Kitap 7
1.33
And now the Thebans, who were continually planning367 B.C. how they might obtain the leadership of Greece, hit upon the idea that if they should send to the King of the Persians, they would gain some advantage in him. Thereupon they immediately summoned their allies, on the pretext that Euthycles, the Lacedaemonian, was also at the King’s court; and there went up thither Pelopidas for the Thebans, Antiochus, the pancratiast, The παγκράτιον a regular event in the Greek national games, was a combination of boxing and wrestling. for the Arcadians, and Archidamus for the Eleans; an Argive also went with them. And the Athenians, upon hearing of this, sent up Timagoras and Leon.
1.34
When the ambassadors arrived there, Pelopidas enjoyed a great advantage with the Persian. For he was able to say that his people were the only ones among the Greeks who had fought on the side of the King at Plataea, that367 B.C. they had never afterwards undertaken a campaign against the King, and that the Lacedaemonians had made war upon them for precisely the reason that they had declined to go with Agesilaus against him See III. v. 5. and had refused to permit Agesilaus to sacrifice to Artemis at Aulis, This incident is described in III. iv. 3-4. the very spot where Agamemnon, at the time when he was sailing forth to Asia, had sacrificed before he captured Troy.
1.35
It also contributed greatly toward the winning of honour for Pelopidas that the Thebans had been victorious in battle at Leuctra, and that they had admittedly ravaged the country of the Lacedaemonians. Pelopidas also said that the Argives and Arcadians had been defeated by the Lacedaemonians when the Thebans were not present with them. And the Athenian, Timagoras, bore witness in his behalf that all these things which he said were true, and so stood second in honour to Pelopidas.
