About this time the Thessalians, who continued the war upon Alexander, tyrant of Pherae, and, suffering defeat in most of the battles, had lost large numbers of their fighting men, sent ambassadors to the Thebans with a request to assist them and to dispatch to them Pelopidas as general.1 For they knew that on account of his arrest2 by Alexander he was on very bad terms with the ruler, and besides, that he was a man of superior courage and widely renowned for his shrewdness in the art of war. [2] When the common council of the Boeotians convened and the envoys had explained the matters on which they had been instructed, the Boeotians concurred with the Thessalians in every matter, gave Pelopidas seven thousand men and ordered him speedily to assist as requested; but as Pelopidas was hastening to leave with his army,3 the sun, as it happened, was eclipsed.4 [3] Many were superstitious about the phenomenon, and some of the soothsayers declared that because of the withdrawal of the soldiers, the city's "sun" had been eclipsed. Although in this interpretation they were foretelling the death of Pelopidas, he notwithstanding set out for the campaign, drawn on by Fate. [4] When he arrived in Thessaly, and found that Alexander had forestalled him by occupying the commanding positions and had more than twenty thousand5 men, he encamped opposite the enemy, and, strengthening his forces with allied troops from among the Thessalians, joined battle with his opponents. [5] Although Alexander had the advantage by reason of his superior position, Pelopidas, eager to settle the battle by his own courage, charged Alexander himself. The ruler with a corps of picked men resisted, and a stubborn battle ensued, in the course of which Pelopidas, performing mighty deeds of valour, strewed all the ground about him with dead men, and though he brought the contest to a close, routed the enemy and won the victory, he yet lost his own life, suffering many wounds and heroically forfeiting his life. [6] But Alexander, after being worsted in a second battle and utterly crushed, was compelled by agreement to restore to the Thessalians the cities he had reduced, to surrender the Magnesians and the Phthiotian Achaeans to the Boeotians, and for the future to be the ruler over Pherae alone as an ally of the Boeotians.
