Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1171

 THEBAE BOEOTIAE. There is another important event in the mythical times of Thebes, which was not interwoven with the series of tiie legends already related. This is the birtli of Hercules at Thebes, and the important ser- vices which he rendered to his native city by his war against Orchomenus. It was stated that the Thebans were compelled to pay tribute to Eru;iiius, king of Orchomenus; but that they were delivered from the tribute by Hercules, who inarched against Orchomenus, and greatly reduced its power (Paus. ix. 37. § 2; Stral). ix. p. '414 ; Diod. iv. 18). This legend has probably arisen from the historical fact, that Orchomenus was at one time the most power- ful city in Boeotia, and held even Thebes in sub- jection. Thebes is frequently mentioned in Homer, who speaks of its celebrated seven gates (//. iv. 40G, Od. xi. 26.3); but its name dues not occur in the catalogue of the Gieek cities which fought against Troy, as it was probably supposed not to have re- covered from its recent devastation by the Epigoni. Later writers, however, related that Thersander, the son of Polynices, accompanied Agamemnon to Troy, and was slain in Mysia by Telephus, before the com- mencement of the siege; and that upon his death the Thebans chose Peneleos as their leader, in conse- (luence of the tender age of Tisamenus, the son of Thersander. (Paas. is. 5. §§ 14, 15.) In the Iliad (ii. 494) Peneleos is mentioned as one of the leaders of the Boeotians, but is not otherwise con- nected with Thebes. According to the chronology of Thucydides, the Cadmeians continued in possession of Thebes till 60 years after the Trojan War, when they were driven out of their city and country by the Boeotians, an Aeolian tribe, who migrated from Thessaly. (Thuc. i. 12; Strab. ix. p. 401.) This seems to have been the genuine tradition; but as Homer gives the name of Boeotians to the inhabitants of the coun- try called Boeotia in later times, Thucydides en- deavours to reconcile the authority of the poet with the other tradition, by the supposition that a portion of the Aenlic Boeotians had settled in Boeotia pre- viously, and that these were the Boeotians who sailed against Troy. According to other accounts, Thebes was taken by the Thracians and Pelasgians during the Trojan War, and its inhabitants driven into exile in Thessaly, whence they returned at a later period. (Strab. ix. p. 401; Diod. xix. 53,) Pausanias gives us a list of the kings of Thebes, the successors of Tisamenus, till the kingly dignity ■was abolished and a republic established in its place (ix. 5. § 16). But, with the excejition of one event, we know absolutely nothing of Theban histoiy, till the dispute between Thebes and Plataea in the latter end of the sixth century b. c. The event to which we allude is the legislation of Philolaus, the Corinthian, who was enamoured of Diodes, also a Corinthian, and the victor in the Olympian games, b. c. 728. Both Philolaus and Diodes left their native city and settled at Thebes, where the former drew up a code of laws for the Thebans, of which one or two particulais are men- tioned by Aristotle. {Pol. ii. 9. §§ 6, 7.) At the time when Thebes first appears in history, we find it under an oligarchical form of government, and the head of a political confederation of some twelve or fourteen Boeotian cities. The greater cities of Boeotia were members of this confederation, and the smaller towns were attached to one or other of these cities ia a state of dependence. [Boeotl, p. 415. J THEBAE BOEOTIAE. 1147 The affairs of the confederation were managed by certain magistrates or generals, called Bocotarchs, of whom there were eleven at the time of the battle of Delium (b. c. 424). two being elected by Thebes, and one apparently by each of the other members of the confederation (Thuc. iv. 91). But the real authority was vested in the hands of the Thebans, who used the power of the confederation with an al- most exclusive view to Theban interests, and kept the other states in virtual subjection. The first well-known event in Grecian history is the dispute, already mentioned, between Thebes and Plataea. The Plataeans, discontented with the supremacy of Thebe;, withdrew from the Boeotian confederation, and surrendered their city to the Athenians. This led to a war between the Thebans and Athenians, in which the Thebans were defeated and compelled to cede to the Plataeans the territory S. of the Asopus, which was made the boundary between the two states. (Herod, vi. 108; Thuc. iii. 68.) The interference of Athens upon tliis occasion was bitterly resented by Thebes, and was the commencement of the long enmity between the two states, which exercised an important influence upon the course of Giecian history. This event is usually placed in B.C. 519, upon the authority of Thucydides (I. c); but Mr. Grote brings forward strong reasons for believing that it must have taken place after the expulsion of Hippias from Athens in B.C. 510. {Hist, of Greece, vol. iv. p. 222.) The hatred which the Thebans felt against the Athenians was probably one of the reasons which induced them to desert the cause of Grecian liberty in the great struggle against the Persian power. But in the Peloponnesian War (b.c. 427) the Theban orator pleaded that their alliance with Persia was not the fault of the nation, but of a few individuals who then exercised despotic power. (Thuc. iii. 62.) At the battle of Plataea, however, the Thebans showed no such reluctance, but fought resolutely against the Athenians, who were posted opposite to them. (Herod, ix. 67.) Eleven days after the battle the victorious Greeks appeared before Thebes, and compelled the inhabitants to surrender their medising leaders, who were immediately put to death, without any trial or other investigation. (Herod, ix. 87, 88.) Thebes had lo.>,t so niucli credit by the part she had taken in the Persian invasion, that she was unable to assert her former supremacy over the other Boeotian towns, which were ready to enter into alliance with Athens, and would doubtless have established their complete independence, had not Sparta supported the Thebans in maintaining their ascendency in the Boeotian confederation, as the only means of securing the Boeotian cities as the allies of Spartu against Alliens. With this view the Spartans assisted the Thebans in strengthening the fortifications of their city, and comitelled the Boeotian cities by force of arms to acknowledge the supremacy of 'i'hebes. (Diod. xi. 81; Justin, iii. 6.) In B.C. 457 the Athenians sent an army into Boeotia to oppo.se the Lacedaemo- nian forces in that country, but they were defeate.l by the latter near Tanagra. Sixty-two days alter this battle (n.c. 456), when the Lacedaemonians had returned home, the Athenians, under the com- mand of Myronides, invaded Boeotia a second lime. This time they met with the most signal success. At the battle of Oenophyta they defeat.-d the com- bined forces of the Thebans and Boeotians, and ob- tained in consequence possession of Thebes and of