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In this instance he not only shielded Phœbidas from punishment for what he had done at Thebes, but persuaded Sparta to adopt his crime as its own, and continue to hold the Kadmeia, appointing as the chiefs of the garrison Archias and Leontidas, by whose means Phœbidas made his way into the citadel.
There took place also about Platæa and Thespiæ defeats and routs of the Lacedæmonians, in which Phœbidas, who seized the Kadmeia, perished; and Pelopidas routed a number of them near Tanagra, and slew Panthoides the governor.
Consequently Archias and Leontidas and Philippus, men of the aristocratic party, wealthy and unscrupulous, persuaded Phœbidas, a Laconian who was passing through the town with an armed force, to seize the Kadmeia by surprise, and, banishing the party that opposed them, establish an aristocratic oligarchy which would be subservient to Sparta.
The Thebans, although greatly outnumbered, fought with superhuman valour; but they were taken in the rear by the Macedonian garrison, who suddenly made a sally from the Kadmeia, and the greater part of them were surrounded and fell fighting. The city was captured, plundered and destroyed.
VI. When the Lacedæmonians removed Phœbidas from his command and fined him a hundred thousand drachmas, but nevertheless held the Kadmeia with a garrison, all the other Greeks wondered at their inconsistency, in punishing the doer but approving of the deed; but the Thebans, who had lost their old constitution and were now held in bondage by the party of Archias and Leontidas, had lost all hope of release from their tyrants, who they perceived were merely acting as a guard to the Spartan supremacy in Greece, and therefore could not be put a stop to, unless their enterprise by sea and land could also be checked.
And here the generals of the Lacedæmonian garrison seem to have missed an opportunity in not at once sallying out and attacking them, for the garrison itself consisted of 1500 men, and many people kept running to them for refuge from the city; however, alarmed at the shouts and fires and mass of people assembling from all parts, they remained quiet, holding the Kadmeia only.
When Phœbidas, in defiance of law and decency, seized the Kadmeia, or citadel of Thebes, in time of peace, all Greeks cried shame on him, and the Spartans felt especial annoyance at it.
The people were greatly alarmed, and called upon Phokion, saying that they could trust no one else. "If I had always been trusted," said he, "we should not now be discussing such matters as these." The motion was carried, and Phokion was sent to Antipater, who was encamped in the Kadmeia of Thebes, and preparing to invade Attica.
XVIII. The Sacred Band, they say, was first formed by Gorgidas, of 300 picked men, whom the city drilled and lodged in the Kadmeia when on service, wherefore they were called the "city" regiment; for people then generally called the citadel the "city."
XIII. After this, Pelopidas, who was chosen Bœotarch, with Mellon and Charon as colleagues, at once blockaded the citadel, and made assaults upon it on all sides, being eager to drive out the Lacedæmonians and recover the Kadmeia before an army should come upon them from Sparta.
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