Thebes

The prominence of Thebes in early Greek myth reflects the Boeotian city's Mycenean status as one of the great citadels of the late Bronze Age. In Classical times, the city was notorious for joining the Persians against the Greeks during the Xerxes invasion of 480-479 bc, and igniting the later internecine Peloponnesian war by a night attack on the nearby neutral town of Plataea. Its rich agriculture, Boeotian allies, and federated political organization gave the Thebans natural military advantages, and it was eagerly courted for much of its history by both Athens and Sparta to tip the fragile balance of power among the Greek states. By the 4th century under Epaminondas and Pelopidas, Thebes and its Boeotian confederacy achieved a brief but unquestioned pre-eminence among the city states after the battle of Leuctra (371) after which a further campaign freed the Spartan helots and ensured autonomy from Spartan hegemony for most of the cities of the Peloponnese.

Leuctra was won by stacking hoplites in an unprecedentedly deep phalanx on the left wing of the battle line, where it smashed the élite enemy right. After the death of Epaminondas at the battle of Mantineia (362), Thebes' hegemony was short. In a futile effort to stop Macedonian aggrandizement, it anchored the Greek right wing at the battle of Chaeronea (338), where the Sacred Band, an élite corps of 300 Theban fighters, was slaughtered to the man. On the death of Philip II of Macedon, Thebes revolted against the Macedonian yoke, only to fall to Alexander ‘the Great’, who destroyed the city and sold the inhabitants into slavery, an act of terror that shocked Greece and ended centuries of uninterrupted political and military eminence.

Bibliography

• Buckler, J., The Theban Hegemony 371-362 bc (Cambridge, Mass., 1980).
• Demand, N., Thebes in the 5th Century (London, 1982)

— Victor D. Hanson