassador (367) to the Persian court. Favourably impressed by the renown and still more by the personal character of the envoy, the Persian king, Artaxerxes, loaded him with marks of honour and ratified all his proposals. These were, that Messene should be independent, that Athens should lay up her warships, and that any city which declined to follow the leadership of Thebes should be treated as an enemy by Persia. The purpose of the treaty, to strengthen Thebes by weakening Athens and Sparta, was obvious. It found no favour with the Greek states and remained a dead letter. In 364 the Thessalian towns once more appealed to Pelopidas for help against their old enemy Alexander of Phene. Disregarding an ominous eclipse of the sun, Pelopidas pushed on with a handful of troops, leaving the main body to follow. At the heights of Cynoscephalae, near Pharsalus, he came up with the tyrant Alexander at the head of a much superior force. The valour of Pelopidas secured another victory, but it was his last, catching sight of his hated foe, he rushed on him single-handed and fell covered with wounds. The Thes salians, in whose cause he died, requested and received the honour of carrying the hero to his last home, and the crowns, trophies, and golden arms by which the coffin was surrounded bore witness to the love and sorrow of a whole people. His friend did not long survive him. He too was to die fighting his country s battles in a foreign land. The pre-eminence of Thebes was the work of these two men alone, and with them it passed away. Our chief authority is Plutarch s Life of Pelopidas. Xenophon was a contemporary, and his history covers the whole period of the life of Pelopidas, but, with his usual malignity to the enemies of