2.4
For where the whole issue is greatly furthered by the general’s exposing himself to danger, there he must employ hand and body unsparingly, ignoring those who say that a good general should die, if not of old age, at least in old age; but where the advantage to be derived from his success is small, and the whole cause perishes with him if he fails, no one demands that a general should risk his life in fighting like a common soldier.
2.5
Such is the preface I have thought fit to make for the Lives of Pelopidas and Marcellus, great men who rashly fell in battle. For both were most valiant fighters, did honour to their countries in most illustrious campaigns, and what is more, had the most formidable adversaries, one being the first, as we are told, to rout Hannibal, who was before invincible, the other conquering in a pitched battle the Lacedaemonians, who were supreme on land and sea; and yet they were careless of their own lives, and recklessly threw them away at times when it was most important that such men should live and hold command. These are the resemblances between them which have led me to write their lives in parallel.
3.1
Pelopidas the son of Hippoclus was of a highly honourable family in Thebes, as was Epaminondas, and having been reared in affluence, and having inherited in youth a splendid estate, he devoted himself to the assistance of worthy men who needed it, that he might be seen to be really master of his wealth, and not its slave. For most wealthy men, as Aristotle says,Fragment 56 (Rose); cf. Morals p. 527 a. either make no use of their wealth through avarice, or abuse it through prodigality, and so they are forever slaves, these to their pleasures, those to their business.
