B (E O T I A. 



627 



Boeotia. possible to discover their origin, to mark their cha- 

 v~ -' racter, or to describe their exploits. The fabulous 

 muse of Greece ii.ibrms us, that Jupiter, in the shape 

 of a bull (probably in a ship, which, having that 

 animal painted on its stern, bore that name,) carried 

 off Europa from the court of Agenor king of Sidon 

 to the island of Crete : that her father commanded 

 Cadmus to go in quest of his sister, and not to return 

 rill she was found ; that Cadmus, after a long and 

 unsuccessful search, arriving at Delphos, in obedience 

 to the oracle, followed the footsteps of an ox, which 

 was browsing in the fields ; and that on the spot 

 where that animal lay down, he built a citadel, which 

 he called Cadmea from himself; laid the foundations 

 of his capital, which he denominated Thebes ; and to 

 the country itself he gave the name Boeotia, from the 

 ox (/3ovs) which had been his guide. The learned, 

 however, are not agreed concerning the country from 

 which Cadmus and his associates migrated. Some 

 think that they were natives of Thebes in Egypt, 

 and that this new capital derived its name from that 

 place; others that they came from Phenicia ; but if 

 we durst hazard a conjecture, we would suppose that 

 they were Canaanites, of the family of the Cadmo- 

 nites, (Genesis xv. 19.) or Easterlings, an appella- 

 tion which they received from their inhabiting Mount 

 Hermon, the eastern boundary of Canaan, from which 

 place Hermione the wife of Cadmus derived her 

 name ; and that they fled from the invasion of Joshua, 

 with whom they were cotemporary. It has, how- 

 ever, been maintained, that this region was called 

 Cadmus by Cadmus, and that it received the name of 

 Boeotia long after in this manner : Bccotius, the son 

 of Neptune by Arne the daughter of iEolus king of 

 jEolas in Thessaly, succeeding to his grandfather, 

 called that kingdom Boeotia from his own name, and 

 his capital Arne from the name of his mother. This 

 Boeotia subsisted, as an independent state, upwards 

 of 200 years. At the end of that period, the inhabi- 

 tants were forced, by the Thessalians, to migrate to 

 the country which the descendents of Cadmus still 

 possessed ; and obtaining there a settlement, called it 

 Boeotia from the country which they had left. We, 

 .ever, imagine that it bore that name from the 

 time of Cadmus. As it is supposed that the rape of 

 Europa took place about 1545 years after the flood, 

 the kingdom of Boeotia must have been founded a 

 jhort time afterwards. From Cadmus to Xanthus, 

 the last of the Boeotian kings, a period of nearly 300 

 years elapsed. At his death the Boeotians, weary of 

 singly government, formed themselves into a repub- 

 lic, which continued till they were subdued by the 

 Romans. But as this dynasty is chiefly known in 

 history by the name of Thebes, we refer our readers 

 to that article for an account of its exploits, both in 

 its monarchical and its republican form. 



As written laws, which only can circumscribe the 

 will of the prince and secure the rights of the people, 

 were unknown during the time of the Boeotian kings, 

 a most arbitrary and tyrannic despotism was esta- 

 blished. When the kingdom became a republic, the 

 principal officers of state were, the praetor, or stra- 

 tegos, who presided in the supreme council, and had 

 the chief command of the army. The boeotarclii, 

 who formed the grand council of the nation, both in 



civil and military affairs, and who were empowered, 

 not only to assist the praetqr with their advice, but 

 also to compel him to adopt it. The polemarchi, 

 who administered justice in the various districts, and 

 maintained the internal tranquillity of the state. Our 

 knowledge of the Boeotian laws is very imperfect. It 

 appears, however, that though neither merchants nor 

 mechanics were allowed to exercise any office of go- 

 vernment, till the expiration of ten years after they 

 had retired from business, yet they were accounted 

 citizens, an honour to which they were not admitted 

 in any other Grecian state : That the parent who 

 exposed his child was capitally punished ; and if he 

 was not able to support it, the magistrate had au- 

 thority to assign it, as a slave, to any one willing to 

 receive it : That marriage was contracted by bring- 

 ing home the bride in a kind of car ; the axle-tree 

 of which, by being immediately burnt, informed the 

 bride that she was never to desert the house of her 

 husband. Robbery and piracy, which, at least in 

 the early period of the state, were frequently prac- 

 tised, rendered property insecure; and the insecurity 

 of property greatly obstructed the progress of agri- 

 culture and commerce. As pride and courage were 

 prominent features in the Boeotian character, we al- 

 low, that the former sometimes inspired them with 

 insolence, and the latter degenerated into cruelty; but 

 their history, disfigured as it is by poetic fables, will 

 not allow us to imagine that their annals were stained 

 with deeds of greater atrocity than those which black- 

 ened the annals of neighbouring states. When we 

 likewise recollect that the Sacred Battalion, a band 

 of 300 young warriors, were raised and maintained 

 and disciplined by this state; that iheir military evo- 

 lutions were directed by the harmonious sounds of 

 the flute; that their minds were animated by the 

 most generous and manly sentiments ; that their va- 

 lour often triumphed over the power of Sparta, and 

 at last covered with their bodies the ground on which 

 they were stationed at the unfortunate battle of 

 Cheronaea; we will readily acknowledge, that though 

 the Boeotians might not be free from those vices 

 which universally prevail when civilization is only in 

 its infancy, yet they likewise exhibited, in no com- 

 mon degree, those virtues, which, though they may 

 be softened and refined by art, must derive their ori- 

 gin and their vigour from nature. The men were 

 generally healthy, strong, and active ; the women 

 tall, elegant, and beautiful. Horace asserts, that 

 their minds were rendered dull by their thick and 

 foggy atmosphere. But a country which could boast 

 of that transcendent wisdom and valour which Epa- 

 minondas displayed on the fields of Leuctra and 

 Mantinea a country which inspired the rural lays 

 of Hesiod, which Virgil did not disdain to imitate ; 

 and fired the soul of Pindar with those daring num- 

 bers, which Horace himself, in the happiest hour 

 of inspiration, could scarcely hope to equal, might 

 hear with contempt the witty sarcasm of that sati- 

 rist ; and we have no hesitation in attributing the 

 little progress of the Boeotians in literature and the 

 fine arts, not to the niggardness of nature, but to the 

 want of proper education, and to their employments, 

 which were better adapted to improve the powers of 

 their bodies than of their minds. Letters, however, 



Birotia. 



