Plutarch, Pelopidas
Bernadotte Perrin, Ed.

4. They were also fitted by nature for the pursuit of every excellence, and in like measure, except that Pelopidas delighted more in exercising the body, Epaminondas in storing the mind, so that the one devoted his leisure hours to bodily exercise and hunting, the other to lectures and philosophy. Both had many claims upon the world's esteem, but wise men consider none of these so great as the unquestioned good will and friendship which subsisted between them from first to last through all their struggles and campaigns and civil services. [2] For if one regards the political careers of Themistocles and Aristides, or of Cimon and Pericles, or of Nicias and Alcibiades, which were so full of mutual dissensions, envyings, and jealousies, and then turns his eyes upon the honour and kindly favour which Pelopidas showed Epaminondas, he will rightly and justly call these men colleagues in government and command rather than those, who ever strove to get the better of one another rather than of the enemy. [3] And the true reason for the superiority of the Thebans was their virtue, which led them not to aim in their actions at glory or wealth, which are naturally attended by bitter envying and strife; on the contrary, they were both filled from the beginning with a divine desire to see their country become most powerful and glorious in their day and by their efforts, and to this end they treated one another's successes as their own.

[4] However, most people think that their ardent friendship dated from the campaign at Mantineia,¹ where they fought on the side of the Lacedaemonians, who were still their friends and allies, and who received assistance from Thebes. For they stood side by side among the men-at-arms and fought against the Arcadians, and when the Lacedaemonian wing to which they belonged gave way and was routed for the most part, they locked their shields together and repelled their assailants. [5] Pelopidas, after receiving seven wounds in front, sank down upon a great heap of friends and enemies who lay dead together; but Epaminondas, although he thought him lifeless, stood forth to defend his body and his arms, and fought desperately, single-handed against many, determined to die rather than leave Pelopidas lying there. And now he too was in a sorry plight, having been wounded in the breast with a spear and in the arm with a sword, when Agesipolis the Spartan king came to his aid from the other wing, and when all hope was lost, saved them both.