The Thebans, having accomplished in eighty-five days1 all that is narrated above, and having left a considerable garrison for Messene, returned to their own land. The Lacedaemonians, who had unexpectedly got rid of their enemies, sent to Athens a commission of the most distinguished Spartans, and came to an agreement over the supremacy: the Athenians should be masters of the sea, the Lacedaemonians of the land; but after this in both cities they set up a joint command.2 [2] The Arcadians now appointed Lycomedes their general, gave him the corps they called their elite,3 five thousand in number, and took the field against Pellene4 in Laconia. Having taken the city by force, they slew the Lacedaemonians who had been left behind there as a garrison, over three hundred men, enslaved the city, devastated the countryside, and returned home before assistance came from the Lacedaemonians. [3] The Boeotians, summoned by the Thessalians to liberate their cities and to overthrow the tyranny of Alexander of Pherae, dispatched Pelopidas with an army to Thessaly,5 after giving him instructions to arrange Thessalian affairs in the interests of the Boeotians. [4] Having arrived in Larissa and found the acropolis garrisoned by Alexander of Macedon,6 he obtained its surrender. Then proceeding into Macedon, where he made an alliance with Alexander the Macedonian king, he took from him as a hostage his brother Philip, whom he sent to Thebes.7 When he had settled Thessalian affairs as he thought fit in the interest of the Boeotians, he returned home.
