ves of their pleasures, the other of their
gains.

Now, while all other persons gratefully made use of Pelopidas's
liberality and kindness, Epameinondas alone could not be induced to
share his wealth; he thereupon shared the other's poverty, priding
himself on simplicity of dress and plainness of food, endurance of
fatigue, and thoroughness in the performance of military service; like
Kapaneus, in Euripides, who "had plenty of wealth, but was far from
proud on account of his wealth," for he felt ashamed to be seen using
more bodily luxuries than the poorest Theban citizen. Epameinondas,
whose poverty was hereditary, made it lighter and more easily borne
by the practice of philosophy, and by choosing from the beginning a
single life; while Pelopidas made a brilliant marriage and had
children born to him, yet, in spite of this, diminished his fortune by
disregard of money-making and by giving up all his time to the service
of his country. And when his friends blamed him, and said that he was
treating lightly a necessary of life, the possession of money,
"Necessary, indeed," he answered, "for Nikodemus here," pointing to a
man who was a cripple and blind.

IV. They were both alike in nobleness of spirit, save that Pelopidas
took more pleasure in bodily exercise, and Epameinondas in learning,
and that the one in his leisure time frequented the palaestra and the
hunting field, while the other would listen to and discuss philosophy.
And though they have both many titles to glory, yet judicious persons
think nothing so much to their credit as that their friendship should
have remained from beginning to end unimpaired through so many
important crises, campaigns, and administrations. For any one who
considers the administrations of Aristeides and Themistokles, and
Kimon and Perikles, and Nikias and Alkibiades, how full they were of
mutual enmity, distrust, and jealousy, and then contrasts them with
the kindness and respect shown by Pelopidas to Epameinondas, will
pronounce with truth these men to have really been colleagues in
government and war rather than those who were constantly struggling to
get the better of one another instead of the enemy. The true cause of
this was their virtue, guided by which they sought no glory or gain
for themselves from their deeds, from which envious rivalry always
results, but both, inflamed by a noble desire to see their country
reach its climax of power and renown in their own time, used one