Listed 50 sub titles with search on: The inhabitants for wider area of: "STEREA HELLAS Region GREECE" .
EVIA (Island) GREECE
There were also some Aeolians from the army of Penthilus who remained in the island, and, in ancient times, some Arabians who had crossed over with Cadmus.
KARYSTOS (Ancient city) EVIA
Perseus Encyclopedia
MALIAKOS GULF (Gulf) FTHIOTIDA
PLATEES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
That of Athens comprised the Chians, Lesbians, Plateans, the Messenians in Naupactus, most of the Acarnanians, the Corcyraeans, Zacynthians, and some tributary cities in the following countries, viz., Caria upon the sea with her Dorian neighbors, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian towns, the islands lying between Peloponnese and Crete towards the east, and all the Cyclades except Melos and Thera.
VOULIS (Ancient city) VIOTIA
More than half its inhabitants are fishers of the shell-fish that gives the purple dye.
AVES (Ancient city) ATALANTI
The ancient inhabitants of Euboea. They are said to have been of Thracian origin, to have first settled in Phocis, where they built Abae, and afterwards to have crossed over to Euboea. The Abantes of Euboea assisted in colonizing several of the Ionic cities of Asia Minor.
Aristotle says that Thracians, setting out from the Phocian Aba, recolonized the island (Euboea) and renamed those who held it Abantes. (Strab. 10,1,3)
Since it was still a custom at that time for youth who were coming
of age to go to Delphi and sacrifice some of their hair to the god, Theseus went
to Delphi for this purpose, and they say there is a place there which still to
this day is called the Theseia from him. But he sheared only the fore part of
his head, just as Homer1 said the Abantes did, and this kind of tonsure was called
Theseis after him.
Now the Abantes were the first to cut their hair in this manner, not
under instruction from the Arabians, as some suppose, nor yet in emulation of
the Mysians, but because they were war-like men and close fighters, who had learned
beyond all other men to force their way into close quarters with their enemies.
Archilochus is witness to this in the following words:
Not many bows indeed will be stretched tight, nor frequent slings
Be whirled, when Ares joins men in the moil of war
Upon the plain, but swords will do their mournful work;
For this is the warfare wherein those men are expert
Who lord it over Euboea and are famous with the spear.
Therefore, in order that they might not give their enemies a hold
by their hair, they cut it off. And Alexander of Macedon doubtless understood
this when, as they say, he ordered his generals to have the beards of their Macedonians
shaved, since these afforded the readiest hold in battle.
CHALKIS (Ancient city) EVIA
Archemachus the Euboean says that the Curetes settled at Chalcis, but since they were continually at war for the Lelantine Plain and the enemy would catch them by the front hair and drag them down, he says, they let their hair grow long behind but cut short the part in front, and because of this they were called Curetes, from the cut of their hair, and they then migrated to Aetolia, and, after taking possession of the region round Pleuron, called the people who lived on the far side of the Achelous Acarnanians, because they kept their heads unshorn.
They were the first inhabitants of Doris.
The city became afterwards the capital of the Malians.
EVIA (Island) GREECE
This tripartite cultural division of the island is first reflected in the prehistoric settlement of the island by the semi legendary tribes of the Ellopians in the north, the Abantes in the center, and the Dryopians in the south. Perseus Encyclopedia: id euboea [E: Euboea: Physical Description: History]
Surface finds suggest that (Histaia) it continued to be occupied during the Early Iron Age, probably by the Aiolic speaking Ellopians or Perrhaibians who seem to have replaced the Homeric Abantes. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (Histiaia).
The Ellopians migrated to Histiaea and enlarged the city, being forced to do so by Philistides the tyrant, after the battle of Leuctra. (Strabo 10.1.3)
Perseus Project index - Dryopians+Euboea
The island was called, not only Macris, but also Abantis; at any rate, the poet, although he names Euboea, never names its inhabitants 'Euboeans', but always 'Abantes'. Aristotle says that Thracians, setting out from the Phocian Aba, recolonized the island and renamed those who held it 'Abantes'. (Strabo 10.1.3)
As eponymous also refered Abas, son o Lynceus, king of Argos.
Another eponymous is the local hero Abas from Chalcis, son of the nymph Arethousa by Poseidon.
TITHOREA (Ancient city) FTHIOTIDA
The inhabitants of one of the Phocian towns destroyed by Xerxes. (Herod. viii.
33.) From the order in which it stands in the enumeration of Herodotus, it appears
to have stood near the Cephissus, in some part of the plain between Tithorea and
Elateia, and is perhaps represented by the ruins at Palea Fiva. (Leake, Northern
Greece, vol. ii. p. 89.)
VIOTIA (Ancient area) GREECE
The first to occupy the land of Thebes are said to have been the Ectenes, whose king was Ogygus, an aboriginal. From his name is derived Ogygian, which is an epithet of Thebes used by most of the poets. The Ectenes perished, they say, by pestilence.
After Ectenes perished, there settled in the land the Hyantes and the Aones, who were Boeotian tribes and not foreigners.
Hyantes, (Huantes). The ancient inhabitants of Boeotia, from which
country they were expelled by the Cadmeans. Part of the Hyantes emigrated to Phocis,
where they founded Hyampolis and part to Aetolia. The poets use the adjective
Hyantius as equivalent to Boeoticus.
Aones (Aones), the name of some of the most ancient inhabitants of Boeotia, who derived their origin from Aon, a son of Poseidon. (Strab. p. 401, seq.; Paus. ix. 5. § 1; Lycophr. 1209; Ant. Lib. 25; Steph. B. s. vv. Aones, Boiotia.) They appear to have dwelt chiefly in the rich plains about Thebes,, a portion of which was called the Aonian plain in the time of Strabo (p. 412). Both by the Greek and Roman writers Boeotia is frequently called Aonia, and the adjective Aonius is used as synonymous with Boeotian. (Callim. Del. 75; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. vi. 65; Gell. xiv. 6.) Hence the Muses, who, frequented Mt. Helicon in Boeotia, are called Aonides and Aoniae Sorores. (Ov. Met. v. 333; Juv. vii. 58, et alibi; cf. Miller, Orchomenos, p. 124, seq. 2nd ed.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hyantes (Huantes), are mentioned among the aboriginal inhabitants
of Boeotia, who were driven out of this country by the Cadmeians, whereupon they
founded the town of Hyampolis in Phocis. (Paus. ix. 5. § 1, ix. 35. § 5; Strab.
vii. p. 321, ix. pp. 401, 424, x. p. 464.)
DELPHI (Small town) PARNASSOS
1/9
EVIA (Island) GREECE
... But he (Theseus) sheared only the fore part of his head, just as Homer said the Abantes did, and this kind of tonsure was called Theseis after him. Now the Abantes were the first to cut their hair in this manner, not under instruction from the Arabians, as some suppose, nor yet in emulation of the Mysians, but because they were war-like men and close fighters, who had learned beyond all other men to force their way into close quarters with their enemies.
TANAGRA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
These stated themselves that they came from Eretria originally, but Herodotus thinks that they were Phoenicians. They lived at Tanagra in Boeotia, which had been formerly called Gephura (Etym. M.). When the rest of the Cadmeans were driven out by the Argives and went to the Encheleis, the Gephyraeans remained in Boeotia at first; but later, being expelled by the other inhabitants of that country, they turned to Athens. The Athenians made them citizens on special terms, epi rhetois: which were probably to maintain in repair the bridges over the river Cephisus (Lyd. de Mens. viii. p. 45; Etym. M. s. v. Gephureis), for that art was considered recondite in early times (cf. Fr. Lenormant, Voie Sacree Eleusinienne, p. 247); and with injunctions to keep aloof from the other citizens in many respects. They had temples and rites special to themselves (though these cannot have long remained secret: cf. Schol. on Aristoph. Ach. 708), and among these the temple and rites of Demeter Achaea (Herod. l. c.).
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SKOLOS (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Scolus is a village in the Parasopian country at the foot of Mount Cithaeron, a place that is rugged and hardly habitable; whence the proverb, "neither go to Scolus thyself nor follow another thither."
EVIA (Island) GREECE
Their muster for the Trojan war.
Perseus Project Index. Total results on 25/4/2001: 76 for Euboeans.
FOKIS (Ancient area) GREECE
History of the, their muster for the Trojan war, at war with Phlegyans, join Ionian emigration to Asia, at war with Thessalians, guard pass over Mt. Oeta against Persians, their fortification of Thermopylae, contingent with Leonidas, Phocian guard on the path Anopaea, Phocian feud with Thessaly, Phocis overrun by Persians, courage of a Phocian contingent in Mardonius' army, Artabazus' flight to Phocis, ravage Locris, denounce Thebans to Lacedaemonians, fined by Amphictyons for cultivating sacred land, allies of Spartans, allies of Athenians, at war with Thebans, seize Delphic sanctuary, propose to destroy Delphi, revolt from Macedonia, strenuous in repelling Gauls, number of Phocians who fought Gauls at Thermopylae, belong to Amphictyonic League, in Sicily, offerings of Phocians at Delphi, Phocian confederacy, `Phocian despair,' proverb, Phocian parliament, Phocian or Sacred War, Phocian watchword.
Phocians, Phocaeans, Phokaians, Phokians: Perseus Project index
LOKRIS (Ancient country) FTHIOTIDA
Opposite to Euboea (Opuntians), border on Phocis, found Thronium, in the Persian armies, with the Greeks at Thermopylae, Locrian ships in the Greek fleet, Ozolian Locrians, flight of the Delphians thither, revolt from Macedonia, Opuntian Locrians, their weapons, Opuntian Locrians akin to Italian Locrians, Ozolian Locrians, Hypocnemidian Locrians between Phocis and coast and between Phocis and Thessaly, Hypocnemidian Locrians belong to Amphictyonic League, number of Hypocnemidian Locrians who marched to Thermopylae to meet Xerxes, Locrians who dwell opposite island of Atalanta, number of them who fought against Gauls at Thermopylae, Locrians of Amphissa harry Phocis, Epicnemedian Locrians join Herakles in his war on Oechalia, their muster for the Trojan war, propitiate Athena at Ilium by sending maidens to her for a thousand years.
Locrians, Lokrians: Perseus Project index
OPOUNDIA LOKRIS (Ancient area) FTHIOTIDA
Perseus Encycopedia
THESPIES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Follow Iolaus to Sardinia, march to Thermopylae, dismissed by Epaminondas before battle of Leuctra, take refuge in Ceressus, but are captured by Epaminondas, honour Love above all gods, hold festival and games of Muses and Love on Mount Helicon, dedicate statue of Plistaenus at Olympia. (Paus. 7.2.2)
THIVES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Expose one of their sons every month to the (Teumessian) vixen, at war with Minyans of Orchomenus, the Sphinx propounds a riddle to the, they seek counsel of Tiresias, defeated by the Argives, abandon the city, found Hestiaea, their battle with Euboeans, under Nycteus defeated by Epopeus, king of Aegialus, defeated by Argives at Glisas, join Ionian migration to Asia, four hundred Thebans march to Thermopylae, defeat Athenians at Delium, capture and destroy Plataea, defeated by Agesilaus at Coronea, defeat Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, build treasury at Delphi out of spoils of battle of Leuctra, found Messene, restore Mantinea, raised to highest place by Epaminondas, march against Sicyon, expel Orchomenians, defeat Megarians, expelled by Alexander, restored by Cassander.
TOLOFON (Ancient city) PARNASSOS
These first gave hostages themselves, and induced the rest to do the same for fear of the invading army; first, their neighbors the Myonians, who held the most difficult of the passes, and after them the Ipnians, Messapians, Tritaeans, Chalaeans, Tolophonians, Hessians, and Oeanthians, all of whom joined in the expedition; the Olpaeans contenting themselves with giving hostages, without accompanying the invasion; and the Hyaeans refusing to do either, until the capture of Polis, one of their villages.
This extract is from: Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. Richard Crawley. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910
Cited Sept. 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
VIOTIA (Ancient area) GREECE
Named after Boeotus, formerly inhabited Thessaly and were called Aeolians, their muster for the Trojan war, defeated by Athenians, defeat Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, side with Macedonia against Greece, how many marched to Thermopylae to meet Gauls, Boeotian confederacy, dissolved by Romans, Boeotian general assembly held in sanctuary of Itonian Athena, Boeotian flutes.
Boeotarches (Boiotarches, or Boiotarchos). It is proposed under this head to give
a brief account of the Boeotian constitution as well as of the Boeotarchs.
The Boeotians in ancient times occupied Arne in Thessaly. (Thuc. i.
12.) Sixty years after the taking of Troy they were expelled by the Thessalians,
and settled in the country then called Cadmeis, but afterwards Boeotia (the apodasmos
being introduced by Thucydides in order to reconcile the Homeric account, Il.
ii. 494. foll., with the tradition as to the time of their migration into Boeotia).
The leader of the Boeotians was king Opheltas (Plut. Cim. 1); a later king Xanthus
fell in single combat with Melanthus (Harp. s. v. Apatouria). From Thuc. iii.
61 it would seem that these kings ruled the whole country from Thebes. Later on
the country was divided into several states, containing each a principal city
with its xunteleis (cf. Thuc. iv. 76, Chaironeian--he es Orchomenon--xuntelei)
or xummoroi (cf. Thuc. iv. 93, Thebaioi kai hoi xummoroi autois, i.e. those who
inhabited the same moira or division of Boeotia with the Thebans, as, e.g., the
Parasopii, Therapnenses, Peteonii: Strab. ix. 2, 24. 26, Arnold ad Thuc. l. c.)
living around it. The number and names of these independent states are differently
given by different writers on the subject; we know, however, for certain that
they formed a confederacy called the Boeotian League, with Thebes at its head,
and Freeman is of opinion that the political union grew out of an older Amphictyony
(Pausan. ix. 34, 1). Common sanctuaries were the temple of the Itonian Athene
near Coronea, where the Pamboeotia were celebrated, and the temple of Poseidon
in Onchestus (Strab. ix. 2, 23. 33). Thucydides (iv, 93) mentions seven independent
states: Thebes, Haliartus, Coronea, Copae, Thespiae, Tanagra, and Orchomenus;
and we learn from inscriptions that, at one time or other, the following belonged
to the same class: Anthedon, Lebadea, Hyettus, Acraephia, Chorsia (or Korsia,
Demosth. F. L. § 141, etc.), Thisbe, Chaeronea. O. Muller (Orchom. p. 403) supposes
there were originally fourteen free states. Probably the number differed at different
times; some Boeotian towns seceded from the league, as Eloutherae (Pausan. i.
38, 8), Plataea (Herod. vi. 108, in B.C. 519, according to Clinton, whilst Grote,
iv. 94 n., fixes the date after the expulsion of Hippias; it joined the league
again a few years previous to B.C. 372), Orchomenus in B.C. 395 (Xen. Hell. iii.
5, 6), Oropus (Pausan. i. 34, 1; Xen. Hellen. vii. 4, 1; Demades, i. 9, and Hyp.
pro Eux. c. 16; Diod. Sic. xiii. 56); or non-Boeotian towns joined the league,
e. g. Larymna (Pausan. ix. 23, 7, hekousios metetaxanto es Boiotous), etc.; or
we find Boeotian towns changing their status within the league, gaining independence:
thus Acraephia belonged at one time to Thebes (Pausan. ix. 23, 5, einai ex arches
moiran tes Thebaidos); as to Chaeronea cf. Thuc. iv. 76, and Pausan. ix. 3, 6;
other towns were destroyed by Thebes, as Plataea, Orchomenus, Thespiae, Coronea.
The dependent towns, or districts, were not immediately connected with the national
confederacy, but with the neighbouring chief city, as Cynoscephalae was with Thebes
(Boeckh on Pindar. ii. 2, p. 13). In fact, they were obliged to furnish troops
and money, to make up the contingent furnished by the state to which they belonged,
to the general confederacy (Arnold ad Thuc. iv. 76). Freeman, however, is of opinion
that xuntelein implies a greater degree of freedom on the part of these dependent
places than Arnold allows (cf. also Vischer, Kl. Schr. i. p. 341, 4). Freeman
divides the history of the league into three periods: the first extends to the
dissolution of the league at the peace of Antalcidas, B.C. 387 ; the second includes
the short but brilliant period of Theban greatness down to the conquest of Thebes
by Philip (B.C. 338) and its destruction by Alexander, B.C. 387-334 (the league
was nominally revived: Diod. xv. 80, koine sunodos ton Boioton: cf. 83, but was
practically only another name for bondage to Thebes, Xen. Hell. vi. 1, 1, v. 4,
63); the third from the destruction of Thebes by Alexander and its restoration
by Cassander, B.C. 316 (Thebes becoming again the head of the league: Liv. xxxi.
1, Boeotiae caput, but with powers very inferior to those she formerly possessed),
down to the final dissolution of the league by Quintus Marcius Philippus, B.C.
171. Mommsen (Rom. Gesch. i. p. 740) fixes the legal dissolution of the league
in B.C. 146, and infers from Pausanias (vii. 16, 9, 10) that it was revived soon
afterwards (kai sunedria te kata ethnos apodidoasin [hoi Pomaioi] hekastois ta
archaia, etc.). Certain it is that some kind of confederation lasted down to a
late period of the Roman Empire: the Boeotians retained two votes in the Amphictyonic
council after the reforms of Augustus (Aeschin. ii. § 116, and Pausan. ix. 8,
3); they sent Epaminondas of Acraephia as ambassador to the emperor Caligula huper
tou ethnous Boioton (Keil, Sylloge Inscr. Boeot. p. 116; cf. C. I. G., 1625, l.
30, to koinon Pamboioton sunedrion); and from an inscription of the reign of Marcus
Aurelius (Henzen, Ann. [p. 301] dell' Inst. di Corresp. Archeol., 1866, p. 139
foll.), we learn that a citizen of Chaeronea had been three times Boeotarch (ho
Boiotarches to g).
Each of the principal towns seems to have had its boule (Xen. Hell.
v. 2. 29) and demos. It is true, as Freeman points out, the passage in question
merely speaks of a Theban boule, and that during the time (B.C. 382) when the
confederation was in abeyance, yet he admits that Boeckh was justified by analogy
in his supposition; he adds that he is not clear about the existence of popular
assemblies in the Boeotian cities during the first period (yet there are traces
of such: see Herod. v. 79, halien poiesamenoi: Xen. Hell. iii. 5. 8, tote hapasa
he polis apepsephisato me sustrateuein autois, sc. the Lacedaemonians). In his
opinion, during nearly the whole of the first period, the government of each particular
city was oligarchic, as the federal government was oligarchic; for the supreme
power of the league was vested in the four senates (Thuc. v. 38, haiper hapan
to kuros echousin), of the constitution of which we know nothing. Tittmann (p.
695), Kortum (p. 86), and Freeman consider it most probable that they represented
four districts ; they must, however, have been assembled in one place, since Thucydides
uses also boule for them all. In the second period, after democracy was introduced
at Thebes, Thebes practically became sovereign (Isocr. xiv. 8. 35); there was
no longer a Boeotian confederacy, but rather a Theban state, in which other cities
were compelled to merge themselves against their will. In formal documents constitutional
federal language was employed (koine sunodos ton Boioton, Diod. xv. 80; xvi. 85),
but in reality the Boeotian assembly simply sat to register Theban edicts in the
name of the league (to plethos or ho demos, Diod. xv. 72, 78, 79). In the third
period (the date of the reconstitution of the league does not seem certain, but
in B.C. 323 the Boeotians are spoken of as a political whole, Hyper. Or. fun.
6, 16), Orchomenus was for a time the head of the league (B.C. 294, Polyaen. iv.
7, 11), but Thebes was again Boeotiae caput in B.C. 197 (Liv. xxxi. 1): the supreme
power was vested in a federal assembly, in which, as we may gather from an expression
of Livy (l. c. c. 2), each of the confederate cities had a distinct vote (Freeman):
ho demos conferred proxenia (proxenon eimen Boioton, Larfeld, Syll. Inscr. Boeot.
No. 316 = C. I. G. 1565, No. 317), elected strategoi (Polyb. xx. 6), etc.
Each city had one or several archons (cf. the inscr. quoted above
from the 1st century after Christ, and C. I. G. 1625, 1. 41); their period of
office was a year (C. I. G. 1569a, iii. 40, ho eniautos ho meta Thunarchon archonta
Erchomenius; Rangabe, Antiq. Hellen. 1005; hence the archon is called eponumos).
We know nothing of their power and duties. The Theban archon was chosen by lot,
and kept a sacred spear of office always by him (Plut. de gen. Socr. 31; see Plut.
Arist. 21, on the Plataean archon). The main powers of the state were in the hands
of the polemarchs, the maximi magistratus of Corn. Nep. Pelop. ii. 2; they did
not command forces, but they could imprison (Xen. Hell. v. 2, 30); they directed
the levies of troops (C. I. G. 1573, etc.); they seem also to have been concerned
with finances (C. I. G. 1569, 1570), and to have been entrusted with the carrying
out of decrees of the senate and people (Keil, p. 132, dedogmenon einai tois te
sunedrois kai toi demoi, tous polemarchous tous epi Kaphi[sotimou?] archontos
[epainesai], etc.; Meier, d. Privatschiedrichter, etc., p. 49, 1, 27, anagrapsai
t[e tous] astoguol? where Lebas, Voyage archeol. en Grece, No. 35, reads anagrapsanton
de toi polema[rchoi]). Their period of service was a year; their number was three
(not six, as Boeckh thought; cf. E. Curtius in Rhein. Mus. 1843, p. 110), see
C. I. G. 1573, etc.; only two are mentioned for Thebes by Xen. Hell. v. 2, 25.
The grammateus to the polemarchs under the empire (C. I. G. 1573, grammatiddontos
tus polemarchus) was probably of higher rank than the one mentioned by Xen. Hell.
v. 4, 2; Plut. Pelop. 7, de gen. Socr. 4. Of other magistrates we find mentioned
hipparchoi and ilarchai (C. I. G. 1575, 1588; Rang. 1313; C. I. G. 1588, 1576),
commanding the cavalry; a nauarchos (Rang. l. c.); katoptai, who assisted the
polemarchs in financial matters and audited magistrates' accounts (C. I. G. 1569,
1570); sunegoroi and soundikoi (Keil, p. 13); tamiai, with their president ho
tamias ho proarchon (C. I. G. 1570, ho t. ho p. prostheto to elleipon kai apologisastho
pros katoptas). The popular assembly at Thebes is called halia by Herod. v. 79,
ekklesia by Demosth. de Cor. § 213, and Plut. Pelop. 12; see also Pausan. ix.
1. 5, epistanto (the Plataeans) tous Thebaious hos pandemei kai hama epi pleiston
eiothesan bouleuesthai, parephulasson tas ekklesias auton, etc. The murderers
of Euphron (B.C. 367) were put upon their trial before the boule at Thebes (Xen.
Hell. vii. 3, 5-12); hoi dikazein lachontes are mentioned by Pausan. ix. 14. 7,
in connexion with the trial of Epameinondas. Besides the archons of the separate
states, there was an archon of the confederacy. This archon, the nominal chief
of the league, was not necessarily a Theban, as Boeckh supposed: cf. Keil, p.
69, archontos Boiotois Philokomo [Ant]i[gene]iio The[i]spie[ios], and Lolling
(Mittheil. d. d. Arch. Inst. in Athen, iii. p. 87), Eumeilo archontos Epikoudeio
Koroneos; he was re-eligible after his year's service, for in some inscriptions
of Hyettus we find the same federal archon, but different polemarchs. His name
was affixed to all alliances and compacts which concerned the whole confederacy
(C. I. G. 1565, tou deina archontos: 1570, archontos en koinoi Boioton, or, as
above, with the addition of his father's name and that of the town of which he
was a citizen), and also to the lists of conscripts of the individual states,
the name of the federal archon preceding that of the local archon: thus C. I.
G. 1573, Kteisiao archontos Boiotns, Erchomenius de Karaicho. The real power was
in the hands of the Boeotarchs, as representatives of the several Boeotian cities;
it is true, their determinations required the ratification of the four senates
(Thuc. v. 38). They: were the supreme military commanders, but we also find them
discharging the functions of an executive in various matters. In fact, they are
represented by Thucydides as forming an alliance with foreign states; as receiving
ambassadors on their return home; as negotiating with envoys from other countries,
and as acting as the representatives of the whole league, although, to their great
surprise, the boule refused to sanction the measures they had resolved on (cf.
also Aeschin. [p. 302] iii. 149, 151; Polyaen. iv. 7-11). Another instance in
which the Boeotarchs appear as executive is their interference with Agesilaus
on his embarking from Aulis for Asia (B.C. 396), when they prevented him from
offering sacrifice as he wished (Plut. Ages. 6; Xen. Hell. iii. 4, 4). Still the
principal duty of the Boeotarchs was of a military nature (hence they are sometimes
called strategoi, Plut. Reg. et imp. Apophth. p. 194 B; Pelop. 29, 31, &c.):
thus they led into the field the troops of their respective states; and when at
home they took whatever measures were requisite to forward the military operations
of the league, or of their own state. For example, we read of one of the Theban
Boeotarchs ordering the Thebans to come in arms to the ecclesia for the purpose
of being ready to attack Plataea (Pausan. ix. 1. 6). The exact number of Boeotarchs
is a disputed point; we know that the Thebans elected two (Thuc. ii. 2 ; iv. 91,
etc.), and Boeckh explains the second Theban Boeotarch to have been the representative
of some town formerly a member of the league, but afterwards merged in Thebes
(on one occasion, i. e. after the return of the exiles with Pelopidas, B.C. 379,
we read of there being three at Thebes, Plut. Pelop. 13); and it is generally
supposed that each of the other cities elected one. Boeckh, however, whom Grote
(ii. p. 296) follows, is of opinion that in the second period of the league the
number of Boeotarchs was fixed, and that two or three of the smaller cities chose
one Boeotarch in turn. Mention is made of eleven Boeotarchs in connexion with
the battle of Delium (B.C. 424) by Thucydides (iv. 91, cf. Schol. on ii. 2; so
Boeckh, Arnold, etc. others make out thirteen; Von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff in Hermes,
viii. p. 440, proposes to read hepta for hendeka since in chap. 93 seven independent
states are mentioned). At the time of the battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371) we find
seven Boeotarchs mentioned (Diod. Sic. xv. 52, 53; Pausan. ix. 13. 6, 7), and
the same number in C. I. G. 1565, 1593, and in the inscr. quoted above (Lolling,
etc.), if aphedriateuontes is only another name for Boeotarchs (so Boeckh, C.
I. G. p. 729 a; Schoemann, Jus publ. 408, n. 37; whilst C. W. Muller sees in them
the members or committees of the four senates, and G. Gilbert, ii. p. 56, a commission
specially appointed to procure the tripods in question). Correspondingly there
were seven federal officers of the cavalry, as we learn from the account of the
hipparch Pompidas (see Von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, l.c. pp. 431-441. Thuc. iv.
72; Polyb. xx. 5, mention the hipparch ton Boioton). No conclusion as to the number
of Boeotarchs can be drawn from Liv. xlii. 43 ( ut duodecim, qui privati coetum
et concilium habuissent ), or from Pausan. x. 20. 3, where we read of four, since
on that particular expedition probably only that number were sent. The Boeotarchs,
when engaged in military service, formed a council of war, the decisions of which
were determined by a majority of votes (Thuc. iv. 91; Diod. Sic. xv. 53, 62; Pausan.
ix. 13, 6, 7), and it may be doubted whether the words hegemonias ouses autou
in the passage of Thucydides imply that the supreme command was always vested
in a Theban Boeotarch, or whether it was merely the turn of Pagondas to command
that particular day (Freeman). Their period of service was a year, beginning about
the winter solstice (Plut. Pelop. 24, 25), and whoever continued in office longer
than his time was punishable with death, both at Thebes and in other cities (Plut.
l. c.; Pausan. ix. 14. 5; Corn. Nep. Epam. 7). Epameinondas, with Pelopidas and
the other Boeotarchs, did so on their invasion of Laconia (B.C. 369), but their
eminent services saved them; in fact, the judges did not even come to a vote respecting
the former. At the expiration of the year a Boeotarch was eligible to office a
second time, and Pelopidas was re-elected without interruption from B.C. 378 to
his death (Diod. Sic. xv. 81). From the case of Epameinondas and Pelopidas, who
were brought before Theban judges for transgression of the law which limited the
time of office, we may conclude that each Boeotarch was responsible to his own
state alone. From Polyb. xx. 6; xxiii. 2, Freeman (cf. Gilbert, p. 55, n. 3) concludes
that in the third period there was a single general at the head of the league,
as at the head of other leagues, by whose side the Boeotarchs continued, their
office now answering pretty well to that of the Achaean Demiourgoi or Ministers.
Other officials of the league are mentioned in C. I. G. 1593: cf. Rangabe, 1217,
a grammateus, a theopropeon, and a manteuomenos.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AMFISSA (Ancient city) PARNASSOS
But meanwhile the Locrians of Amphissa, who lived sixty stadia from Delphi, came against us, armed and in full force; and it was only by running that we barely got back to Delphi in safety, for we were in peril of our lives (Aesch. 3,123).
(also see Dem. 18,157 & Paus. 3,9,9)
CHERONIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Of the gods, the people of Chaeroneia honor most the scepter which Homer says4 Hephaestus made for Zeus, Hermes received from Zeus and gave to Pelops, Pelops left to Atreus, Atreus to Thyestes, and Agamemnon had from Thyestes. This scepter, then, they worship, calling it Spear
ORCHOMENOS (Archaeological site) VIOTIA
The Boeotians say that Eteocles was the first man to sacrifice to the Graces. Moreover, they are aware that he established three as the number of the Graces, but they have no tradition of the names he gave them. In the ancient times the worship of the Graces was the most important one in Orchomenus. Pindar calls it "kallichoron polin chariton (=beautiful town of the Graces)" (Ekd. Athinon, Pausaniou Periegissis, vol.5, p. 224, note 1).
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