Pelopidas (15.3-15.4)

But, to tell the truth, it was not Agesilaüs who was their teacher, but those leaders of theirs who, at the right time and place, gave the Thebans, like young dogs in training, experience in attacking their enemies, and then, when they had got a taste of victory and its ardours, brought them safely off; and of these leaders Pelopidas was in greatest esteem. For after his countrymen had once chosen him their leader in arms, there was not a single year when they did not elect him to office, but either as leader of the sacred band, or, for the most part, as boeotarch, he continued active until his death.

Well, then, at Plataea the Lacedaemonians were defeated and put to flight, and at Thespiae, where, too, Phoebidas, who had seized the Cadmeia, was slain; and at Tanagra a large body of them was routed and Panthoidas the harmost was killed. But these combats, though they gave ardour and boldness to the victors, did not altogether break the spirits of the vanquished;