n her to defend herself.

The only thing in favour of Thebes was that Agesilaus' lame leg had
become so diseased that he could not for five years go out to war; but
the other king, Cleombrotus, was at the head of 11,000 men marching into
Boeotia, and Epaminondas could only get together 6000, with whom he met
them at Leuctra. No one doubted how the battle would end, for the
Spartans had never yet been beaten, even by the Athenians, when they had
the larger numbers, and, besides, the quiet scholar Epaminondas had never
been thought of as a captain. The omens went against the Thebans, but he
said he knew no token that ought to forbid a man from fighting for his
country. Pelopidas commanded the horsemen, and Epaminondas drew up his
troop in a column fifty men deep, with which he dashed at the middle of
the Spartan army, which was only three lines deep, and Pelopidas' cavalry
hovered about to cut them down when they were broken. The plan succeeded
perfectly. Cleombrotus was carried dying from the field, and Epaminondas
had won the most difficult victory ever yet gained by a Greek. So far
from being uplifted by it, all he said was how glad he was that his old
father and mother would be pleased. The victory had made Thebes the most
powerful city in Greece, and he was the leading man in Thebes for some
time; but he had enemies, who thought him too gentle with their foes,
whether men or cities, and one year, in the absence of Pelopidas, they
chose him to be inspector of the cleanliness of the streets, thinking to
put a slur on him; but he fulfilled the duties of it so perfectly that he
made the office itself an honourable one.

Pelopidas was soon after sent on a message to Alexander, the savage
tyrant of Thessaly, who seized him and put him in chains in a dismal
dungeon. The Theban army marched to deliver him, Epaminondas among them
as a common soldier; but the two Boeotarchs in command managed so ill
that they were beset by the Thessalian horsemen and forced to turn back.
In the retreat they were half-starved, and fell into such danger and
distress, that all cried out for Epaminondas to lead them, and he brought
them out safely. The next year he was chosen Boeotarch, again attacked
Thessaly, and, by the mere dread of his name, made the tyrant yield up
Pelopidas, and beg for a truce. Pelopidas brought home such horrible
accounts of the cruelties of Alexander, that as soon as the truce was
over, 7000 men, with him at th