 In fact, the democrats and some aristocrats of Thebes acknowledged that Pelopidas and Epaminondas were the two most capable and important personalities of their city.Both were trying to establish a state that would unite Greece under the Theban hegemony – what Xenophon called a policy “continuously direct towards securing supremacy in Greece”.In 367 BC Pelopidas went on an embassy to the Persian king Artaxerxes II.