578 



THEBES. 



of Herodotus (ii, 9). Without including the Hip- 

 podrome and Medamud (an Arab village), the cir- 

 cumference of the ruins is ahout 15,000 metres, 

 agreeing with the UOstadia (17$ miles) mentioned 

 by Diodorus (i, 45) aa the circumference of Thebes. 

 The origin of the name of this celebrated city, as 

 well as the date of the foundation, is unknown. 

 Theba of the Greeks is, perhaps, derived from the 

 Egyptian Thbaki (the city) ; and the No-Ammon of 

 the Hebrews, and Diospolis of the Greeks, are mere 

 translations of the Egyptian Thbaki-antepi-Amoun 

 (city of the Most High) See Champollion, Egypte 

 fous Us Pharaons, i, 218; and the great work of 

 the French government, Description de fEgypte 

 (12 vols., folio, 25, 8vo.). 



THEBES (en/3.,) ; the capital of Bceotia, and 

 one of the most celebrated cities of Greece, the 

 birth-place of Pindar, Epaminondas and Pelopidas. 

 It was situated on an elevated level, on which were 

 the sources of the Dirce and Ismenus. Cadmus, 

 leading thither a Phoenician colony, is said to have 

 founded the city by building the citadel called Cad- 

 mea (B. C. 1500). Amphion built the city around 

 it, and enclosed it with a wall, having seven gates, 

 which he called from the names of his seven daugh- 

 ters by Niobe. The circuit of the city is said to 

 have been almost seventy stadia. The environs 

 were adorned with meadows and gardens. To the 

 east was the celebrated fountain (Edipodia, in which 

 CEdipus purified himself after the murder of his 

 father. The city, once the first in Greece, con- 

 tained many splendid temples and public buildings, 

 with numerous statues. In the time of Pausanias 

 (viii, 33, 1), with the exception of the citadel and 

 the few houses contained in it, it was merely a heap 

 of ruins. The Theban government was at first 

 monarchical, and three dynasties successively oc- 

 cupied the throne : 1. the Cadmeans, the descen- 

 dants of Cadmus, till Antesion ; 2. the three Sparti, 

 Amphion and Zethus, during the minority of Laius, 

 and Creon between Laius and (Edipus ; 3. the 

 Boeotians, or last kings. The sons of (Edipus, 

 Eteocles and Polynices, fell in single combat, each 

 by the hand of the other, after the latter had called 

 in the Argives to his assistance. Laodamas, son of 

 Eteocles, next ascended the throne, during whose 

 minority his great uncle Creon acted as regent. 

 The Argives, who still continued the war, were all 

 slain except Adrastus, at whose suit Theseus 

 marched against Creon, slew him, and compelled 

 the Thebans to suffer the burial of the Argives, 

 which they had hitherto prevented. The sons or 

 grandsons (Epigoni) of the slaughtered princes, ten 

 years later, revenged the death of their ancestors. 

 The war called the " expedition of the seven against 

 Thebes," and the war of the Epigoni, are celebrated 

 in the early Grecian annals. Led by Alcmeeon and 

 Thersander, the Epigoni conquered and destroyed 

 Thebes (about 1215 B. C.), and put to death, or 

 drove out, Laodamas. When Xanthus, the last 

 king of the Thebans, fell in single combat with 

 Melanthus, king of Athens, a democratical form of 

 government was substituted for the monarchical in 

 Thebes (about. 1126 B. C.) Thebes now aspired, 

 in rivalry with Athens and Sparta, to obtain the 

 supremacy in Greece. But the inactivity of the 

 Thebans, and their perfidious leagues with the 

 Persians, obstructed the growth of their power. 

 Their Boaotian towns fell off, and an alb'ance with 

 Sparta, concluded with the design of recovering 

 Iheir former ascendency in Bceotia, proved ineffec- 

 tual. Athens took the Boeotians under her protec- 



; tion, and Thebes lost her dominion o^er Bceotia, 

 which now became subject to the Athenians. In 

 the Peloponnesian war, the Thebans rendered the 

 most important services to the Spartans ; and they 

 were successful in several subsequent wars against 

 Athens and Sparta. But Phcebidas, the Spartan 

 commander, finally possessed himself of the Cadmea, 

 and the aristocratical party in Thebes gained the 

 upper hand. All sorts of oppression and injustice 

 were committed, until Pelopidas and Epaminondas 

 headed a conspiracy which put an end to the tyranny 

 by the death of the tyrants (B. C. 378). Those 

 two chiefs were therefore named Bceotarchs amid 

 the acclamations of the people. The Spartan 

 Cleombrotus invaded Bceotia for the purpose of 

 punishing the authors of this revolution ; and 

 Athens, although it had favoured the conspiracy, 

 abandoned the Thebans ; but Pelopidas. to excite 

 the Athenians against Sparta, instigated Sphodrias, 

 who had been left in command of the Spartan 

 forces by Cleombrotus, to attack the Athenian port 

 Piraeus. He was repulsed, and Athens immediately 

 declared war against Sparta. The allies now gained 

 several victories ; but Athens finally concluded a 

 peace with the Lacedaemonians, under the media- 

 tion of Persia. Thebes, nevertheless, continued 

 the war, to preserve Bceotia, and gained those bril- 

 liant victories under Epaminondas and Pelopidas, 

 which suddenly raised her above all the Grecian 

 states. Nearly all of the Peloponnesians took part 

 against Sparta, and formed alliances with Thebes. 

 The Persians and Athenians now joined the Lace- 

 daemonians, but were unable to effect much : and 

 the war continued with almost uninterrupted suc- 

 cess on the side of the Thebans till the battle of 

 Mantinea (B. C. 363), in which Epaminondas fell. 

 A general peace was then negotiated by the media- 

 tion of Artaxerxes, in which each party was left 

 in possession of its own territory. Thebes, al- 

 though for some time still formidable, now began 



! to decline. In the sacred war (so called because 

 it was undertaken on account of the alleged en- 

 croachments of the Phocensians on the possessions 

 of the Delphic temple, and during which they 

 stormed and plundered the temple), in which all 

 the Grecian states finally became involved, Thebes 

 took part against Phocis (354 B. C.), and subse- 

 quently entered into an alliance with the Athenians, 

 and other Greeks, against Philip of Macedon. 

 After the battle of Cheronsea, it was obliged to 

 receive a Macedonian garrison, and recall the 

 exiles. After Philip's death, an insurrection broke 

 out in Thebes, and an attempt was made to drive 

 the Macedonians from the Cadmea. But Alex- 

 ander hastened to their relief, captured and de- 

 stroyed (B. C. 335) the city, and reduced the 

 inhabitants to slavery. Twenty years afterwards, 

 Cassander rebuilt Thebes ; but it never recovered 

 its former importance. In the war of the Romans 

 against Mithridates, king of Pontus, it joined the 

 latter out of gratitude to Athens, and was severely 

 chastised by the Romans. From this time, the 

 Thebans disappear more and more from history. 

 In its most flourishing period, Thebes was a very 

 populous city. The inhabitants, like those of 

 Athens, were divided into three classes citizens, 

 strangers, and slaves. The city was; in a certain 

 degree, the head of Bceotia, and was the leading 

 power in a confederacy composed of several Bceo- 

 tian cities. Public affairs were discussed by the 

 four councils of the four districts into which Bceotia 

 was divided, and which, together, chose eleven 



