It is natural to think, that men of such superior merit, and so eminently disinterested, could never possibly be the objects of party resentment. Yet we are assured in history, that they were frequently persecuted by a virulent faction composed of the selfish, those leeches whom these two virtuous men prevented from fattening upon the blood of the publick, and of the envious, from that strong antipathy which bad men naturally bear to the good.[194] For envy, that passion of low uncultivated minds, has a greater share in party opposition than we are apt to imagine. A truth of which we have strong proof in that celebrated passage, recorded by Plutarch,[195] between Aristides and the Athenian countrymen. Though the virtue of these great men triumphed over all the malicious efforts of these domestick enemies; yet they had power enough at one time to impeach and bring them both to a publick trial for a breach of formality relative to their office, though that very act had enabled them to render the most signal services to their country.[196] They were tried however, but honourably acquitted. At another time, whilst Pelopidas was detained prisoner by Alexander the Pherean, this malignant faction had weight enough to exclude Epaminondas from the office of polemarque or general, and to procure for two of their friends, the command of that army which was sent to punish the tyrant for his treachery. But the new generals made such wretched work of it, when they came to face the enemy, that the whole army was quickly thrown into the utmost confusion, and compelled for their own preservation, to put Epaminondas at their head, who was present at the action only as a volunteer: for the malice of his enemies had excluded him from the least shadow of trust or power. This able man, by a _manœuvre_ peculiar to himself, extricated the Theban troops out of those difficulties in which the ignorance and incapacity of their generals had involved them, repulsed the enemy, and by a fine retreat brought the army safe to Thebes. His countrymen, now sensible of their error, and how greatly they had been imposed upon by the faction, immediately recalled him to the highest offices in the state, which he continued to execute until his death, with the greatest honour to himself, and emolument, as well as glory, to his country. As the management of publick affairs, after the death of these two illustrious patriots fell by the intrigues of faction, into the hands of men of a quite different character, we need not wonder that the Thebans sunk alike in power and reputation until Thebes itself was totally destroyed by Alexander the Great, and their country, with the rest of Greece, swallowed up at last by the insatiable ambition of the Romans. [180] Pausan, Grec. Descript. lib. 9. c. 5 p. 718. Edit. Ketchnii. [181] Οὐ γάρ τι ἠδυνάμην ἐς αὐτοὺς παρευρεῖν, ἕπομαι τῷ μύθῳ. Id. Ibid. [182] Ibid. p. 723 [183] Thebes was the capital of Bœotia.