*** Welcome to piglix ***

Pelopidas


Pelopidas (/pəˈlɒpɪdəs/; Greek: Πελοπίδας; died 364 BC) was an important Theban statesman and general in Greece.

He was a member of a distinguished family, and possessed great wealth which he expended on his friends, while content to lead the life of an athlete. In 384 BC he served in a Theban contingent sent to the support of the Spartans at Mantineia, where he was saved, when dangerously wounded, by the Arcadians.

According to Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas (paired with the Life of Marcellus), he ruined his inherited estate by showing constant care for the deserving poor of Thebes, taking pleasure in simple clothing, a spare diet, and the constant hardships of military life. People said that he was ashamed to spend more on himself than the lowest of the Thebans spent on himself. Once, when friends argued that he needed to care for his finances since he had a wife and children, and that money was a necessary thing, Pelopidas pointed to a blind, crippled pauper named Nicodemus and said, "Yes, necessary for Nicodemus."

Upon the seizure of the Theban citadel by the Spartans (383 or 382 BC), he fled to Athens and took the lead in a conspiracy to liberate Thebes. Spartans had kingship in their home and were supportive of oligarchic governments in other cities, and vice versa, cities with oligarchic and not democratic political system supported Sparta. In 379 BC his party (the democratic) surprised and killed their chief political opponents in Thebes (members of the aristocratic party that supported the Spartans), and roused the people against the Spartan garrison, which surrendered to an army gathered by Pelopidas.


...
Wikipedia

...