Boeotia

Ancient and modern district of central Greece, of which Thebes was and remains the chief city. The Boeotian League (formed by ten city-states in the 6th century BC) was brought under strong central Theban control in the later 5th century BC. It superseded Sparta as the leading military power in Greece in the 4th century BC until the rise of Philip II of Macedon.

The Boeotian League consisted of independent city-states under the presidency of Thebes. Each city-state elected a ‘Boeotarch’ to handle war and foreign affairs and each sent 60 delegates to the federal assembly, but had its own council. Contingents of about 1000 infantry and 100 cavalry were supplied to the federal army by each city-state.

Boeotia was bounded on the north by Locris, on the west by Phocis, on the south by Attica, Megaris, and the Corinthian gulf, and on the north-east by the strait of Euboea. Whilst Thebes was the most important town, other principal towns were Orchomenus, Plataea, Tanagra , Thespiae, Chaeronea, Coronea, and Haliartus. Plataea was allied to Athens in 431 BC, but was besieged and captured by Thebes soon after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The inhabitants of Boeotia were satirized as slow and ‘yokel-ish’ by other Greeks, but included Hesiod, Pindar, Epaminondas, Pelopidas, and (in Roman times) Plutarch.