Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/311

 B(EOTIAN CONFEDERACY. 295 Kopa'is near the towns of Koroneia, Alalkomenas, and Ilaliarius, all situated on the mountain Tilphossion, an outlying ridge connected with Helicon by the intervention of Mount Leibe thrius. The Tilphossseon was an important military post, com- manding that narrow pass between the mountain and the lake which lay in the great road from Fhjkis to Thebes. 1 The ter- ritory of this latter city occupied the greater part of central Boeotia, south of the lake KGpai's ; it comprehended Akrsephia and Mount Ptoon, and probably touched the Euboean sea at the village of Salganeus south of Anthedon. South-west of Thebes, occupying the southern descent of lofty Helicon towards the inmost corner of the Corinthian gulf, and bordering on the south- eastern extremity of Phokis with the Phokian town of Bulis, stood the city of Thespiae. Southward of the Asopus, between that river and Mount Kithseron, were Plataea and Tanagra ; in the south-eastern corner of Bceotia stood Oropus, the frequent subject of contention between Thebes and Athens ; and in the road between the Euboean Chalkis and Thebes, the town of Mykalessus. From our first view of historical Boeotia downward^ there appears a confederation which embraces the whole territory: and during the Peloponnesian war, the Thebans invoke " the ancient constitutional maxims of the Boeotians " as a justification of extreme rigor, as well as of treacherous breach of the peace, against the recusant Plataeans. 2 Of this confederation, the greater cities were primary members, while the lesser were attached to one or other of them in a kind of dependent union. Neither the names nor the number of these primary members can be certainly known : there seem grounds for including Thebes, Orchomenus, Lebadeia, Koroneia, Haliartus, Kopse, Anthedon, Tanagra, Thespiae, and Platnea before its secession. 3 1 See Demosthcn. De Fals. Legat. c. 43-45. Another portion of this nar- row road is probably meant by the pass of Koroneia ra irepi Kopuveiav crevu. (Diodor. xv. 52; Xenoph. Hellen. iv. 3, 15) which Epameinondaa occupied to prevent the invasion of Kleombrotus from Phokis. 7 JThucyd. ii. 2 KarH ri iruTpia ruv TTUV-UV Eoiurtiv: compare the cpeech of the Thebans to the Lacedaemonians after the capture of Platsea, iii. 61, 65, 66. 3 Thucyd. iv. 91 ; C. F. Hermann, Griechischc Stnnts Alterthiiiner; seel