wreaths, and called upon the citizens to fight for their country and
their gods. The whole assembly, with shouts and applause, rose at the
sight, and received them as their benefactors and saviours.

XIII. After this, Pelopidas, who was chosen Bœotarch,[8] with Mellon
and Charon as colleagues, at once blockaded the citadel, and made
assaults upon it on all sides, being eager to drive out the
Lacedæmonians and recover the Kadmeia before an army should come upon
them from Sparta. And so little time had he to spare, that the
garrison, when going home after their capitulation, met at Megara
Kleombrotus, marching with a great force against Thebes. Of the three
men who had been governors of Thebes, the Spartans condemned two,
Herippidas and Arkissus, to death, and the third, Lysanorides, was
heavily fined and banished.

This adventure was called by the Greeks the "sister" of that of
Thrasybulus, as it resembled it in the bravery and personal risk of
its chief actors, and was, like the other, favoured by fortune. It is
difficult to mention any other persons, who with fewer numbers and
scantier means than these, conquered men more numerous and powerful
than themselves, by sheer daring and ability, or who conferred greater
blessings on their own countries; and that which made this more
remarkable was the change which it effected. The war which destroyed
the prestige of Sparta, and put an end to her empire by sea and land,
began in that night, in which Pelopidas, without having made himself
master of any fort, stronghold, or citadel, but merely coming to a
private house with eleven others, loosed and broke to pieces, if we
may use a true metaphor, the chains of Lacedæmonian supremacy, which
seemed fixed and immovable.