ourhood, 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 war