Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/312

 296 HISTORY OF GREECE. Akrtcphia, with the neighboring Mount Ptoon and its oracle, Skolus, Glisas, and other places, were dependencies of Thebes : Chacroneia, Aspledon, Holmones, and Hyettus, of Orchomenus : Siphae, Leuktra, Keressus, and Thisbe, of Thespiae. 1 Certain generals or magistrates, called Boeotarchs, were chosen annually to manage the common affairs of the confederation. At the time of the battle of Delium in the Peloponnesian war, they were eleven in number, two of them from Thebes ; but whether this number was always maintained, or in what proportions the choice was made by the different cities, we find no distinct information. There were likewise, during the Peloponnesian war, four different senates, with whom the Boeotarchs consulted on matters of im- portance ; a curious arrangement, of which we have no explana- tion. Lastly, there was the general concilium and religious festival, the Pamboeotia, held periodically at Koroneia. Such were the forms, as far as we can make them out, of the Boeotian confederacy ; each of the separate cities possessing its own senate and constitution, and having its political consciousness as an autonomous unit, yet with a certain habitual deference to the fed- eral obligations. Substantially, the affairs of the confederation will be found in the hands of Thebes, managed in the interests of Theban ascendency, which appears to have been sustained by no other feeling except respect for superior force and bravery. The discontents of the minor Boeotian towns, harshly repressed and punished, form an uninviting chapter in Grecian history. One piece of information we find, respecting Thebes singly and apart from the other Boeotian towns anterior to the year 700 B. c. Though brief, and incompletely recorded, it is yet highly valuable, as one of the first incidents of solid and positive Grecian history. Diokles, the Corinthian, stands enrolled as Olympic victor in the 13th Olympiad, or 728 B. c., at a time when the oligarchy called Bacchiadae possessed the government of Corinth. The beauty of his person attracted towards him the attachment of Philolaus, ono of the members of this oligarchical body, a sentiment 179; Herodot v. 79; Boeckli, Commentat. ad, Inscript. Bceotic. ap. Corp. Ins. Gr. part v. p. 726. 1 Herodot viii. 135 ; ix. 15-43. Pausan ix. 13, 1 ; ix. 23, 3 ; ix. 24, 3' ix. 32, 1-4. Xenophon, Hellcn. vi. 4, 3-4 : compare 0. Miillcr, Orchoma BOS, cap. XT. p. 403.