Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/433

 BOEOTIA. expect the diviaon of the country into two prent po- litical leagues, with Orchomenns and Thebes as the respective heads of each. Sixty years after the Trojan war, according to the chronology of Thucydides, an important change took place in the popnlation of Boeotia. The Boeotians, an Aeolian people, who had hitherto dwelt in the soathern part of Phthiotis in Thessaly, on the Paga- saean gulf, and whobe chief town was Arne, were ex- pelled from their homes by the Thessalians, who are said to have come from Thesprotia. These expelled Boeotians thereupon penetrated southwards, and took possession of the land, then called Cadmeis, but to which they gave their own name of Boeotia. (Thuc i. 12; oomp. Strab. ix. p. 401.) The Mmyans and Cadmeans were partly driven out of their cities, and partly incorporated with Uie conquering race. A difficulty has arisen respecting the time of this Boeotian immigration, from the fact that, in men- tioning the wars of the Seven chiefs and of their sons against Thebes, Homer always calls the inhabitants of this city Cadmeones (/{. iv. 385, v. 804, xxiii. €80); while at the time of the Trojan war the in- habitants of the same country are invariably called Boeotians in the Iliad, and their chieftains, Pendens, Leittts, Arcesilaus, Prothenor, and Clonius, are con- nected, both by genealogy and legends, with the Aeolic Boeotians who came from Thessaly. Accord- ing to this it would follow Uiat the migration of the Aeolian Boeotians ought to be placed between the time of the Epigoni and that of the Trojan war; but it is more probable that Thucydides has preserved the genuine legend, and that Homer only inserted the name of the Boeotians in the great national war of the Greeks to gratify the inhabitants of the coun- try of his time. But so great was the authority of Homer, that in order to reconcile the statement of the poet witii other accounts, Thucydides added (/. c.) that there was a portion (k Aeolian Boeotians settled in Boeotia previously, and that to them belonged the Boeotians who sailed against Troy. But at whatever time the Boeotians may have settled in the country named after them, it is certain that at the commencement of the historical period all the cities were inhabited by Boeotians, Orchome- nos among the number, and that the Minyans and other ancient races had almost entirely disappeared. The most important of these cities formed a pohtical confisderacy under the presidency of Thebes. Orcho* menus was the second city in importance after Thebes. Of these greater cities, which had smaller towns de> pendent upon them, there appear to have been ori- ginally fourteen, but their names are variously given by different writers. MUller supposes these fourteen states to have been Thebes, Orchomenus, Lcbadeia, Coroneia, Copae, Haliartus, Thespiae, Tanagra, An- thedon, Plataeae, Ocaleae, ChaUa, Onchestus. and Eleuthene. There can be little doubt that the first ten were members of the confederacy; but whether the last four belonged to it is questionable. Oropus, which was afterwards subject to Athens, was pro- bably at one time a member of the league. Plataeae withdrew from the confederacy, and placed itself under the protection of Athens, as early as b. c. 519. The affai» of the confederacy were managed by cer- tain magistrates or generals, called Boeotarchs, two being elected by Thebes, and one apparently by each of the other confederate states. At the time of the battle of Delinm (b. c. 424) there were eleven Boeo- tarchs (Thnc. iv. 91); whence it has been inferred that the confederacy at that time consisted of ten BOEOTU. 415 cities. There was a religious festival of the league, called Pamboeotia, which was held at the temple of Athena Itonia, in the neighbourhood of Coroneia. (Pans, ix 34. § 1.) Each of the confederate states was independent of the other; but the management of the confederacy was virtually in the hands of the Thcbans, and exercised for their interests. For further details respecting the constitution of tho Boeotian League, see Diet of Ant. art. Boeotarches, The poUtical history of Boeotia cannot be sepa- rated from that of the separate towns; and even the events relating to the general history ci the country are so connected with that of Thebes, that it is more convenient to relate them under the later name. After the battle of Cliaeroneia (b. c. 338), and the destruction of Thebes by Alexander three years afterwards (b. c. 335), Boeotia rapidly declined, and so low had it sunk under the Romans, that even as early as the time of Stnibo, Tanagra and Thespiae were the only two places in the country whidi could be called towns ; of the other great Boeotian cities nothing remained but ruins and their names. (Strab. ix. pp. 403, 410.) Both Tanagra and Thespiae were free towns under the Bomans. (Plin. iv. 7. s. 12.) The Boeotians are represented as a dull and heavy race, with little susceptibility and appreci- ation of intellectual pleasures. It was especially their lively neighbours the Athenians, who re- proached them with this foiling, which they desig- nated by the name of iyaurOrtcia. (Dem. de Coron, p. 240, de Pac. p. 61.) Their natural dulness was generally ascribed to the dampness and thickness of their atmosphere (Cic. de Fat. 4 ; Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 244), but was probably as much owing to the large quantities of food which they were accustomed to take, and which the fertility of their country fur- nished in abundance. Their dulness and sensuality gave rise to the proverbs "Roivria ^s and Boi^iov o3s, which was an old national reproach even in the time of Pindar. ((7^ vi. 151.) The Boeotians paid more attention to the development of their bodily powers than to the cultivation of their minds. (" Omnes Boeoti magis finnitati corporis quom in- genii acumini inserviunt," Com. Nep. Ale. ii.; Diod. XV. 50.) They therefore did not gain much dis- tinction in literature and in art; but at the some time they do not desen-e the universal condemnation which the Athenians passed upon them. In the quiet vallies of Mt. Helicon a taste for music and poetry was cultivated, which at all times gave the lie to the Bov&riov oSs; and Hcsiod, Corinna, Pindar, and Plutarch, all of whom were natives of Boeotia, are sufficient to redeem the people from the charge of universal dulness. V. Towns. The following is a list of the Boeotian towns, of each of which an account is given separately. Upon the lake Copais and its immediate neighbourhood, beginning with Orchomenus, and turning to the east, were Orciiom situs ; Tkoyra ; Aspledom ; Ol- MOHES; Copae; Ekythrae(?); Acraephia; Arne; Medkon; Onchestus; Hauartus; Oca- lea; Tiu>Ho8siuM; Alalcomenae; Coroneia; Lebadeia; Mideia. Chaeronela was situated at a little distance from the Copais, west of Orcho- menus; and Cyrtonb and Hyettus north of the lake. Along the Euripos from N. to S. were: Laryuna and Upi'ku Larymna, at one time belonging to