would stand the brunt of battle,
using them as one body. For as horses driven in a chariot go faster
than those going loose, not because they more easily cleave the air
when galloping in a solid body, but because their rivalry and racing
with one another kindles, their spirit, so he imagined that brave men,
inciting each other to an emulation in adventure, would prove most
useful and forward when acting in one body.

XX. When the Lacedaemonians made peace with all the other Greeks and
attacked the Thebans alone, and Kleombrotus, their king, invaded
Boeotia with ten thousand hoplites and a thousand cavalry, the danger
was not that they should be reduced to their former condition, but
absolute destruction plainly threatened their city, and such terror
prevailed as never before had been in Boeotia. Pelopidas, when leaving
his house, as his wife wept at parting with him and begged him to be
careful of his life, answered, "My dear, this is very good advice for
private soldiers, but we who are commanders must think about saving
the lives of others." When he reached the camp, he found the Boeotarchs
differing in opinion, and he at once gave his voice for the plan of
Epameinondas, who voted for battle. He was not named Boeotarch, but he
was in command of the Sacred Band, and enjoyed great confidence, as
was only just a man should who had given such proofs of patriotism.

When, then, they had determined to face the enemy, and taken up a
position at Leuktra opposite to the Spartan army, Pelopidas saw a
vision in his sleep which greatly disturbed him. In the plain of
Leuktra there are the tombs of the daughters of Skedasus, whom they
call Leuktridae because of the place of their burial; for there it was
that they were buried after they had been violated by some Spartan
strangers. When this base and impious deed was done, their father, as
he could get no satisfaction from the Lacedaemonians, invoked curses
upon the Spartan race, and slew himself at the tombs of his daughters.
Oracles and legends always had warned the Spartans to beware of the
vengeance of Leuktra, though most of them did not understand it, and
were not clear as to the place, since a small sea-side town in Laconia
is also called Leuktron, and there is a place of the same name near
Megalopolis in Arcadia, and, also, this crime was committed a long
time before the battle.

XXI. So now Pelopidas, when asleep in the camp, seemed to see the
maidens weeping over their