Boeotia

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Wikipedia.

Boeotia

Boeotia (bēōˈshə), region of ancient Greece. It lay N of Attica, Megaris, and the Gulf of Corinth. The early inhabitants were from Thessaly. A number of small cities scattered over the rough country—mountainous in the south, hilly in the north—may have had a sort of confederacy before the Boeotian League was formed (c.7th cent. B.C.). Thebes dominated the region and the league. The rival cities were Orchomenus, Plataea, and Thespiae. The history of Boeotia is largely a record of the vain attempts of these cities to escape the domination of Thebes and the attempts of Thebes to prevent encroachment on the region by others of the great city-states. Boeotia, therefore, was the scene of various important battles—Plataea, Leuctra, Coronea, and Chaeronea. After the defeat of the Persians at Plataea (479), the Greeks besieged Thebes for aiding the Persians, and the Boeotian League was disbanded. The league was temporarily revived in 457 B.C. before being defeated in the same year by Athens, which briefly attached the Boeotian cities to the Athenian empire. Thebes returned to power at the head of the league in 446. Later, after the victory of Epaminondas over the Spartans, the history of Boeotia was completely absorbed into that of Thebes. Boeotia was the home of the poets Hesiod and Pindar.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Boeotia

(Voiótía), a province in central Greece. The first states on the territory of Boeotia arose during the Mycenaean period, between 3000 and 2000 B.C. In the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. a process of social stratification took place and the landowning elite acquired the leading position in economic and political life. They supported the Persians in the Greco-Persian wars of 500–449 B.C. and fought on Sparta’s side against Athens in the Peloponnesian War of 431–404 B.C. In the fourth century B.C., the democratic movement in Boeotia gained strength, and what was in effect a federal Boeotian state was formed (based on the ancient alliance of Boeotian cities) headed by the Thebans; for a short period (379–362 B.C.), with the leaders of the Theban democracy Pelopidas and Epaminondas, this state became the most powerful political force in Greece. However the bloody wars with Sparta from 378 to 362 B.C. weakened Boeotia so much that after 362 B.C the league of Boeotian towns lost its former importance. In 338 B.C the

Boeotian League was dissolved. It was reestablished from the third to the second century B.C. and finally dissolved in 146 B.C During the Roman period (second century B.C. to fourth century A.D.) the cities of Boeotia fell into decline. In present-day Greece the former Boeotian territory is a prefecture (nomos) bearing that name; its center is Levadhia.

REFERENCES

Lur’e, S. Ia. Beotiiskii Soiuz. St. Petersburg, 1914.
Busolt, G., and H. Swoboda. Griechische Staatskunde, 3rd ed., fasc. 2. Munich, 1926.
Guillon, P. La Béotie antique. Paris [1948].

E. D. FROLOV

Boeotia

a region of ancient Greece, northwest of Athens. It consisted of ten city-states, which formed the Boeotian League, led by Thebes: at its height in the 4th century bc

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

References in periodicals archive ?

1-4; Plutarch, Moralia, 193B, 618C-D, 774C-D; Pausanias, Description of Greece, Boeotia, 9.13.

In search of Plutarch's lost life of Epaminondas

The last occurred after the Spartan victories in Chalcidice, at Amphipolis especially, and Athenian defeat on land in Boeotia at the battle of Delium.

Thucydides on policy, strategy, and war termination

"The Boeotia Survey, a preliminary report: the first four years".

A geoinformatic approach to the collection of archaeological survey data

The Spartan army invading Boeotia consisted of 9300 hoplites, 600 horsemen and a few hundred light armoured spearmen (Delbruck 1975:169).

Why did the Thebans defeat the normally militarily superior Spartans at the battle of Leuctra (371 BC)?

Testing the hinterland; the work of the Boeotia Survey (1989-1991) in the southern approaches to the city of Thespiai.

Testing the hinterland; the work of the Boeotia Survey (1989-1991) in the southern approaches to the city of Thespiai. (CD-ROM included)

"(T)he majority of the islanders and many mainland cities (including Thebes, Argos and Aegina) reacted positively to the call ...; only Sparta and Athens refused." (23) On the eve of Marathon, the Athenians' neighboring district of Boeotia turned against them and openly welcomed the arrival of the Persians.

The forgotten empire: teaching ancient Persian history in a world history class

(34) He certainly built aqueducts, or replaced old ones, across the width of the Empire: at Italica, (35) Gabii (CIL 14.2797), Cingulum (CIL 9.5681), Dyrr(h)achium (CIL 3.709), (36) Sarmizegetusa (CIL 3.1446), Argos in the Peloponnese, (37) Coronea in Boeotia

Exchanging gladiators for an aqueduct at aphrodisias (seg 50.1096)

Two Canadian colleagues of Ben Hijmans take us to Greece, Hugh Mason to Lesbos, and John Wortley to Boeotia. Hugh Mason (16), whose earlier publications on Lesbian topography are well-known, (7) first investigates the question whether the fruit mentioned by Sappho (frgs.

M. Zimmerman and R. van der PAARDT (eds.): Metamorphic Reflections

The poet Pindar may have sung of this eclipse, though it was not visible in his native Boeotia. (19)