B CE O 



for Ill's military talents. It fliould alfo be remembered, that 

 BoEotia was the birth-place of Hefiod, Corinna, and Pindar. 

 Its mod remarkable places were the Trophonian cave, 

 Thefpia, Aulis, the ftraits of Thermopyla: and Thebes, 

 which fee refpeftively. 



The government of Boeotia was altogether monarchical, 

 and pccuHarly defpotic, the will of the king;s being the law ; 

 and of thefe fome governed more like tyrants than moderate 

 fovereigns. Plutarch, in his " Morals," mentions an ancient 

 cuftom that prevailed among them ; which was the manner 

 of introducing their new-married women into their new ha- 

 bitations. They were brought home in a kind of chiiriot, 

 or cart, the axle-tree of which was immediately burnt, thus 

 intimating to the bride, that (he was fixed with her huf- 

 band for life, and mull not expeft to return to her pa- 

 rents. 



The Boeotians, as to their general charafter, were coura- 

 geous, infolent, and vain ; and with them the tranfition was 

 very fhort from paffion to infult, and from a contempt of law 

 to a total difregard of the diftates of humanity. The fmalleft 

 expeftation of advantage gave occafion to the grofleft afts 

 of inj\ifl;ice ; ard murders were frequently the confequence of 

 the moft. frivolous quarrels. The women were t.nll, well- 

 formed, and generally of a fair complexion ; and their voice 

 was remarkably fweet and tender ; whereas that of the men 

 was harfh and difagreeahle, and in fome mcafure fuited to 

 their charafter. Of this charafter for infoleiice and ferocity, 

 which generally dillinguifhed the Boeotians, no tracts were 

 to be found in a body of young warriors, called the " Sacred 

 Battalion," confiding of ,^oo, who were brought up toge- 

 ther, and maintained at the public expence in the citadel. 

 Their exercifes, and even their amufements, were regulated 

 by the melodious founds of the flute. To prevent their 

 courage from degenerating into blind fury, care was taken 

 to infpire them with the nobleft and the moft animated fen- 

 timents. From this band each warrior chofe a friend, to 

 ■whom he remained infeparably united, whom it was his am- 

 bition to pleafe, and to fhare his pleafures and fufferings in 

 life, and his labours and dangers in battle. Thefe 300 war- 

 riors were at one time diilributed in troops at the head of 

 the different divifions of the army. Pelopidas, who had fre- 

 quently the honour of commanding them, having made them 

 fight in a body, the Thebans were indebted to th m for al- 

 moft all the advantages they gained over the Lacedsmo- 

 nians. Philip deftroyed this cohort, that had been invin- 

 cible, at Cheronxa ; and the prince, when he faw thefe 

 young Thebans ftretched on the field of battle, covered with 

 honourable wounds, and lying fide by fide on the ground 

 on which they had been flationed, could not refrain from 

 tears, but bore a noble teflimony to their virtue as well as 

 to their valour. Plut. in Pelop. t. I. p. 287. 



For the fucceflion of the kings of Bceoti , after Cadmus, ar.d 

 the hiiloi-y of the kingdom as a monarchy, fee Thebes. The 

 Ecsotians, after having expelled their kings, who had rtijrned 

 in fucceffion from Cadmus to Xanthus, for about 300 years, 

 formed themfelves into a republic, of which the chief magi- 

 ftrates were the pnetor, or fliategos, the Boeotarchi, and the 

 Polemarchi. The authority of the prxtor, who waschofcn 

 from among the Boeotarchi, lafted only a year, and re- 

 fcmbled that which was veiled in the praetors of Achaia and 

 JEtoMa. The Boeotarchi alTifted him with their advice, 

 principally in time of war, and comqnanded under him ; and 

 they conflituted the fupreme court in miUtary affairs ; fo 

 that the pr<etor could not aft in a manner contrary to their 

 determinations. They alfo bore a great fway in the civil 

 adminiflration, and hence derived their title. Their nnmber 

 was uncertain, being 7, 9, or 1 1 ; they were chofen yearly, 

 and obliged by law, as well as the prsetor, to reCgn their 



Vol. IV. 



B O E 



office, on pain of death, before the firfl month of the new 

 year was expired. Tiie Polemarchi were altogether civil 

 magiflrates ; it being their province to maintain peace and 

 concord at home, while the Boeotarchi were employed in the 

 wars of the republic. Befides thefe officers, there were four 

 councils, in which the whole authority of the flate con- 

 fifted. Thefe were compofed of the deputies that were fent 

 by all the cities of Boeotia ; and without their approbation, 

 the Bceotarchi could not declare war, make peace, conclude 

 alliances, or tranfaft any bufinefs of importance. The Boeo- 

 tians, and efpecially the Thebans, were continually haraffed ' 

 by the princes of Macedon ; neverthelefs, they took part 

 with Philip againfl the Romans, and could not be prevailed 

 upon by the Athenians and Achoeans to defcrt him, and to 

 join the other flates of Greece, till he was entirely defeated 

 in the famous battle of Cynocephalae. They then, fore- 

 feeing their danger, fent deputies to Flaminujs, imploring 

 his proteftion. He received them with great humanity, and 

 put them upon the fame footing veith the other allies of the 

 republic in Greece. Flaminius, at their requell, obtained 

 the releafe of the Boeotians who ferved in the Macedonian 

 army ; but, notwithftanding this favour granted them by 

 the interpoGtion of the prjconful, they neglefted to make 

 the necetTary acknowledgments, and filled up all vacant 

 offices w^th perfons who were enemies to Rome, and attached 

 to the intercfts of Macedon. Flaminius was exafperattd by 

 this conduft ; and Brachyllus, their praetor, was murdered 

 by the friends of Rome. The murderers, however, were 

 difcovered, and one of them, Pifiilratus, was put to death. 

 For this murder of their praetor the Boeotians determined 

 to be revenged ; and they took occafion to affaflinate all the 

 Romans whom they found wandering about in the fields. 

 In confequence of this outrage, Flaminius ravaged their 

 territories ; but, upon their confenting to deliver up the of- 

 fenders, he defifted from any further afts of feverity ; and 

 the Boeotians, duly apprized of his lenity, continued ever 

 afterwards faithful to the Romans. But as fome of their 

 leading men joined Perfes, king of Macedon, in his wars 

 againfl the Romans, the whole country was, on that account, 

 treated with great feverity ; Rome being at. tliis time under 

 no apprehenfion of an iavafion from Antioclins, as ilie was 

 when Flaminius was fo eafily appcafcd. At the dilTohition 

 of the .A.chsean league, Baotia, with the reft of Greece, 

 was reduced to a Roman province. See Ach^ans. 



BOER, in Geography, a town of Germany, in the circle of 

 the Lower Rhine, and county of Recklinghaufen, 6 miles 

 W.S.W. of Recklinghaufen, and 42 N. of Cologn. 



BOERHAAVE, Herman, in Biography, a profefTor 

 of medicine and chemiilry, of fnch eminence as to form 

 a new ira in thefe fciences, was born at Voorhout, about 

 two miles from Leyden, in Holland, the 31ft of December 

 166S. His father, James Boerhaave, the pailor of the vil- 

 lage, having nine children, took on himftif the care of their 

 education ; and, as he intended Herman for the cluirch, he 

 was careful to ground fim well in Greek and Latin. In 

 thefe languages he made fnch rapid progrefs, that when he 

 was only fourteen years of age, his father fent Inm to com- 

 plete his education to the public fchool at Leyden ; and, in 

 1684, he went from thence to the univerfity. His father 

 dying foon after, and in flcnder circumftances, the progrefs 

 of our young ftudent's attainments would have been inter- 

 rupted but for the friendly afliftance afforded him by Daniel 

 Van Alphin, burgomafter of Leyden, who furriflied him 

 with the means of continuing his ftudies. The kindnefs of 

 this worthy man was remembered by Boerhaave, with grati- 

 tude, to the end of his life. He now apphed to the mathe- 

 matics, and to acquire a knowledge of the Hebrew and 

 Chaldee languages ; propofing, agreeably to the intentions 

 4T of 



