XIV. Now when a great Lacedæmonian army invaded Bœotia, the Athenians
manifested great alarm. They repudiated their alliance with the
Thebans, and impeached those who had shown Bœotian sympathies; some of
these men were put to death, others fined and banished. The case of
the Thebans seemed desperate, as no one offered to help them; but
Pelopidas, who with Gorgidas was Bœotarch, contrived to alienate the
Athenians from Sparta by the following plot. Sphodrias, a Spartan, of
great renown in the wars, but somewhat flighty and prone to wild
enterprises and reckless ambition, had been left near Thespiæ with an
army, to receive and assist those Thebans[9] who were now sent into
exile because they favoured the Lacedæmonians. Pelopidas sent secretly
to this man a merchant, a friend of his own, who gave him a bribe, and
also made proposals which fascinated him more than the money, that he
should attempt some enterprise on a great scale, and surprise Peiræus
by a sudden attack when the Athenians were off their guard: for the
Lacedæmonians would be better pleased with the capture of Athens than
with anything else, and the Thebans would not assist them, for they
were at variance with them and regarded them as traitors. At length
Sphodrias was prevailed upon to agree to this, and, with his soldiery,
invaded Attica by night. He got as far as Eleusis, but there the
soldiers lost heart, and the attempt was detected. So, having involved
the Spartans in a war of no slight importance, he retired to Thespiæ.

XV. Upon this the Athenians again most eagerly allied themselves with
the Thebans, and, aspiring to supremacy at sea, sent embassies round
to the other maritime states, and brought over to their own side
those who were willing to revolt from the Spartans. Meanwhile the
Thebans, alone in their country of Bœotia, constantly skirmishing with
the Lacedæmonians, and not fighting any great battles with them, but
organising themselves with the greatest care and discipline, began to