pluck up spirit, gaining skill from practice, and becoming confident
from the result of these encounters. This was why they say that
Antalkidas the Spartan, when King Agesilaus was being carried home
wounded from Bœotia, said to him, "Indeed, you are receiving nice
lessons from the Thebans, now that you have taught them how to fight
against their will." But their real teacher was not Agesilaus, but
those who, seizing fit opportunities, and with due management,
skilfully used to let them loose upon their enemies, as men train
young mastiffs, and then when they had tasted victory and
self-confidence brought them safely back. Of these leaders Pelopidas
received the chief credit. From the year in which he was first elected
general they never ceased to re-elect him, and he was always either in
command of the Sacred Band or most commonly acting as Bœotarch until
his death. There took place also about Platæa and Thespiæ defeats and
routs of the Lacedæmonians, in which Phœbidas, who seized the Kadmeia,
perished; and Pelopidas routed a number of them near Tanagra, and slew
Panthoides the governor. Still, although these skirmishes raised the
spirits and confidence of the victors, yet they did not cast down the
pride of the vanquished; for they were not regular battles, but the
Thebans won their successes by well-timed charges and harassing the
enemy by alternate retreat and advance.

However, the affair at Tegyra, which in a manner was preliminary to
that at Leuktra, won Pelopidas a great reputation; for there was no
question of any other general having assisted in the design of the
battle, nor of the enemy being thoroughly routed. The city of
Orchomenus had taken the Spartan side, and had received two moras[10]
of Spartan troops for its protection. He always had his eye upon this
place, and watched his opportunity. Hearing that the garrison had made
an expedition into Lokris, he marched, hoping to catch Orchomenus