Boeotia

“ Bœotia, a country of Greece, bounded on the north by Phocis, south by Attica, east by Eubœa, and west by the bay of Corinth. It has been successively called Aonia, Mesapia, Hyantis, Ogygia, and Cadmeis, and now forms a part of Livadia. It was called Bœotia, from Bœotus son of Itonus; or, according to others, a bove, from a cow, by which Cadmus was led into the country where he built Thebes. The inhabitants were reckoned rude and illiterate, fonder of bodily strength than of mental excellence; yet their country produced many illustrious men, such as Pindar, Hesiod, Plutarch, &c. ”

“ for I am inclined to think that these muscles and bones of mine would have gone off long ago to Megara or Boeotia—by the dog they would, if they had been moved only by their own idea of what was best, and if I had not chosen the better and nobler part, instead of playing truant and running away, of enduring any punishment which the state inflicts. ”

“ But now the Lacedæmonians invading Bœotia with a great army, the Athenians, affrighted at the danger, declared themselves no allies to Thebes, and prosecuting those that stood for the Bœotian interest, executed some, and banished and fined others: and the cause of Thebes, destitute of allies, seemed in a desperate condition. But Pelopidas and Gorgidas, holding the office of captains of Bœotia, designing to breed a quarrel between the Lacedæmonians and Athenians, made this contrivance. ”

“ Thebes is mainly the nurse of the warriors who fought in these battles, and but little else. So, then, we cannot compare Bœotia to the rich plains of Lombardy—they, too, in their clay, ay, and in our own day, Mars’s Orchestra—for here literature and art have given fame to cities, while the battles [pg 244] fought around their walls have been forgotten by the world.
I confess we saw nothing of the foggy atmosphere so often brought up against the climate of Bœotia. ”

“ If we proceed now to the states of northern Greece, commencing with Bœotia, we shall find, that their exports were little less rich or varied. For the daily consumption of life [1875] the Athenians obtained from this country a plentiful supply of poultry and wild-fowl, [1876] such as the francolin, the coot, ducks, divers, geese, [1877] jackdaws, and pyctides. Cats, too, were among the exports of Bœotia, (though whether, as in Spain, they were substituted for rabbits at table, seems hard to determine,) together with foxes, moles, otters, hares, and hedgehogs. ”

“ At most it seems safe to infer that it was one of the first Greek communities to be drawn together within a fortified city, that it owed its importance in prehistoric as in later days to its military strength, and that its original “Cadmean” population was distinct from other inhabitants of Boeotia such as the Minyae of Orchomenus.
In the period of great invasions from the north Thebes received settlers of that stock which in historical times was homogeneously spread over Boeotia. ”

“ Why mention others, when Boeotia, in old times full of voices with her oracles, has now been quite deserted, as though by sources of |F| water, and a great drought of prophecy has possessed the land? Nowhere, except round Lebadeia, has Boeotia anything to give to those who wish to draw water from prophetic art ”

“ Circles joined by tangents replace Mycenaean spirals. Ornament crowded. Rows or single specimens of long–legged water birds. Human figures rare, rude angular silhouettes.
Local characteristics discernible (e.g. between ware of Thessaly, Attica, Boeotia, Delphi, Argolid, Laconia, Thera, and Crete) , but strong family resemblance. (Lower specimen III, Fig. 19 characteristic of Boeotia.) Dark paint on natural clay (sometimes lightened by a white slip, e. g. Laconia) differs distinctly from Mycenaean. Shapes fewer and curves less flowing. Amphorae, plates, bowls, and jugs. ”

“ On the other hand, it is certain, that Bœotia has produced some geniuses of the first rate; such as Pindar, the prince of Lyric Poets, and the great Plutarch, who, in the opinion of lord Bacon, was full equal to the first men of antiquity; and I suspect, that by looking back to the more early times of antiquity, we shall find a period, in which the Bœotians, in their culture of the arts and sciences, excelled, not only their neighbours, but all the other nations of Europe ”

“ The victorious Greeks subsequently punished Thebes by depriving it of the presidency of the Boeotian League, and an attempt by the Spartans to expel it from the Delphic amphictyony was only frustrated by the intercession of Athens. In 457 Sparta, needing a counterpoise against Athens in central Greece, reversed her policy and reinstated Thebes as the dominant power in Boeotia. ”

“ Though the old military training and organization continued, the people proved unable to defend the frontiers, and the land became more than ever the “dancing-ground of Ares.” Though enrolled for a short time in the Aetolian League (about 245 B.C.) Boeotia was generally loyal to Macedonia, and supported its later kings against Rome. In return for the excesses of the democracies Rome dissolved the league, which, however, was allowed to revive under Augustus, and merged with the other central Greek federations in the Achaean synod. ”

“ The oracle of Trophonius in Bœotia, though he was nothing more than a hero, was in great reputation.83 After many preliminary ceremonies, as washing in the river, offering sacrifices, drinking a water called Lethe, from its quality of making people forget every thing, the votaries went down into his cave, by small ladders, through a very narrow passage. ”

“ Haliartus was nearly the most ancient city in Boeotia; had met with a heavy misfortune: instead of endeavouring in every possible way to restore it,—to contribute to its utter annihilation, and to deprive its dispossessed inhabitants of even their hopes for the future, was an act which would be thought worthy of no Greek nation, and least of all of the Athenians. They open their own territory to all comers; and to take away that of others can never appear consonant with the spirit of their State. However, the Senate granted them Delos and Lemnos. ”

“ The history of Thessaly is closely connected with its geography. The fertility of the land offered a temptation to invaders, and was thus the primary cause of the early migrations. It was this motive which first induced the Thessalians to leave their home in Epirus and descend into this district, and from this movement arose the expulsion of the Boeotians from Arne, and their settlement in the country subsequently called Boeotia ”

“ Ephorus declares the superiority of Bœotia over the bordering nations not only in this respect, but also because it alone has three seas adjoining it, and a great number of harbours. At the Crisæan and Corinthian Gulfs it received the commodities of Italy, Sicily, and Africa. Towards Eubœa the sea-coast branches off on each side of the Euripus; in one direction towards Aulis and Tanagrica, in the other, to Salganeus and Anthedon; on one side there is an open sea to Egypt, and Cyprus, and the islands; on the other to Macedonia, the Propontis, and the Hellespont. ”

“ Here some local divinity, a daughter of Poseidon, connected with the water and also of a warlike character, was identified by the colonists with their own Athena. In any case, it is fairly certain that Tritogeneia means “water-born,” although an old interpretation derived it from τριτώ, a supposed Boeotian word meaning “head,” which further points to the name having originated in Boeotia. Roscher suggests that the localization of her birthplace in the extreme west points to the western sea, the home of cloud and storm. ”

“ Better rely upon a few faithful than on many disaffected."
With a force comparatively small, Myronides commenced his march, entered Boeotia sixty-two days only after the battle of Tanagra, and, engaging the Boeotians at Oenophyta, obtained a complete and splendid victory (B. C. 456) . This battle, though Diodorus could find no details of the action, was reckoned by Athens among the most glorious she had ever achieved; preferred by the vain Greeks even to those of Marathon and Plataea, inasmuch as Greek was opposed to Greek, and not to the barbarians. ”

“ It is said, too, that Pelopidas and Melon, the chief captains of Boeotia, put him upon it; that they privily sent men to him, pretending to be of the Spartan faction, who, highly commending Sphodrias, filled him with a great opinion of himself, protesting him to be the only man in the world that was fit for so great an enterprise. Being thus stimulated, he could hold no longer, but hurried into an attempt as dishonorable and treacherous as that of the Cadmea, but executed with less valor and less success ”

“ Besides, he was alarmed for Hortensius, [226] a skilful general and a man ambitious of distinction, who [Pg 347] was conducting a force from Thessaly to Sulla, and had to pass through the straits where the enemy was waiting for him. For all these reasons Sulla moved into Bœotia. ”

“ According to him, certain Bœotians migrating northward, founded Arnæa in Thessaly; after which some returned to Bœotia, while, delighted with the land, others remained, and became the voluntary villains of the Thessalians. Here, however, as elsewhere in like cases, it was stipulated that they should neither be put to death nor sold beyond the borders; while on their part they agreed to cultivate the land and pay the requisite tribute. [246] On this account they were called Menestæ, [247] that is “those who remain,” which appellation was by degrees corrupted into Penestæ. ”

“ In pursuance of the treaty, the Lacedaemonians withdrew their harmosts and garrisons, whilst the Athenians recalled their fleet from the Ionian sea. Only one feeling prevailed at Sparta—a desire to crush Thebes. This city was regarded as doomed to destruction; and it was not for a moment imagined that, single-handed, she would be able to resist the might of Sparta. At the time when the peace was concluded Cleombrotus happened to be in Phocis at the head of a Lacedaemonian army; and he now received orders to invade Boeotia without delay. ”

“ This treaty was concluded very soon after the peace. ... The consequence was, that Sparta suddenly found herself deserted by all her allies; the Corinthians and Boeotians renounced her, because they found themselves given over to the Athenians, and the Boeotians perhaps thought that the Spartans, if they could but reduce the Eleans to the condition of Helots, would readily allow Boeotia to be subdued by the Athenians. Thus Argos found the means of again following a policy which ever since the time of Cleomenes it had not ventured to think of, and ... ”

“ But it was a common practice to accuse an opponent of anti-democratic sentiments, and of trying to get the better of the people by illegitimate means (cf. Speech on Embassy, Sec. 314, &c.) .
Sec. 35. Cf. Speech on Naval Boards, Sec. 41.
The First Philippic Sec. 3. "the war with Sparta". Probably the Boeotian War (378-371 B.C.) , when Athens supported Thebes against Sparta.
"in defence of the right". The attempt of the Spartans to conquer Boeotia was a violation of the Peace of Antalcidas (see n. on Speech for Rhodians, Sec. 6) . ”

“ No land was more sanctified by all the golden legends of poetry—and of all Greece no people was less alive to the poetical inspiration. Devoted, for the most part, to pastoral pursuits, the Boeotians were ridiculed by their lively neighbours for an inert and sluggish disposition—a reproach which neither the song of Hesiod and Pindar, nor the glories of Thebes and Plataea, were sufficient to repel. ”

“ In the Peloponnesian War the Boeotians, embittered by the early conflicts round Plataea, fought zealously against Athens. Though slightly estranged from Sparta after the peace of Nicias, they never abated their enmity against their neighbours. They rendered good service at Syracuse and Arginusae; but their greatest achievement was the decisive victory at Delium over the flower of the Athenian army (424) , in which both their heavy infantry and their cavalry displayed unusual efficiency. ”

“ Two generations later the Boeotians endeavoured to cross Cithaeron, and add Attica to their conquests; but their king Xanthus fell in single combat with Melanthus, who fought in behalf of Athens, and his host gave up the enterprise. In their new country the Boeotians retained their national unity under the form of a league, in which no one city had authority over another, though in process of time Thebes grew so much greater than her neighbours that she exercised a marked preponderance over the other thirteen members of the confederation. ”

“ Such was the strength and disposition of the Boeotian army.
94On the side of the Athenians, the heavy infantry throughout the whole army formed eight deep, being in numbers equal to the enemy, with the cavalry upon the two wings. Light troops regularly armed there were none in the army, nor had there ever been any at Athens. ”

“ Flight having become general among the Athenians, the different parts of their army took different directions: the right sought refuge at Delium, the centre fled to Orôpus, and the left took a direction towards the high lands of Parnês. The pursuit of the Bœotians was vigorous and destructive: they had an efficient cavalry, strengthened by some Lokrian horse who had arrived even during the action: their peltasts also, and their light-armed, would render valuable service against retreating hoplites. ”

“ Zeuxippus having sent an embassy to the Senate at the same time, the Romans wrote to the Aetolians and Achaeans an account of the attitude assumed by the Boeotians, and ordered them to restore Zeuxippus to his country. The Achaeans refrained from invading the country with an army, but selected some ambassadors to go and persuade the Boeotians to obey the orders from Rome ”

“ The Boeotians as a race got their name from Boeotus, who, legend says, was the son of Itonus and the nymph Melanippe, and Itonus was the son of Amphictyon. The cities are called in some cases after men, but in most after women. The Plataeans were originally, in my opinion, sprung from the soil; their name comes from Plataea, whom they consider to be a daughter of the river Asopus.
9.1.2 It is clear that the Plataeans too were of old ruled by kings; for everywhere in Greece in ancient times, kingship and not democracy was the established form of government. ”