brother, to attack him
when surrounded by his guards, and fell while fighting bravely. Nothing
could exceed the grief of the victorious Thebans in view of this disaster,
which was the result of inexcusable rashness. He was endeared by
uninterrupted services from the day he slew the Spartan governors and
recovered the independence of his city. He had taken a prominent part in
all the struggles which had raised Thebes to unexpected glory, and was
second in abilities to Epaminondas alone, whom he ever cherished with more
than fraternal friendship, without envy and without reproach. All that
Thebes could do was to revenge his death. Alexander was stripped of all
his Thessalian dependencies, and confined to his own city, with its
territory, near the Gulf of Pegasae.

(M649) It was while Pelopidas was engaged in his Thessalian campaign, that
a conspiracy against the power of Thebes took place in the second city of
Boeotia--Orchomenus, on Lake Copais. This city was always disaffected, and
in the absence of Pelopidas in Thessaly, and Epaminondas with a fleet on
the Hellespont, some three hundred of the richest citizens undertook to
overthrow the existing government. The plot was discovered before it was
ripe for execution, the conspirators were executed, the town itself was
destroyed, the male adults were killed, and the women and children were
sold into slavery. This barbarous act was but the result of long pent up
Theban hatred, but it kindled a great excitement against Thebes throughout
Greece. The city, indeed, sympathized with the Spartan cause, and would
have been destroyed before but for the intercession of Epaminondas, whose
policy was ever lenient and magnanimous. It was a matter of profound grief
to this general, now re-elected as one of the boeotarchs, that Thebes had
stained her name by this cruel vengeance, since he knew it would intensify
the increasing animosity against the power which had arrived so suddenly
to greatness.

(M650) Hostilities, as he feared, soon broke out with increased bitterness
between Sparta and Thebes. And these were precipitated by difficulties in
Arcadia, then at war with Elis, and the appropriation of the treasures of
Olympia by the Arcadians. Sparta, Elis, and Achaia formed an alliance, and
Arcadia invoked the aid of Thebes. The result was that Epaminondas marched
with a large army into the Peloponnesus, and mustered his forces at Tegea,
which was under the protection of Thebes. His arm