THEBES 



5783 



THEOCRACY 



most prodigious assemblage of buildings ever 

 erected by the hand of man." 



Consult the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Mu- 

 seum of New York, issued in 1914. 



THEBES, an ancient city state in Boeotia, 

 head of the confederacy known as the Boeotian 

 League, and at one time the supreme power in 

 Greece. Thebes lay in the southeastern part of 

 the country, about forty miles north of Athens 

 and midway between Mount Helicon and the 

 channel separating Boeotia and the island of 

 Euboea. According to tradition it was founded 

 by Cadmus, and there is a cycle of legends 

 associated with the city that is almost as fa- 

 mous as the one connected with Troy. 



The authentic record of Theban history be- 

 gins with a controversy between Thebes and 

 Plataea, toward the close of the sixth century 

 B. c. Plataea then came under the protection of 

 Athens, and refused to join the Boeotian 

 League. 



In 431 B.C. a Theban force made an attack 

 on Plataea by night, an event that precipitated 

 the long-threatening Peloponnesian War. Dur- 

 ing that conflict Thebes fought with Sparta, 

 and it remained the latter's ally until Spartan 

 cruelty and treachery made a further alliance 

 impossible. Under the tyrannical rule of Sparta 

 the Boeotian League fell to pieces, but between 

 379 and 374 B. c. it was revived by the patriotic 

 efforts of Pelopidas, and in 371 B.C. the The- 

 bans under Epaminondas wrested Grecian su- 

 premacy from the Spartans by the victory of 

 Leuctra. 



Theban supremacy came to an end with the 

 death of Epaminondas in 362 B.C., and in the 

 period that followed the exhausted and disu- 

 nited Greek states came under the rule of 

 Philip of Macedon and his ambitious son, Alex- 

 ander the Great. When the latter ascended the 

 throne the Thebans revolted, but their uprising 

 was crushed and their city destroyed, no house 

 being spared except that of the poet Pindar. 

 Under Roman rule Thebes again became pros- 

 perous, but it declined under the Turks, and 

 the site is now occupied by an 'unimportant 

 country town Thiva, or Rhiva with a popu- 

 lation of about 3,500. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Alexander the Great Epaminondas 

 Boeotia Greece, subtitle History 



Cadmus 



THEMISTOCLES , the mis'toh kleez (about 

 514-449 B. c), an Athenian statesman and sol- 

 dier, one of the chief figures in the stirring 

 times of the Persian wars. Nothing is known 



of his early life, but after the Battle of Mara- 

 thon and the withdrawal of the Persians in 490 

 B. c. he became prominent as the rival of Aris- 

 tides and the advocate of naval expansion for 

 Athens. In 483 B.C. he succeeded in having 

 Aristides unjustly banished and persuaded the 

 Athenians to build ships and fortify their har- 

 bors, feeling certain that in case of renewed in- 

 vasion by the Persians the conflict would be 

 decided on the sea. 



At the time of the Persian expedition in 480 

 B. c. he was the chief man in Athens and one of 

 the most powerful statesmen in Greece. With 

 patriotic surrender of his right as commander 

 of the fleet, however, he consented to serve 

 under the nominal leadership of the Spartan 

 Eurybiades, though it was really Themistocles 

 who brought matters to an issue favorable to 

 Greece in the great battle of Salamis. 



He was then more powerful than before, and 

 did Athens good service by holding the Spartans 

 in diplomatic parleyings until the walls of Athens 

 were practically rebuilt, contrary to the express 

 demands of the Spartans. His arrogance 

 alienated the affections of the people, however, 

 who began to credit rumors that he was not 

 above treason if the bribes were sufficient, and 

 some time before 471 B. c. he was ostracized. 

 After remaining for a time in^Argos, he fled to 

 the Persian court and was assigned by the king 

 of Persia a residence in Magnesia, where he 

 lived in luxury until his death. 



According to some accounts he committed 

 suicide by taking poison. Though there remain 

 against him suspicions of treason, he undoubt- 

 edly was in his day the savior of Greece, and by 

 his naval policy laid the foundations for the 

 future predominance of Athens in Greece. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes will explain the references in the 

 above study of Themistocles and give added in- 

 formation : 



Aristides Ostracism 



Greece, subhead The Persian Wars 



Period of Glory Salamis 



Marathon 



THEOCRACY, theok'rasi, a word derived 

 from the Greek Theos, meaning God, and kra- 

 tos, meaning power, and applied to a form of 

 government in which God is believed to be the 

 chief executive, and the laws are received as 

 the commandments of the Invisible Ruler. In 

 such a government the members of the priest- 

 hood act as interpreters and expounders of the 

 laws' and have authority in both civil and re- 

 ligious matters. The most notable theocracy 

 was that of the Israelites, to whom the law was 



