LEUKTRA
Boiotia, Greece.
A village 6 km
SE of Thespiai. It is situated slightly N of a hill (modern village of Parapoungia or Lefktra) overlooking the
fertile plain bounded by the Oeroe river to the S, the
Permessos to the W, and the Thespios to the N. To the
E, on a hill, was the important Mycenaean city of Eutresis. Leuktra and Butresis were komai in the Thespian
territory; the former was situated on one of the roads
leading from Thespiai to the port of Kreusis, at the
mouth of the Oeroe. No trace of it has been found up
to the present time.
In 371 B.C., to force Thebes to grant the Boiotian
cities their independence in accordance with the Peace
of Antalkidas (386), Kleombrotos I, king of Sparta, advanced his army from Phokis to Thebes. Held up near
Koroneia, he walked across Mt. Helikon, reached the
shore of the Gulf of Corinth at Kreusis and once again
climbed up toward Thebes. With his 11,000 men he
met 6,000 Boiotians under Epaminondas in the
plain of Leuktra. Epaminondas' victory ensured the
hegemony of Thebes. He had a trophy built on the spot.
At the beginning of the 3d c. this trophy was replaced
by a monument that figured on silver Boiotian coins in
the period 288-244 B.C. The Greek archaeologist A. Orlandos discovered some of the stones used in this monument and rebuilt it on the original site. On a round base
rebuilt of Domvraina limestone he replaced the 0.68 mhigh frieze of triglyphs and metopai, three fragments
of which had been preserved; above a cornice 0.26 m
high are the eight trapezoidal blocks, placed in circular
courses, each of which has a round shield about one m
in diameter carved in relief on the outer, parabolically
curved face. All these blocks were found in the vicinity
of the trophy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Head,
British Museum Catalogue of
Greek Coins, Central Greece (1884) pl. VI, 2; Wrede in
RE (1925) s.v. Lauktra 1; J. Kromayer,
Antike Schlachtfelder IV (1926) 290ff; A. Orlandos in
Praktika (1958)
43-44; (1961) 225ff; in
Ergon (1958) 48-52; (1960)
222-24; (1961) 229-31; “Chronique des Fouilles”
BCH
83 (1959) 675-79
I; W. K. Pritchett,
Studies in Ancient
Greek Topography I (1965) 49-58
MI; N. Papahadjis,
Pausaniou Hellados Periegesis V (1969) 90-95
MPI.
P. ROESCH
