THE HUMILIATION OF SPARTA.

Tueses was free! But would she stay free?
Sparta was against her,—Sparta, the lord of Greece.
Could a single city, however liberty-loving and de-
voted its people, maintain itself against that engine
of war which had humbled mighty Athens and now
lorded it over the world of Greece? This is the
question we have to answer; how in a brief space
the dominion of Sparta was lost, and Thebes, so long
insignificant and almost despised, rose to take the
foremost place in Greece.

Two men did this work. As seven men had re-
stored Thebes to freedom, two men lifted her almost
into empire. One of these was Pelopidas, the lead-
ing spirit of the seven. The other was Epaminon-
das, whose name was simply mentioned in the tale
of the patriotic seven, yet who in the coming years
was to prove himself one of the greatest men Greece
ever produced.

Pelopidas belonged to one of the richest and
highest families of Thebes. He was one of the
youngest of the exiles, yet a man of earnest patriot-
ism and unbounded daring. It was his ardent spirit
that gave life to the conspiracy, and his boldness
and enterprise that led it forward to success. And
it was the death of Leontiades by his hand that

freed Thebes.
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