t by this
time his own family would have turned against him. He was also much
encouraged by the glory of the action, that, at a time when the
Lacedaemonians were sending out generals and governors to help
Dionysius the Sicilian tyrant, and when the Athenians had Alexander in
their pay, and had even set up a bronze statue of him as a public
benefactor, he might show the Greeks that it was the Thebans alone who
took up arms in defence of the oppressed, and who put an end to the
violent and illegal rule of despots in Greece.

XXXII. When he had come to Pharsalus and collected his army there, he
marched straight to attack Alexander. But he, seeing that Pelopidas's
force of Thebans was small, while he had more than double his numbers
of Thessalian hoplites, met him near the shrine of Thetis. When some
one said to Pelopidas that the tyrant was coming on with a great
force, he answered. "So much the better, for we shall conquer more."

Between the two armies, near the place called Kynoskephalae, or the
Dog's Heads, were some high and isolated hills. Each party tried to
occupy these with their infantry, but Pelopidas, knowing his cavalry
to be numerous and good, sent it to charge that of the enemy. The
enemy's horse was routed, and pursued over the plain, but meanwhile
Alexander had secured the hills, and when the Thessalian infantry came
afterwards, and tried to force their way up the hill into that strong
position, he was able to cut down the foremost, while the rest
suffered from his missiles and could do nothing. Pelopidas now
recalled the cavalry, and sent it to attack the enemy's position in
flank, while he himself took his shield and ran to join the infantry
in their fight on the hill. Pushing his way through their ranks till
he reached the front he infused such strength and ardour into them,
that the enemy thought that they attacked with new bodies as well as
new spirit. They repulsed one or two assaults, but seeing that the
infantry resolutely came on, and also that the cavalry had returned
from its pursuit and was threatening their flank, they made an orderly
retreat. Pelopidas, when he gained the height, saw below him the whole
of the enemy not yet beaten, but confused and shaken. He stood still
and looked around him, seeking Alexander himself. When he saw him, on
the right, rallying and encouraging his mercenaries, he could no
longer restrain his rage, but kindling at the sight, and, reckless of
his own person and