There, he was welcomed and supported by the Theban leader Ismenias and his followers, who assisted him in preparing for a return to Athens.

* The Theban general, Pelopidas, is made the leader of the Sacred Band, a selected infantry body of 300.

* Theban leader, Epaminondas, returns to the Peloponnesus for a third time, seeking to secure the allegiance of the states of Achaea.

Gorgidas ( Ancient Greek: Γοργίδας ) was the first known Theban military leader of the Sacred Band of Thebes.

After his return to Gembloux he also wrote similar works for this abbey, namely a long poem on the martyrdom of the Theban Legion — as Gembloux had relics of its reputed leader St. Exuperius ( d. 262 ) — and a history of the early abbots of Gembloux to 1048 ( Gesta abbatum Gemblacensium ).

A fresh Theban expedition into Thessaly, under Epaminondas resulted, according to Plutarch, in a three-year truce and the release of prisoners, including Pelopidas.

The Theban army under Pelopidas is said to have been dismayed by an eclipse ( on July 13, 364, see 4th century BC eclipses ), and Pelopidas, leaving the bulk of his army behind, entered Thessaly at the head of three hundred volunteer horsemen and some mercenaries.

* The Theban general and statesman, Pelopidas flees to Athens and takes the lead in attempts to liberate Thebes from Spartan control.

* A small group of Theban exiles, led by Pelopidas, infiltrate the city of Thebes and assassinate the leaders of the pro-Spartan government.

In the Theban assembly the next day, Epaminondas and Gorgidas bring Pelopidas and his men before the audience and exhort the Thebans to fight for their freedom.

However, at the Battle of Leuctra, the Theban generals, Epaminondas and Pelopidas, win a decisive victory over the Spartans under the other Spartan king, Cleombrotus I ( who is killed in the battle ).

The Theban general Pelopidas drives the Macedonians from Thessaly.

* In response, Epaminondas is reinstated in command of Theban troops and leads the Theban army into Thessaly, where he outmanoeuvres the Thessalians and secures the release of Pelopidas without a fight.

* Pelopidas, Theban statesman ( killed in the Battle of Cynoscephalae in Thessaly )

Epaminondas saved the life of his fellow Theban Pelopidas ; Pelopidas, after receiving seven wounds in front, sank down upon a great heap of friends and enemies who lay dead together ; but Epaminondas, although he thought him lifeless, stood forth to defend his body and his arms, and fought desperately, single-handed against many, determined to die rather than leave Pelopidas lying there.

The following day, Epaminondas and Gorgidas brought Pelopidas and his men before the Theban assembly and exhorted the Thebans to fight for their freedom ; the assembly responded by acclaiming Pelopidas and his men as liberators.

It seems safe to assume, given their close friendship, and their close collaboration after 371 BC, that Epaminondas and Pelopidas also collaborated closely on Theban policy in the period 378 – 371 BC.

Pelopidas, meanwhile, was captain of the Sacred Band, the elite Theban troops.

The Theban force arrived late in 370 BC, and it was led by Epaminondas and Pelopidas, both at this time Boeotarchs.

In 368, the Theban army marched into Thessaly to rescue Pelopidas and Ismenias, who had been imprisoned by Alexander of Pherae while serving as ambassadors.

In early 367, Epaminondas led a second Theban expedition to free Pelopidas, and Ismenias.

For among the generation of Epaminondas were famous men: Pelopidas the Theban, Timotheus and Conon, also Chabrias and Iphicrates ... Agesilaus the Spartan, who belonged to a slightly older generation.

Pelopidas ( died 364 BC ) was an important Theban statesman and general in Greece.

In this interval, we find him declining command over Sparta's aggression on Mantineia, and justifying Phoebidas ' seizure of the Theban Cadmea so long as the outcome provided glory to Sparta.

Late on in the hoplite era, more sophisticated tactics were developed, in particular by the Theban general Epaminondas.

The genre included further poems on the Trojan War, such as the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Cypria, and the Epigoni, as well as the Theban poems about Oedipus and his sons.

* A Theban raid on Plataea, the only pro-Athenian city in Boeotia, is a failure and the Plataeans take 180 prisoners and put them to death.

The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.

The play expands on the Theban legend that predated it and picks up where Aeschylus ' Seven Against Thebes ends.

For, after Dionysus, the son of Semele, had traversed the world, he came to Thebes and sent the Theban women mad, compelling them to celebrate his Dionysiac festivals on Mount Cithaeron.

He founded a sanctuary of Athena on the Sicyonian acropolis where he performed victory rites, celebrating his victory over Theban intruders.

This alternate narrative may have been based on a previous epic of the Theban cycle written by the Greek poet Antimachus in the 4th or 5th century BC.

Though not explicitly stated, this was probably the Spartan attack on Mantinea in 385 BC, as described by Xenophon ; Plutarch tells us that Epaminondas was there as part of a Theban force aiding the Spartans, so this battle fits the description.

That war, which dragged on inconclusively for eight years, saw several bloody Theban defeats at Spartan hands.

Although the Spartans held on for long enough to rescue the body of the king, their line was soon broken by the sheer force of the Theban assault.

This time an Argive army captured part of the Isthmus on Epaminondas's request, allowing the Theban army to enter the Peloponnesus unhindered.

Realising that the time alloted for the campaign was drawing to a close, and reasoning that if he departed without defeating the enemies of Tegea, Theban influence in the Peloponnesus would be destroyed, he decided to stake everything on a pitched battle.

Diodorus says that the Athenian cavalry on the Mantinean right wing, although not inferior in quality, could not withstand the missiles from the light-troops that Epaminondas had placed among the Theban cavalry.

In a major break with tradition, Epaminondas massed his cavalry and a fifty-deep column of Theban infantry on his left wing, and sent forward this body against the Spartan right.

* Niwinski, Andrzej, Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries B. C .. OBO vol.

Thucydides tells that in April 431 BC, an armed force of 300 Thebans commanded by two leading Theban generals / politicians were admitted after dark on a stormy moonless night into Plataea by two private citizens who expected the Theban force to immediately capture and kill the democratic leaders and bring Plataea into alliance with Thebes.

In terms of royal architecture, the Theban kings of the early eleventh dynasty constructed rock cut tombs called saff tombs at El-Tarif on the west bank of the Nile.

Gorgidas and the Sacred Band occupied the front ranks of the Theban forces on the right, while Chabrias and an experienced force of mercenary hoplites occupied the front ranks of the Athenian forces on the left.