§2.1Hi omnes fere Athenas se contulerant, non quo sequerentur otium, sed ut, quem ex proximo locum fors obtulisset, eo patriam recuperare niterentur.
Almost all of these had betaken themselves to Athens, not that they might seek leisure, but that they might strive to recover their fatherland by means of whatever place fortune should offer from the nearest vicinity.
§2.2itaque cum tempus esset visum rei gerendae, communiter cum iis, qui Thebis idem sentiebant, diem delegerunt ad inimicos opprimendos civitatemque liberandam eum, quo maximi magistratus simul consuerant epulari.
Therefore, when the time for action seemed to have come, they, in common with those who held the same views at Thebes, chose for the purpose of crushing their enemies and liberating the state that day on which the chief magistrates were accustomed to banquet together.
§2.3magnae saepe res non ita magnis copiis sunt gestae, sed profecto numquam tam ab tenui initio tantae opes sunt profligatae.
Great deeds are often accomplished with not so great forces, but indeed never was such great power overthrown from so humble a beginning.
nam duodecim adulescentuli coierunt ex iis, qui exilio erant multati, cum omnino non essent amplius centum, qui tanto se offerrent periculo.
For twelve young men from among those who had been punished with exile gathered together, when there were not more than a hundred in all who would offer themselves to such great danger.
qua paucitate perculsa est Lacedaemoniorum potentia.
By this small number was the power of the Lacedaemonians shattered.
§2.4ii enim non magis adversariorum factioni quam Spartanis eo tempore bellum intulerunt, qui principes erant totius Graeciae: quorum imperii maiestas, neque ita multo post, Leuctrica pugna ab hoc initio perculsa concidit.
For they, at that time, made war no less upon the Lacedaemonians than upon the faction of their adversaries, who were the masters of all Greece; the majesty of whose empire, not so very long afterwards, being struck from this beginning, fell in the battle of Leuctra.
§2.5illi igitur duodecim, quorum dux erat Pelopidas, Athenis interdiu, ut vesperascente caelo Thebas possent pervenire, cum canibus venaticis exierunt, retia ferentes, vestitu agresti, quo minore suspicione facerent iter.
Those twelve, therefore, whose leader was Pelopidas, set out from Athens in the daytime, so that they might be able to reach Thebes as the sky was growing dark, with hunting dogs, carrying nets, and in rustic garb, so that they might make their journey with less suspicion.
qui cum tempore ipso, quo studuerant, pervenissent, domum Charonis deverterunt, a quo et tempus et dies erat datus.
When they had arrived at the very time which they had desired, they turned aside to the house of Charon, by whom both the time and the day had been appointed.