Menecleidas
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*Meneklei/das), a Theban orator, was one of those who joined Pelopidas in delivering Thebes from Sparta and the oligarchical government in B. C. 379.
After this, however, finding himself eclipsed by Pelopidas and Epaminondas, he strove in every way to bring them into discredit with their countrymen, and, in particular, he took part in the prosecution against them for having retained their command beyond the legal time in the campaign of B. C. 369. Being further exasperated by their acquittal, he continued his rancorous attacks on them; and, as he was a powerful speaker, he so far succeeded against Epaminondas as to exclude him from the office of Boeotarch. Against Pelopidas his efforts were of no avail, and he therefore endeavoured, in the true spirit of envy, to throw his merits into the shade, by advancing and exaggerating those of Charon.
The latter had been successful in a slight skirmish of cavalry just before the great battle of Leuctra (B. C. 371), and Menecleidas brought forward a decree for commemorating the exploit by a picture, to be dedicated in one of the temples, and inscribed with Charon's name. For this he was impeached by Pelopidas, on the ground that the honour of all victories belonged, not to any individual, but to the state.
He was found guilty and fined; and his inability to pay the penalty led him afterwards to enter into revolutionary designs against his country. (
Plut. Pel. 25. See Vol. II. p. 23a.)
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