Persian king at Susa, who obtained a favorable rescript.
The States which were summoned to Thebes to hear the rescript read refused
to accept it; and even the Arcadian deputies protested against the
headship of Thebes. So powerful were the sentiments of all the Grecian
States, from first to last, against the complete ascendency of any one
power, either Athens, or Sparta, or Thebes. The rescript was also rejected
at Corinth. Pelopidas was now sent to Thessaly to secure the recognition
of the headship of Thebes; but in the execution of his mission he was
seized and detained by Alexander of Pherae.

The Thebans then sent an army into Thessaly to rescue Pelopidas.
Unfortunately, Epaminondas did not command it. Having given offense to his
countrymen, he was not elected that year as boeotrarch, and served in the
ranks as a private hoplite. Alexander, assisted by the Athenians,
triumphed in his act of treachery, and treated his illustrious captive
with harshness and cruelty, and the Theban army, unsuccessful, returned
home.

(M647) The Thebans then sent another army, under Epaminondas, into
Thessaly for the rescue of Pelopidas, and such was the terror of his name,
that Alexander surrendered his prisoner, and sought to make peace. But the
rescue of Pelopidas disabled Thebes from prosecuting the war in the
Peloponnesus. As soon, however, as this was effected, Epaminondas was sent
as an envoy into Arcadia to dissuade her from a proposed alliance with
Athens, and there had to contend with the Athenian orator Callistratus.
The complicated relations of the different Grecian States now became so
complicated, that it is useless, in a book like this, to attempt to
unravel them. Negotiations between Athens and Persia, the efforts of
Corinth and other cities to secure peace, the ambition of Athens to
maintain ascendency on the sea, the creation of a Theban navy--these and
other events must be passed by.

But we can not omit to notice the death of Pelopidas.

(M648) He had been sent with an army into Thessaly against Alexander of
Pherae, who was at the height of his power, holding in dependence a
considerable part of Thessaly, and having Athens for an ally. In a battle
which took place between Pelopidas and Alexander, near Pharsalus, the
Thessalians were routed. Pelopidas, seeing his enemy apparently within his
reach, and remembering only his injuries, sallied forth, unsupported, like
Cyrus, on the field of Cunaxa, at the sight of his