:for the genus of grass skipper butterflies, see pelopidas (skipper).  thumb|300px||death of pelopidas, by andrey ivanov, 1805-1806 pelopidas (; ; died 364 bc) was an important theban statesman and general in greece. ==biography== ===athlete and warrior=== 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 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) 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 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. ===boeotarch=== thumb|charon placed his only son in the arms of pelopidas in this and subsequent years he was elected boeotarch, and about 375 he routed a much larger spartan force at the battle of tegyra (near orchomenus). this victory he owed mainly to the valour of the sacred band, an elite corps of 300 seasoned soldiers. at the battle of leuctra (371 bc) he contributed greatly to the success of epaminondas's new tactics by the rapidity with which he made the sacred band close with the spartans. epaminondas, an intuitive and genius general, used at leuctra for the first time the oblique order in which a local superiority of numbers can be used to defeat a superior force. then, by winning in detail, one can hope to win in the w
4th-century_BC_Greek_people Ancient_Greek_generals Ancient_Greeks_killed_in_battle Ancient_Theban_generals Military_history_of_ancient_Thessaly Theban_hegemony