THEBAE
THEBAE (
Θῆβαι, orig.
Θήβη, Dor.
Θήβα: Eth.
Θηβαῖος, fem.
Θηβαΐς, Eth.
Thebanus, fem. Eth.
Thebais), the chief city in Boeotia, was situated in the southern plain of the country, which is divided from the northern by the ridge of Onchestus. Both these plains are surrounded by mountains, and contained for a long time two separate confederacies, of which Orchomenus in the north and Thebes in the south were the two leading cities.
I. HISTORY.
No city in Greece possessed such long continued celebrity as Thebes. Athens and Sparta, which were the centres of Grecian political life in the historical period, were poor in mythical renown; while Argos and Mycenae, whose mythical annals are full of glorious recollections, sank into comparative insignificance in historical times, and Mycenae indeed was blotted out of the map of Greece soon after the Persian wars.
But in the mythical ages Thebes shone pre-eminent, while in later times she always maintained her place as the third city of Greece; and after the battle of Leuctra was for a short period the ruling city.
The most celebrated Grecian legends cluster round Thebes as their centre; and her two sieges, and the fortunes of her royal houses, were the favourite subjects of the tragic muse.
It was the native city of the great seer Teiresias and of the great musician Amphion.
It was the reputed birthplace of the two deities Dionysus and Hercules, whence Thebes is said by Sophocles to be “the only city where mortal women are the mothers of gods” (
οὗ δὴ μόνον τίκτουσιν αἱ θνηταὶ θεούς, Fragm. ap. Dicaearch, § 17, ed. Muller; Mure,
Tour in Greece, vol. i. p. 253.)
According to the generally received tradition, Thebes was founded by Cadmus, the leader of a Phoenician colony, who called the city
CADMEIA (
Καδμεία), a name which was afterwards confined to the citadel.
In the Odyssey, Amphion and Zethus, the two sons of Antiope by Zeus, are represented as the first founders of Thebes and the first
[p. 2.1146]builders of its walls. (
Od. 11.262.)
But the logographers placed Amphion and Zethus lower down in the series, as we shall presently see.
The legends connected with the foundation of the city by Cadmus are related elsewhere. [
Dict. of Biogr. and Myth. art.
CADMUS] The five Sparti, who were the only survivors of the warriors sprung from the dragon's teeth, were the reputed ancestors of the noblest families in Thebes, which bore the name of Sparti down to the latest times.
It is probable that the name of their families gave origin to the fable of the sowing of the dragon's teeth.
It appears certain that the original inhabitants of Thebes were called Cadmeii (
Καδμεῖοι, Il. 4.388,
391,
5.807,
10.288,
Od. 11.276) or Cadmeiones (
Καδμείωνες, Il. 4.385,
5.804,
23.680), and that the southern plain of Boeotia was originally called the Cadmeian land (
Καδμηΐς γῆ, Thuc. 1.12).
The origin of these Cadmeians has given rise to much dispute among modern scholars. K. O. Müller considers Cadmus a god of the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians, and maintains that the Cadmeians are the same as the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians; Welcker endeavours to prove that the Cadmeians were a Cretan colony; while other writers adhere to the old traditions that the Cadmeians were Phoenicians who introduced the use of letters into Greece. (Müller,
Orchomenos, p. 111, seq., 2nd ed.; Thirlwall,
Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 111.)
It is useless, however, to enter into the discussion of a subject respecting which we possess no materials for arriving at a satisfactory conclusion.
It is certain that the Greeks were indebted to the Phoenicians for their alphabet; but whether the Cadmeians were a Phoenician colony or some other race must be left uncertain.
But we must return to the legendary history of Thebes. Cadmus had one son, Polydorus, and four daughters, Ino, Semele, Autonoë, and Agave, all of whom are celebrated in the mythical annals.
The tales respecting them are given in the
Dict. of Biogr. and Myth., and it is only necessary to mention here that Ino became the wife of Athamas and the mother of Melicertes; Semele was beloved by Zeus and became the mother of the god Dionysus; Autonoë was the mother of the celebrated hunter Actaeon, who was torn to pieces by the dogs of Artemis; and Agave was the mother of Pentheus, who, when Cadmus became old, succeeded him as king of Thebes, and whose miserable end in attempting to resist the worship of Dionysus forms the subject of the
Bacchae of Euripides.
After the death of Pentheus, Cadmus retired to the Illyrians, and his son Polydorus became king of Thebes. Polydorus is succeeded by his son Labdacus, who leaves at his death an infant son Laius.
The throne is usurped by Lycus, whose brother Nycteus is the father of Antiope, who becomes by Zeus the mother of the twin sons, Amphion and Zethus. Nycteus having died, Antiope is exposed to the persecutions of her uncle Lycus and his cruel wife Dirce, till at length her two sons, Amphion and Zethus, revenge her wrongs and become kings of Thebes. They fortify the city; and Amphion, who had been taught by Hermes, possessed such exquisite skill on the lyre, that the stones, obedient to his strains, moved of their own accord, and formed the wall ( “movit Amphion lapides canendo,”
Hor. Carm. 3.11).
The remainder of the legend of Amphion and Zethus need not be related; and there can be no doubt, as Mr. Grote has remarked, that the whole story was originally unconnected with the Cadmeian family, as it still stands in the Odyssey, and has been interwoven by the logographers into the series of the Cadmeian myths.
In order to reconcile the Homeric account of the building of the city by Amphion and Zethus with the usually received legend of its foundation by Cadmus, it was represented by later writers that, while Cadmus founded the Cadmeia, Amphion and Zethus built the
lower city (
τὴν τόλιν τὴν κάτω), and gave to the united city the name of Thebes. (
Paus. 9.5. § § 2, 6.)
After Amphion and Zethus, Laius became king of Thebes; and with him commences the memorable story of Oedipus and his family, which is too well known to need repetition here. When Oedipus was expelled from Thebes, after discovering that he had murdered his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta, his two sons Eteocles and Polynices quarrelled for their father's throne. Their disputes led to the two sieges of Thebes by the Argive Adrastus, two of the most memorable events in the legendary history of Greece. They formed the subject of the two epic poems, called the Thebais and the Epigoni, which were considered only inferior to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Polynices, having been driven out of Thebes by Eteocles, retires to Argos and obtains the aid of Adrastus, the king of the city, to reinstate him in his rights. Polynices and Adrastus are joined by five other heroes, making the confederacy known under the name of the “Seven against Thebes.” The names of these seven chiefs were Adrastus, Amphiaräus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Tydeus, and Polynices; but there are discrepancies in the lists, as we shall notice more fully below: and Aeschylus (
Sept. c. Theb. 461) in particular omits Adrastus, and inserts Eteocles in his place. The Seven Chiefs advanced against Thebes, and each attacked one of the celebrated gates of the city. Polynices and Eteocles fell by each other's hands; and in the general engagement which followed the combat of the two brothers, the Argives were defeated, and all their chiefs slain, with the exception of Adrastus, who was saved by the swiftness of his horse Areion, the offspring of Poseidon.
A few years afterwards the sons of the Seven Chiefs undertook an expedition against Thebes, to avenge their fathers' fate, hence called the war of the Epigoni or Descendants.
This expedition was also led by Adrastus, and consisted of Aegialeus, son of Adrastus, Thersander, son of Polynices, Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, sons of Amphiaräus, Diomedes, son of Tydeus, Stheneleus, son of Capaneus, and Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus. The Epigoni gained a victory over the Cadmeians at the river Glisas, and drove them within their walls. Upon the advice of the seer Teiresias, the Cadmeians abandoned the city, and retired to the Illyrians under the guidance of Laodamas, son of Adrastus. (
Apollod. 3.7.4;
Hdt. 5.57-
61;
Paus. 9.5.13;
Diod. 4.65,
66.) The Epigoni thus became masters of Thebes, and placed Thersander, son of Polynices, on the Throne. (For a full account of the legends of Thebes, see Grote,
Hist. of Greece, vol. i. c. xiv.)
According to the mythical chronology, the war of the Seven against Thebes took place 20 years before the Trojan expedition and 30 years before the capture of Troy; and the war of the Epigoni was placed 14 years after the first expedition against Thebes, and consequently only 4 years before the departure of the Greeks against Troy. (Clinton,
F. H. vol. i. p. 140.)
[p. 2.1147]
There is another important event in the mythical times of Thebes, which was not interwoven with the series of the legends already related.
This is the birth of Hercules at Thebes, and the important services which he rendered to his native city by his war against Orchomenus.
It was stated that the Thebans were compelled to pay tribute to Erginus, king of Orchomenus; but that they were delivered from the tribute by Hercules, who marched against Orchomenus, and greatly reduced its power (
Paus. 9.37.2;
Strab. ix. p.414;
Diod. 4.18).
This legend has probably arisen from the historical fact, that Orchomenus was at one time the most powerful city in Boeotia, and held even Thebes in subjection.
Thebes is frequently mentioned in Homer, who speaks of its celebrated seven gates (
Il. 4.406,
Od. 11.263); but its name does not occur in the catalogue of the Greek cities which fought against Troy, as it was probably supposed not to have recovered from its recent devastation by the Epigoni. Later writers, however, related that Thersander, the son of Polynices, accompanied Agamemnon to Troy, and was slain in Mysia by Telephus, before the commencement of the siege; and that upon his death the Thebans chose Peneleos as their leader, in consequence of the tender age of Tisamenus, the son of Thersander. (
Paus. 9.5. § § 14, 15.)
In the Iliad (
2.494) Peneleos is mentioned as one of the leaders of the Boeotians, but is not otherwise connected with Thebes.
According to the chronology of Thucydides, the Cadmeians continued in possession of Thebes till 60 years after the Trojan War, when they were driven out of their city and country by the Boeotians, an Aeolian tribe, who migrated from Thessaly. (
Thuc. 1.12;
Strab. ix. p.401.)
This seems to have been the genuine tradition; but as Homer gives the name of Boeotians to the inhabitants of the country called Boeotia in later times, Thucydides endeavours to reconcile the authority of the poet with the other tradition, by the supposition that a portion of the Aeolic Boeotians had settled in Boeotia previously, and that these were the Boeotians who sailed against Troy.
According to other accounts, Thebes was taken by the Thracians and Pelasgians during the Trojan War, and its inhabitants driven into exile in Thessaly, whence they returned at a later period. (
Strab. ix. p.401;
Diod. 19.53,)
Pausanias gives us a list of the kings of Thebes, the successors of Tisamenus, till the kingly dignity was abolished and a republic established in its place (9.5.16).
But, with the exception of one event, we know absolutely nothing of Theban history, till the dispute between Thebes and Plataea in the latter end of the sixth century B.C.
The event to which we allude is the legislation of Philolaus, the Corinthian, who was enamoured of Diocles, also a Corinthian, and the victor in the Olympian games, B.C. 728. Both Philolaus and Diocles left their native city and settled at Thebes, where the former drew up a code of laws for the Thebans, of which one or two particulars are mentioned by Aristotle. (
Pol. 2.9. § § 6, 7.)
At the time when Thebes first appears in history, we find it under an oligarchical form of government, and the head of a political confederation of some twelve or fourteen Boeotian cities.
The greater cities of Boeotia were members of this confederation, and the smaller towns were attached to one or other of these cities in a state of dependence. [BOEOTIA, p. 415.] The affairs of the confederation were managed by certain magistrates or generals, called Boeotarchs, of whom there were eleven at the time of the battle of Delium (B.C. 424). two being elected by Thebes, and one apparently by each of the other members of the confederation (
Thuc. 4.91).
But the real authority was vested in the hands of the Thebans, who used the power of the confederation with an almost exclusive view to Theban interests, and kept the other states in virtual subjection.
The first well-known event in Grecian history is the dispute, already mentioned, between Thebes and Plataea. The Plataeans, discontented with the supremacy of Thebes, withdrew from the Boeotian confederation, and surrendered their city to the Athenians.
This led to a war between the Thebans and Athenians, in which the Thebans were defeated and compelled to cede to the Plataeans the territory S. of the Asopus, which was made the boundary between the two states. (
Hdt. 6.108;
Thuc. 3.68.)
The interference of Athens upon this occasion was bitterly resented by Thebes, and was the commencement of the long enmity between the two states, which exercised an important influence upon the course of Grecian history.
This event is usually placed in B.C. 519, upon the authority of Thucydides (L. C.); but Mr. Grote brings forward strong reasons for believing that it must have taken place after the expulsion of Hippias from Athens in B.C. 510. (
Hist. of Greece, vol. iv. p. 222.)
The hatred which the Thebans felt against the Athenians was probably one of the reasons which induced them to desert the cause of Grecian liberty in the great struggle against the Persian power.
But in the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 427) the Theban orator pleaded that their alliance with Persia was not the fault of the nation, but of a few individuals who then exercised despotic power. (
Thuc. 3.62.)
At the battle of Plataea, however, the Thebans showed no such reluctance, but fought resolutely against the Athenians, who were posted opposite to them. (
Hdt. 9.67.) Eleven days after the battle the victorious Greeks appeared before Thebes, and compelled the inhabitants to surrender their
medising leaders, who were immediately put to death, without any trial or other investigation. (
Hdt. 9.87,
88.) Thebes had lost so much credit by the part she had taken in the Persian invasion, that she was unable to assert her former supremacy over the other Boeotian towns, which were ready to enter into alliance with Athens, and would doubtless have established their complete independence, had not Sparta supported the Thebans in maintaining their ascendency in the Boeotian confederation, as the only means of securing the Boeotian cities as the allies of Sparta against Athens.
With this view the Spartans assisted the Thebans in strengthening the fortifications of their city, and compelled the Boeotian cities by force of arms to acknowledge the supremacy of Thebes. (
Diod. 11.81; Justin,
3.6.) In B.C. 457 the Athenians sent an army into Boeotia to oppose the Lacedaemonian forces in that country, but they were defeated by the latter near Tanagra. Sixty-two days after this battle (B.C. 456), when the Lacedaemonians had returned home, the Athenians, under the command of Myronides, invaded Boeotia a second time.
This time they met with the most signal success.
At the battle of Oenophyta they defeated the combined forces of the Thebans and Boeotians, and obtained in consequence possession of Thebes and of
[p. 2.1148]the other Boeotian towns.
A democratical form of government was established in the different cities, and the oligarchical leaders were driven into exile. (
Thuc. 1.108;
Diod. 11.81.)
This state of things lasted barely ten years; the democracy established at Thebes was ill-conducted (Arist.
Pol. 5.2.6); and in B.C. 447 the various Boeotian exiles, combining their forces, made themselves masters of Orchomenus, Chaeroneia, and some other places. The Athenians sent an army into Boeotia under the command of Tolmides; but this general was slain in battle, together with many of his men, while a still larger number were taken prisoners. To recover these prisoners, the Athenians agreed to relinquish their power over Thebes and the other Boeotian cities.
The democratical governments were overthrown; the exiles were restored; and Thebes again became the bitter enemy of Athens. (
Thuc. 1.113,
3.62;
Diod. 12.6.) The Thebans were indeed more anti-Athenian than were the Spartans themselves, and were the first to commence the Peloponnesian War by their attempt to surprise Plataea in the night, B.C. 431.
The history of this attempt, and of the subsequent siege and capture of the city, belongs to the history of Plataea. [
PLATAEA] Throughout the Peloponnesian War the Thebans continued the active and bitter enemies of the Athenians; and upon its close after the battle of Aegospotami they joined the Corinthians in urging the Lacedaemonians to destroy Athens, and sell its population into slavery. (
Xen. Hell. 2.2. 19) But soon after this event the feelings of the Thebans towards Athens became materially changed in consequence of their jealousy of Sparta, who had refused the allies all participation in the spoils of the war, and who now openly aspired to the supremacy of Greece. (
Plut. Lys. 27; Justin,
6.10.) They consequently viewed with hostility the Thirty Tyrants at Athens as the supporters of the Spartan power, and gave a friendly welcome to the Athenian exiles.
It was from Thebes that Thrasybulus and the other exiles started upon their enterprise of seizing the Peiraeeus; and they were supported upon this occasion by Ismenias and other Theban citizens. (
Xen. Hell. 2.4. 2) So important was the assistance rendered by the Thebans on this occasion that Thasybulus, after his success, showed his gratitude by dedicating in the temple of Hercules colossal statues of this god and Athena. (
Paus. 9.11.6.)
The hostile feelings of Thebes towards Sparta continued to increase, and soon produced the most important results. When Agesilaus was crossing over into Asia in B.C. 397, in order to carry on war against the Persians, the Thebans refused to take any part in the expedition, and they rudely interrupted Agesilaus when he was in the act of offering sacrifices at Aulis, in imitation of Agamemnon;--an insult which the Spartan king never forgave. (
Xen. Hell. 3.5. 5;
Plut. Ages. 6;
Paus. 3.9. § § 3--5.) During the absence of Agesilaus in Asia, Tithraustes, the satrap of Asia Minor, sent an envoy to Greece to distribute large sums of money among the leading men in the Grecian cities, in order to persuade them to make war against Sparta.
But before a coalition could be formed for this purpose, a separate war broke out between Thebes and Sparta, called by Diodorus (
14.81) the Boeotian war.
A quarrel having arisen between the Opuntian Locrians and the Phocians respecting a strip of border land, the Thebans espoused the cause of the former and invaded Phocis. Thereupon the Phocians invoked the aid of the Lacedaemonians, who were delighted to have an opportunity of avenging the affronts they had received from the Thebans. (
Xen. Hell. 3.5. 3-
5;
Paus. 3.9.9.) The Lacedaemonians made active preparations to invade Boeotia. Lysander, who had been foremost in promoting the war, was to lay siege to Haliartus, under the walls of which town Pausanias was to join him on a given day with the united Lacedaemonian and Peloponnesian forces. Thus menaced, the Thebans applied for assistance to their ancient enemies, the Athenians, who readily responded to their appeal, though their city was still undefended by walls, and they had no ships to resist the maritime power of Sparta. (
Xen. Hell. 3.5. 16; Dem.
de Cor. p. 258.) Orchomenus, however, seized the opportunity to revolt from Thebes, and joined Lysander in his attack upon Haliartus. (
Xen. Hell. 3.5. 17;
Plut. Lys. 28.)
The death of Lysander under the walls of Haliartus, which was followed by the retreat of Pausanias from Boeotia, emboldened the enemies of Sparta; and not only Athens, but Corinth, Argos, and some of the other Grecian states joined Thebes in a league against Sparta.
In the following year (B.C. 394) the war was transferred to the territory of Corinth; and so powerful were the confederates that the Lacedaemonians recalled Agesilaus from Asia.
In the month of August Agesilaus reached Boeotia on his homeward march, and found the confederate army drawn up in the plain of Coroneia to oppose him.
The right wing and centre of his army were victorious, but the Thebans completely defeated the Orchomenians. who formed the left wing.
The victorious Thebans now faced about, in order to regain the rest of their army, which had retreated to Mount Helicon. Agesilaus advanced to meet them; and the conflict which ensued was one of the most terrible that had yet taken place in Grecian warfare. The Thebans at length succeeded in forcing their way through, but not without great loss.
This was the first time that the Thebans had fought a pitched battle with the Spartans; and the valour which they showed on this occasion was a prelude to the victories which were soon to overthrow the Spartan supremacy in Greece. (
Xen. Hell. 4.3. 15-
21.)
We have dwelt upon these events somewhat at. length in order to explain the rise of the Theban power; but the subsequent history must be related more briefly.
After the battle of Coroneia the course of events appeared at first to deprive Thebes of the ascendency she had lately acquired.
The peace of Antalcidas (B.C. 387), which was concluded under the influence of Sparta, guaranteed the independence of all the Grecian cities; and though the Thebans at first claimed to take the oath, not in their own behalf alone, but for the Boeotian confederacy in general, they were compelled by their enemy Agesilaus to swear to the treaty for their own city alone, since otherwise they would have had to contend single-handed with the whole power of Sparta and her allies. (
Xen. Hell. 5.1. 32,
33.)
By this oath the Thebans virtually renounced their supremacy over the Boeotian cities; and Agesilaus hastened to exert all the Spartan power for the purpose of weakening Thebes. Not only was the independence of the Boeotian cities proclaimed, and a legal oligarchy organised in each city hostile to Thebes and favourable to Sparta, but Lacedaemonian garrisons were,
[p. 2.1149]stationed in Orchomenus and Thespiae for the purpose of overawing Boeotia, and the city of Plataea was rebuilt to serve as an outpost of the Spartan power. (
Paus. 9.1.4).
A more direct blow was aimed at the independence of Thebes in B.C. 382 by the seizure of the Cadmeia, the citadel of the city, by the Spartan commander, Phoebidas, assisted by Leontiades and a party in Thebes favourable to Sparta. Though Phoebidas appears to have acted under secret orders from the Ephors (
Diod. 15.20;
Plut. Ages. 24), such was the indignation excited throughout Greece by this treacherous act in time of peace, that the Ephors found it necessary to disavow Phoebidas and to remove him from his command; but they took care to reap the fruits of his crime by retaining their garrison in the Cadmeia. (
Xen. Hell. 5.2. 25) Many of the leading citizens at Thebes took refuge at Athens, and were received with the same kindness which the Athenian exiles experienced at Thebes after the close of the Peloponnesian War. Thebes remained in the hands of the Spartan party for three years; but in B.C. 379 the Spartan garrison was expelled from the Cadmeia, and the party of Leontiades overthrown by Pelopidas and the other exiles.
The history of these events is too well known to be repeated here.
In the following year (B.C. 378) Thebes formed an alliance with Athens, and with the assistance of this state resisted with success the attempts of the Lacedaemonians to reduce them to subjection; but the continued increase of the power of the Thebans, and their destruction o f the city of Plataea [
PLATAEA] provoked the jealousy of the Athenians, and finally induced them to conclude a treaty of peace with Sparta, B.C. 371.
This treaty, usually called the peace of Callias from the name of the leading Athenian negotiator, included all the parties in the late war with the exception of the Thebans, who were thus left to contend single-handed with the might of Sparta.
It was universally believed that Thebes was doomed to destruction; but only twenty days after the signing of the treaty all Greece was astounded at the news that a Lacedaemonian army had been utterly defeated, and their king Cleombrotus slain, by the Thebans, under the command of Epaminondas, upon the fatal field of Leuctra (B.C. 371).
This battle not only destroyed the prestige of Sparta and gave Thebes the ascendency of Greece, but it stript Sparta of her Peloponnesian allies, over whom she had exercised dominion for centuries, and led to the establishment of two new political powers in the Peloponnesus, which threatened her own independence.
These were the Arcadian confederation and the restoration of the state of Messenia, both the work of Epaminondas, who conducted four expeditions into Peloponnesus, and directed the councils of Thebes for the next 10 years.
It was to the abilities and genius of this extraordinary man that Thebes owed her position at the head of the Grecian states; and upon his death, at the battle of Mantineia (B.C. 362), she lost the pre-eminence she had enjoyed since the battle of Leuctra. During their supremacy in Greece, the Thebans were of course undisputed masters of Boeotia, and they availed themselves of their power to wreak their vengeance upon Orchomenus and Thespiae, the two towns which had been the most inimical to their authority, the one in the north and the other in the south of Boeotia. The Orchomenians had in B.C. 395 openly joined the Spartans and fought on their side; and the Thespians had withdrawn from the Theban army just before the battle of Leuctra, when Epaminondas gave permission to any Boeotians to retire who were averse to the Theban cause. (
Paus. 9.13.8.) The Thespians were expelled from their city and Boeotia soon after the battle of Leuctra [
THESPIAE]; and Orchomenus in B.C. 368 was burnt to the ground by the Thebans; the male inhabitants were put to the sword, and all the women and children sold into slavery. [
ORCHOMENUS]
The jealousy which Athens had felt towards Thebes before the peace of Callias had been greatly increased by her subsequent victories; and the two states appear henceforward in their old condition of hostility till they were persuaded by Demosthenes to unite their arms for the purpose of resisting Philip of Macedon.
After the battle of Mantineia their first open war was for the possession of Euboea.
After the battle of Leuctra this island had passed under the supremacy of Thebes; but, in B.C. 358, discontent having arisen against Thebes in several of the cities of Euboea, the Thebans sent a powerful force into the island.
The discontented cities applied for aid to Athens, which was readily granted, and the Thebans were expelled from Euboea. (
Diod. 16.7; Dem.
de Cherson. p. 108,
de Cor. p. 259,
c. Ctesiph. p. 397.) Shortly afterwards the Thebans commenced the war against the Phocians, usually known as the Sacred War, and in which almost all the leading states of Greece were eventually involved. Both Athens and Sparta supported the Phocians, as a counterpoise to Thebes, though they did not render them much effectual assistance.
This war terminated, as is well known, by the intervention of Philip, who destroyed the Phocian towns, and restored to Boeotia. Orchomenus and the other towns which the Phocians had taken away from them, B.C. 346. The Thebans were still the allies of Philip,when the latter seized Elateia in Phocis towards the close of B.C. 339, as preparatory to a march through Boeotia against Athens.
The old feeling of ill--will between Thebes and Athens still continued: Philip calculated upon the good wishes, if not the active co-operation, of the Thebans against their old enemies; and probably never dreamt of a confederation between the two states as within the range of probability.
This union, however, was brought about by the eloquence of Demosthenes, who was sent as ambassador to Thebes, and who persuaded the Thebans to form an alliance with the Athenians for the purpose of resisting the ambitious schemes of Philip.
In the following year (B.C. 338) Philip defeated the combined forces of Thebes and Athens at the battle of Chaeroneia, which crushed the liberties of Greece, and made it in reality a province of the Macedonian monarchy. On this fatal field the Thebans maintained the reputation they had won in their battles with the Spartans; and their Sacred Band was cut to pieces in their ranks.
The battle was followed by the surrender of Thebes, which Philip treated with great severity. Many of the leading citizens mere either banished or put to death; a Macedonian garrison was stationed in the Cadmeia; and the government of the city was placed in the hands of 300 citizens, the partisans of Philip. The Thebans were also deprived of their sovereignty over the Boeotian towns, and Orchomenus and Plataea were restored, and again filled with a population hostile to Thebes. (
Diod. 16.87; Justin,
9.4;
Paus. 4.27.10,
9.1.8.)
In the year after Philip's death (B.C. 335) the Theban exiles got possession of the city,
[p. 2.1150]besieged the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmeia, and invited the other Grecian states to declare their independence.
But the rapidity of Alexander's movements disconcerted all their plans.
He appeared at Onchestus in Boeotia, before any intelligence had arrived of his quitting the north.
He was willing to allow the Thebans an opportunity for repentance; but as his proposals of peace were rejected, he directed a general assault upon the city. The Theban troops outside the gates were driven back, and the Macedonians entered the town along with them.
A dreadful carnage ensued; 6000 Thebans are said to have been slain, and 30,000 to have been taken prisoners.
The doom of the conquered city was referred to the Grecian allies in his army, Orchomenians, Plataeans, Phocians, and other inveterate enemies of Thebes. Their decision must have been known beforehand. They decreed that Thebes should be razed to the ground, with the exception of the Cadmeia, which was to be held by a Macedonian garrison; that the territory of the city should be divided among the allies; and that all the inhabitants, men, women, and children should be sold as slaves.
This sentence was carried into execution by Alexander, who levelled the city to the ground, with the exception of the house of Pindar (Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 1.8,
9;
Diod. 17.12-
14; Justin,
11.4.) Thebes was thus blotted out of the map of Greece, and remained without inhabitants for the next 20 years. In B.C. 315, Cassander undertook the restoration of the city.
He united the Theban exiles and their descendants from all parts of Greece, and was zealously assisted by the Athenians and other Grecian states in the work of restoration.
The new city occupied the same area as the one destroyed by Alexander; and the Cadmeia was held by a garrison of Cassander. (
Diod. 19.52-
54,
78;.
Paus. 9.7.4.) Thebes was twice taken by Demetrius, first in B.C. 293, and a second time in 290, but on each occasion he used his victory with moderation. (
Plut. Demetr. 39,
40; Diod. xxi. p. 491, ed. Wess.)
Dicaearchus, who visited Thebes not long after its restoration by Cassander, has given a very interesting account of the city. “Thebes,” he says ( § 12, seq. ed. Müller), “is situated in the centre of Boeotia, and is about 70 stadia in circumference; its site is level, its shape circular, and its appearance gloomy.
The city is ancient, but it has been lately rebuilt, having been three times destroyed, as history relates
1, on account of the insolence and haughtiness of its inhabitants.
It is well adapted for rearing horses since it is plentifully provided with water, and abounds in green pastures and hills: it contains also better gardens than any other city in Greece. Two rivers flow through the town, and irrigate all the subjacent plain.
There is also a subterraneous stream issuing from the Cadmeia, through pipes, said to be the work of Cadmus. Thebes is a most agreeable residence in the summer, in consequence of the abundance and coolness of the water, its large gardens, its agreeable breezes, its verdant appearance, and the quantity of summer and autumnal fruits.
In the winter, however, it is a most disagreeable residence, from being destitute of fuel, and constantly exposed to floods and winds.
It is then often covered with snow and very muddy.” Although Dicaearchus in this passage gives to Thebes a circumference of 70 stadia, he assigns in his verses (
Stat. Graec. 93) a much smaller extent to it, namely 43 stadia.
The latter number is the more probable, and, being in metre was less likely to be altered;. but if the number in prose is correct, it probably includes the suburbs and gardens outside the city walls. Dicaearchus also gives an account of the character of the inhabitants, which is too long to be extracted.
He represents them as noble-minded and sanguine, but insolent and proud, and always ready to settle their disputes by fighting rather than by the ordinary course of justice.
Thebes had its full share in the later calamities of Greece.
After the fall of Corinth, B.C. 146, Mummius is said to have destroyed Thebes (
Liv. Epit. 52), by which we are probably to understand the walls of the city.
In consequence of its having sided with Mithridates in the war against the Romans, Sulla deprived it of half its territory, which lie dedicated to the gods, in order to make compensation for his having plundered the temples at Olympia, Epidaurus, and Delphi. Although the Romans afterwards restored the land to the Thebans, they never recovered from this blow (
Paus. 9.7. § § 5, 6); and so low was it reduced in the time of Augustus and Tiberius that Strabo says that it was little more than a village (ix. p. 403).
In the time of the Antonines, Pausanias found the Cadmeia alone inhabited, and the lower part of the town destroyed, with the exception of the temples (9.7.6).
In the decline of the Roman Empire, Thebes became the seat of a considerable population, probably in consequence of its inland situation, which afforded its inhabitants greater security than the maritime towns from hostile attacks.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries Thebes was one of the most flourishing cities in Greece, and was celebrated for its manufactures of silk. In A.D. 1040 the Thebans took the field to oppose the Bulgarian invaders of Greece, but were defeated with great loss. (Cedren. p. 747, ed. Paris., p. 529, ed. Bonn.) In A.D. 1146 the city was plundered by the Normans of Sicily, who carried off a large amount of plunder (Nicetas, p. 50, ed. Paris., p. 98, ed. Bonn.) Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Thebes about 20 years later, speaks of it as still a large city, possessing 2000 Jewish inhabitants, who were very skilful manufacturers of silk and purple cloth (1.47, ed. Asher; Fihlay,
Byzantine Empire, vol. i. p. 493, vol. ii. p. 199).
The silks of Thebes continued to be esteemed even at a later period, and were worn by the emperors of Constantinople. (Nicetas, p. 297, ed. Paris., p. 609, ed. Bonn.) They were, however, gradually supplanted by those of Sicily and Italy; and the loss of the silk trade was followed by the rapid decline of Thebes. Under the Turks the city was again reduced, as in the time of Pausanias, to the site of the Cadmeia.
II. TOPOGRAPHY.
Thebes stood on one of the hills of Mount Teumessus, which divides southern Boeotia into two distinct parts, the northern being the plain of Thebes and the southern the valley of the Asopus. The Greeks, in founding a city, took care to select a spot where there was an abundant supply of water, and a hill naturally defensible, which might be easily converted into an acropolis. They generally preferred a position which would command the adjacent plain, and which was neither immediately upon the coast nor
[p. 2.1151]yet at a great distance from it.
But as Boeotia lies between two seas, the founders of Thebes chose a spot in the centre of the country, where water was very plentiful, and where the nature of the ground was admirably adapted for defence.
The hill, upon which the town stands, rises about 150 feet above the plain, and lies about 2 miles northward of the highest part of the ridge.
It is bounded on the east and west by two small rivers, distant from each other about 6 or 7 stadia, and which run in such deep ravines as to form a natural defence on either side of the city.
These rivers, which rise a little south of the city, and flow northward into the plain of Thebes, are the celebrated streams of Ismenus and Dirce. Between them flows a smaller stream, which divided the city into two parts, the western division containing the Cadmeia
2, and the southern the hill Ismenius and the Ampheion.
This middle torrent is called Cnopus by Leake, but more correctly Strophia (Callim.
Hymn. in Del. 76) by Forchhammer. The Cnopus is a torrent flowing from. the town Cnopia, and contributing to form the Ismenus, whence it is correctly described by the Scholiast on Nicander as the same as the Ismenus. (
Strab. ix. p.404; Nicand.
Theriac. 889, with Schol.)
The three streams of Ismenus, Dirce, and Strophia unite in the plain below the city, to which Callimachus (
l.c.) appears to allude:--
Δίρκη τε Στροφίη τε μελαμψηφῖδος ἔχουδαι Ἰσμηνοῦ χέρα πατρός.
The middle torrent is rarely mentioned by the ancient writers; and the Ismenus and Dirce are the streams alluded to when Thebes is called
διπόταμος πόλις. (
Eur. Supp. 622; comp.
Phoen. 825.
Bacch. 5,
Herc. Fur. 572.) Both the Ismenus and Dirce, though so celebrated in antiquity, are nothing but torrents, which are only full of water in the winter after heavy rains. The Ismenus is the eastern stream, now called
Ai Iánni, which rises from a clear and copious fountain, where the small church of St. John stands, from which the river derives its name.
This fountain was called in antiquity Melia, who was represented as the mother of Ismenus and Tenerus, the hero of the plain which the Ismenus inundates.
It was sacred to Ares, who was said to have stationed a dragon to guard it. (Callimach.
Hymn. in Del. 80; Spanheim,
ad loc.; Pind. P. 11.6;
Paus. 9.10.5; Forchhammer,
Hellenica, p. 113.) The Dirce is the western stream, now called
Platziótissa, which rises from several fountains, and not from a single one, like the Ismenus.
A considerable quantity of the water of the
Platziótissa is now diverted to supply the fountains of the town, and it is represented as the purest of the Theban streams; and it appears to have been so regarded in antiquity likewise, judging from the epithets bestowed upon it by the poets. (
Ἁγνὸν ὕδωρ, Pind.
Isthm. 6.109,
καλλίρροος. Isthm. 8.43;
ὕδωρ Διρκαῖον εὐτραφέστατον τωμάτων, Aesch.
Sept. c. Theb. 307;
καλλιπόταμος, Eur. Phoen. 647;
Δίρκης νᾶμα λευκόν, Herc. Fur. 578.)
Though the position of Thebes and of its celebrated streams is certain, almost every point connected with its topography is more or less doubtful.
In the other cities of Greece, which have been inhabited continuously, most of the ancient buildings have disappeared; but nowhere has this taken place more completely than at Thebes. Not a single trace of an ancient building remains; and with the exception of a few scattered remains of architecture and sculpture, and some fragments of the ancient walls, there is nothing but the site to indicate where the ancient city stood.
In the absence of all ancient monuments, there must necessarily be great uncertainty; and the three writers who have investigated the subject upon the spot, differ so widely, that Leake places the ancient city to the south of the Cadmeia, and Ulrichs to the north of it, while Forchhammer supposes both the western heights between the Strophia and the Dirce to have been in a certain sense the Cadmeia, and the lower city to have stood eastward, between the Strophia and the Ismenus.
In the great difficulty of arriving at any independent judgment upon the subject without a personal inspection of the site, we have adopted the hypothesis of Forchhammer, which seems consistent with the statements of the ancient writers.
The most interesting point in Theban topography is the position of the seven celebrated Theban gates. They are alluded to by Homer (
Θήβης ἕδος ἑπταπύλοιο, Od, 11.263) and Hesiod (
ἑπτάπυλος Θήβη, Op. 161); and their names are given by seven different authors, whose statements will be more easily compared by consulting the following table.
The numeral represents the order in which the gates are mentioned by each writer.
The first line gives the names of the gates, the second the names of the Argive chiefs, the third the emblems upon their shields, and the fourth the names of the Theban chiefs.
Nonnus designates five of the gates by the names. of the gods and the planets, and to the other two, to which he gives the names of Electrae and Oncaea, he also adds their position. Hyginus calls the gates by the names of the daughters of Amphion; and that of Ogygia alone agrees with those in the other writers.
But, dismissing the statements of Nonnus and Hyginus, whose authority is of no value upon such a question, we find that the remaining five writers agree as to the names of all the seven gates, with two or three exceptions, which will be pointed out presently.
The position of three of the gates is quite clear from the description of Pausanias alone.
These are the ELECTRAE, PROETIDES, and NEITAE. Pausanias says that Electrae is the gate by which a traveller from Plataea enters Thebes (9.8.6); that there is a hill, on the right hand of the gate, sacred to Apollo, called the Ismenian, since the river Ismenus runs in this direction (9.10.2); and that on the left hand of the gate are the ruins of a house, where it was said that Amphitryon lived, which is followed by an account of other ancient monuments on the Cadmeia (9.11.1). Hence it is evident that the gate Electrae was in the south of the city, between the hills Ismenius and Cadmeia.
The gate Proetides was on the north-eastern side of the city, since it led to Chalcis (9.18.1).
The gate Neitae was on the north-western side of the city, since it led to Onchestus arid Delphi; and the river which Pausanias crossed, could have been no other than the Dirce (9.25. § § 1, 3, 9.26.5).
The names of these three gates are the same in all the five writers: the manuscripts of Apollodorus have the corrupt word
Ὀχνηΐδας, which has been altered by the editors into
Ὀγχαῒδας, instead of
Νήϊται, which was the reading suggested by Porson (
ad. Eurip,
Phoen. 1150), and adopted by Valckenaer. (See Unger,
Thebana Paradoxa, vol. i. p. 313.)
[p. 2.1152]
TABLE OF THE SEVEN GATES OF THEBES ACCORDING TO SEVEN WRITERS.
Of the other four gates, the Homoloides is also the same in all the five writers. Of the remaining three Aeschylus does not mention their proper names, but specifies two by their locality, one as near the temple of Athena Onca, and the other as the Northern gate (
Βορραῖαι πύλαι), and describes the last simply as the Seventh gate.
The names of these three gates are nearly the same in the other four writers, the one near the temple of Athena Onca being called Crenaeae, and in Statius Culmina Dircaea, the Northern gate Ogygiae, and the Seventh gate Hypsistae,--Euripides, however, also giving the name of Seventh to the last-mentioned gate.
Having described the position of the Electrae, Proetides, and Neitae, it remains to speak of the position of the other four, which we shall take in the order of Aeschylus.
The fourth gate was probably situated on the western side of the city, and was called Crenaeae, because it was near one of the fountains of Dirce, now called
Παραπόρτι, situated upon the right bank of the river. Near that fountain was a hill, called by the Greeks
ὄγκος, whence Athena derived the name of Onca. Accordingly Statius, in calling the fourth gate Culmina Dircaea, connects both the fountain and the hill. Nonnus, who calls this gate Oncaea, describes it at the same time as situated towards the west.
It is usually stated, on the authority of Hesychius, that the Oncaean gate is the same as the Ogygian; but this identification throws everything into confusion, while the change of three letters, proposed by Forchhammer, brings the statement of Hesychius into accordance with the other writers. (
Ὄγκας Ἀθηνᾶς τὰς Ὀγκαίας [instead of
Ὠγυγίας]
πύλας λέγει, i. e. Aesch.
Sept. c. Theb. 486.)
The fifth gate was called Ogygian from Ogygus, the most ancient king of Thebes, in whose time the deluge is said to have taken place. Now there is no part of Thebes more exposed to inundation than the north of the city between the gates Neitae and Proetides, where the torrent Strophia descends into the plain. Here we may probably place the Ogygian gate, which Aeschylus calls the Northern, from its position.
The exact position of the sixth gate, called Homoloides, and of the seventh, designated by its number in Aeschylus and Euripides, but by the name of Hypsistae in the other writers, is doubtful. Forehhammer maintains that these gates were in the southern part of the city, one on either side of the gate Electrae; but none of his arguments are conclusive; and the position of these gates must be left uncertain. Pausanias relates that, after the victory of the Epigoni at Glisas, some of the Thebans fled to Homole in Thessaly; and that the gate, through which the exiles re-entered the city, when they were recalled by Thersander, was named the Homoloides, from Homole in Thessaly (9.8. § § 6, 7). Forchhammer thinks that it would have been supposed that the exiles entered the city by the same gate by which they quitted it; and as the gate leading to Glisas must have been either in the southern or
[p. 2.1153]eastern side of the city, the gate Homoloides must have been on the southern side, as the Proetides lay towards the east.
But this is mere conjecture; and Leake supposes, with quite as much probability, that the Homoloides was on. the north-western side of the city, since the Thebans would re-enter the city in that direction on their return from Homole.
The divisions of the city, and its monuments, of which Pausanias has given a full description, must be treated more briefly.
The city, as already remarked, was divided into two parts by the torrent Strophia, of which the western half between the Strophia and the Dirce was the cadmeia, while the eastern half between the Strophia and the Ismenus
 |
PLAN OF THEBES FROM FORCHHAMMER.
- 1. Temple of the Ismenian Apollo.
- 2. Melia, the fountain of the Ismenus.
- 3. Athena Onca.
- 4. Fountain of Dirce. Paraporli.
- 5. Theatre and Temple of Dionysus.
- 6. Monument of Amphion and Zethus.
- 7. Fountain of St. Theodore.
- 8. Syrma Antigonae.
- 9. House of Pindar.
- AA. Road to Plataea.
- BB. Road to Leuctra.
- CC. Road to Tanagra.
- DD. Road to Chalcis.
- EE. Road to Acraephnium.
- FF. Road to Thespiae.
|
[p. 2.1154]
was the lower city (
ἡ κάτω πόλις), said to have been added by Amphion and Zethus. (
Paus. 9.5. § § 2, 6.) The Cadmeia is again divided by a slight depression near the fountain of Dirce and the Crenaean. gate into two hills, of which the larger and the higher one to the south was the acropolis proper, and was called the Cadmeia
κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν, while the northern hill formed the agora of the acropolis (
τῆς ἀκροπόλεως ἀγορά, Paus. 9.12.3).
The eastern half of the city was also divided between the Strophia and the Ismenus into two parts, of which the southern consisted of the hill Ismenius, and the northern of several minor eminences, known under the general name of Ampheion.(
Ἀμφεῖον, Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 1.8.) Aeschylus describes the tomb of Amphion as standing near tile northern gate. (
Βορραίαις πύλαις τύμβον κατ᾽ αὐτὸν Διογενοῦς Ἀμφίονος, Sept. c. Theb. 528.) Hence Thebes consisted of four parts, two belonging to the acropolis, and two to the lower city, the former being the acropolis proper and the agora of the acropolis, and the latter being the hill Ismenius and the Ampheion.
Pausanias, leaving Potniae, entered Thebes on the south by the gate Electrae, before which he noticed the Polyandrium, or tomb of the Thebans who fell fighting against Alexander. (
Paus. 9.8. § § 3, 4, 7, 9.10.1.)
The explanation of Forchhammer that Alexander laid siege to the city on the south, and that he did not return from the gate Electrae to the Proetides, as Leake supposes, seems the most probable. Accordingly the double lines of circumvallation, which the Thebans erected against the Macedonian garrison in the Cadmeia, must have been to the south of the city around the chief gates of the Cadmeia. (See Arrian, 1.7, 8.) Upon entering the city through the gate Electrae, Pausanias notices the hill Ismenius sacred to Apollo, named from the river Ismenus flowing by it (9.10.2). Upon the hill was a temple of Apollo, containing several monuments enumerated by Pausanias.
This temple is likewise mentioned by Pindar and Herodotus, both of whom speak of the tripods situated in its treasury. (
Pind. P. 11.7, seq.;
Hdt. 5.59.) Above the Ismenium, Pausanias noticed the fountain of the Ismenus, sacred to Ares, and guarded by a dragon, the name of which fountain was Melia, as we have already seen 9.10.5).
Next Pausanias, beginning again from the gate Electrae, turns to the left and enters the Cadmeia (9.11.1, seq.).
He does not mention the acropolis by name, but it is evident from the list of the monuments which he gives that he was in the Cadmeia.
He enumerates the house of Amphitryon, containing the bedchamber of Alcmena, said to have been the work of Trophonius and Agamedes; a monument of the children of Hercules by Megara; the stone called Sophronister; the temple of Hercules (
Ἡράκλειον, Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 1.8); and, near it, a gymnasium and stadium, both bearing the name of this God; and above the Sophronister an altar of Apollo Spodius.
Pausanias next came to the depression between the acropolis and the agora of the Cadmeia, where he noticed an altar and statue of Athena, bearing the Phoenician surname of Onga (
Ὄγγα), or Onca (
Ὄγκα) according to other authorities, and said to have been dedicated by Cadmus (9.12.2). We know from Aeschylus that there was originally a temple of Athena Onca in this locality, which stood outside the city near one of the gates, whence the goddess was called
ἀγχίπτολις. Some derived the name from a village named Onca or Oncae. (Aesch.
Sept. c. Theb. 163, 487, 501, with Schol.; Schol.
in Euripid. Phoen. 1069;
Steph. B. sub voce Ὀγκαῖαι; Hesych. sub voce Ὄγκας; Schol.
ad Pind. Ol. 2.39, 48; Tzetzes,
ad Lyçophron. 1225; Phavorinus, s. v.
Ὄγκαι.) Sophocles-also speaks of two temples of Athena at Thebes (
πρὸς Παλλάδος διπλοῖς ναοῖς, Oed. Tyr. 20), in one of which, according to the Scholiast, she was surnamed Oncaea, and in the other Ismenia.
In the valley between the two hills, there are still the remains of an aqueduct, partly under and partly above ground, to which Dicaearchus refers (
φέρεται δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Καδμείας ὕδωρ ἀφανὲς διὰ σωλήνων ἀγόμενον, l.c.）
In the agora of the Cadmeia the house of Cadmus is said to have stood; and in this place were shown ruins of the bedchamber of Harmonia and Semele; statues of Dionysus, of Pronomus, the celebrated musician, and of Epaminondas; a temple of Ammon; the place where Teiresias observed the flight of birds; a temple of Fortune; three wooden statues of Aphrodite, with the surnames of Urania, Pandemus, and Apostrophia; and a temple of Demeter Thesmophorus. (
Paus. 9.12. § § 3--5, 9.16. § § 1--5.)
Crossing the torrent Strophia, Pausanias saw near the gate Proetides the theatre with the temple of Dionysus (9.16.6).
In this part of the city, to which Forchhammer gives the name of Ampheion, the following monuments are mentioned by Pausanias (
9.16.7,
9.17. § § 1--4): ruins of the house of Lycus and a monument of Semele monuments of the children of Amphion; a temple of Artemis Eucleia, and, near it, statues of Apollo Boedromius and of Hermes Agoraeus; the funeral pile (
πυρά) of the children of Amphion, distant half a stadium from their tombs; two statues of Athena Zosteria; and the monument of Zethus and Amphion, being a mound of earth.
As the lower city was deserted in the time of Pausanias, he does not mention the agora; but there is no doubt that it contained one, if not more, since Sophocles speaks of several agorae (
Oed. Tyr. 20).
Outside the gate Proetides, on the road to Chalcis, Pausanias names the monuments of Melanippus, Tydeus, and the sons of Oedipus, and 15 stadia beyond the latter the monument of Teiresias. Pausanias also mentions a tomb of Hector and one of Asphodicus, at the fountain Oedipodeia, which is perhaps the modern fountain of
St. Theodore. On the same road was the village Teumessus. (
Paus. 9.18,
9.19.1.)
After describing the road to Chalcis, Pausanias returns to the gate Proetides, outside which, towards the N., was the gymnasium of Iolaus, a stadium, the heroum of Iolaus, and, beyond the stadium, the hippodrome, containing the monument of Pindar (9.23. § § 1, 2). Pausanias then comes to the road leading from the Ogygian or Northern gate, to Acraephnium, after following which he returns to the city, and enumerates the objects outside the gate Neitae. Here, between the gate and the river Dirce, were the tomb of Menoeceus, the son of Creon, and a monument marking the spot where the two sons of Oedipus slew each other.
The whole of this locality was called the Syrma (
Σύρμα of Antigone, because, being unable to carry the dead body of her brother Polynices, she
dragged it to the funenal pile of Eteocles. On the opposite side of the Dirce were the ruins of the house of Pindar, and a temple of Dindymene (9.25. § § 1--3). Pausanias then appears to have returned to the gate Neitae and
[p. 2.1155]followed the road which ran from this gate to On-chestus.
He first mentions a temple of Themis, then temples of the Fates and of Zeus Agoraeus, and, a little farther, a statue of Hercules, surnamed Rhinocolustes, because he here cut off the noses of the heralds of Orchomenus. Twenty-five stadia beyond was the grove of Demeter Cabeiria and Persephone, and 7 stadia further a temple of the Cabeiri, to the
 |
| COIN OF THEBES. |
right of which was the Teneric plain, and to the left a road which at the end of 50 stadia conducted to Thespiae (9.25.5, 9.26. § § 1, 6).
(Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 218, seq., vol. iv. p. 573, seq.; Ulrichs,
Topographie von Theben, in
Abhandl. der Bayer. Akad. p. 413, seq. 1841; Unger,
Thebana Paradoxa, 1839; Forchhammer,
Topographia Thebarum Heptapylarum, Kiliae, 1854.)
