Pelopidas

[1] Pelopidas was a member of a distinguished family and possessed great wealth, which he expended on his friends and on public service while he himself was content to lead the rough life of an athlete.

[2] In 384 BC, he served in a Theban contingent sent to the support of the Spartans during the Siege of Mantinea, where he was saved, when dangerously wounded by the Arcadians, by Epaminondas and Agesipolis.

In 379 BC, Pelopidas' democratic faction rose in a surprise revolt and killed many of the corrupted Theban aristocrats supporting Spartan rule.

[5] In this and 12 subsequent years, he was elected boeotarch, or warleader,[6] and around 375 BC, he routed a much larger Spartan force at the Battle of Tegyra (near Orchomenus).

At the Battle of Leuctra (371 BC), he contributed greatly to the success of Epaminondas's new tactics by the rapidity with which he made the Sacred Band close with the Spartans.

Backed by the prestige of his Leuctra victory,[9] Pelopidas was able to induce the king to prescribe a settlement of Greece according to the wishes of the Thebans, with particular reference to the continuing independence of Messene.