Chief city of Boeotia, in ancient Greece. It was originally a Mycenaean city. Thebes is rich in associations with Greek legend and religion (see Oedipus; the Seven against Thebes; Epigoni). Sometime before 1000 B.C., Thebes was settled by Boeotians and rapidly replaced Orchomenus as the region's leading city. At the end of the 6th cent. B.C. it began its struggle with Athens to maintain its position in Boeotia and in Greece.In the Persian Wars, Thebes, motivated by hostility to Athens, sided (480479 B.C.) with the Persians. When the Persians were defeated, Thebes was punished, and only the intervention of Sparta, which saw in the city a balance to the power of Athens, saved it from destruction. Thebes supported Sparta against Athens in the Peloponnesian War but, fearing Spartan territorial ambitions, withdrew this support and joined (394 B.C.) the confederation against Sparta. Sparta was able to place (382 B.C.) a garrison in Thebes, but the city was freed by one of its great generals, Pelopidas, three years later. This freedom was insured (371 B.C.) by the Spartan defeat at Leuctra by the Theban Epaminondas.
Thebes joined Athens against Philip II of Macedon and shared in the defeat at Chaeronea (338 B.C.). A revolt at Thebes caused Alexander the Great to attack and destroy (336 B.C.) the city. Cassander rebuilt Thebes c.315 B.C., but it never regained its former greatness. The modern Thívai occupies the site of the Theban acropolis, part of which still survives. There are also remains of the prehistoric city and the temple of Ismenian Apollo. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001)
* * *The major city of Boeotia nom—s (department), northwest of Athens, Greece, and one of the chief cities and powers of ancient Greece. On the acropolis of the ancient city stands the present commercial and agricultural centre of Thebes. It is situated on a low ridge dividing the surrounding plain; the modern city is the seat of the Greek Orthodox bishop of Thebes and Lev‡dhia. It has abundant springs of water, the most famous in antiquity being called Dirce, and the fertile plain in the vicinity is well irrigated.
Thebes was the seat of the legendary king Oedipus and the locale of most of the ancient Greek tragediesÑnotably Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes and Sophocles' Oedipus the King and AntigoneÑand of other compilations about the fate of Oedipus, his wife-mother, and his children.
Said to have been occupied originally by Ectenians under the leadership of Ogyges (Ogygus), Thebes is called Ogygion by some classical poets. Greek legend attributes the founding of the ancient citadel, Cadmea, to the brother of Europa, Cadmus, who was aided by the Spartoi (a race of warriors sprung from dragon's teeth that Cadmus had sown). The building of the celebrated seven-gated wall of Thebes is usually attributed to Amphion, who is said to have charmed the stones into moving by the playing of his lyre. Archaeological evidence indicates that the site was inhabited in both the early and late Bronze ages. The ruined 15th-century-BC Minoan-style palace at Cadmea was adorned with frescoes of Theban women in Minoan dress; some Cretan vases also suggest contacts between Thebes and Knossos in the period 1450-1400 BC. In 1970 clay tablets confirming Mycenaean-Minoan links were found, while the discovery of Mesopotamian cylinder seals in 1964 strengthened the theory that Cadmus introduced writing to Greece.
Thebes rivaled Argolis as a centre of Mycenaean power until its palace and walls were destroyed shortly before the Trojan War (c. 1200 BC). According to tradition, the city was destroyed by the sons of the Seven about whom Aeschylus wrote. Knowledge of succeeding centuries is sparse. Immigration produced a Boeotian mixed stock, including the Aegeids, a Dorian clan, and an oligarchy of large estates was regulated by laws passed about 725. In the 6th century a league of Boeotian cities was formed; it was dominated by Thebes from the 5th century. Hostility to Athens over mutual interest in the Plataea district led in the 5th century to Theban collaboration with Persia and, later, with Sparta. A Theban suggestion at the end (404) of the Peloponnesian War that the Spartans annihilate the Athenians was rebuffed; the two powers clashed, and Sparta, winning, disbanded the Boeotian League (386) and occupied Cadmea (382).
Revolting after 379, Thebes reorganized the league along democratic lines and defeated Sparta at Tegyra (375) and Leuctra (371). For the next 10 years Thebes was the first military power in Greece; its commander Epaminondas invaded the Peloponnese (370-362) and died at the Battle of Mantineia (362). A rapid decline followed, and in 346 civil strife forced Thebes to admit Philip II of Macedon. Still fickle, Thebes broke confidence with Philip and in 338 was defeated at Chaeronea; the Boeotian League was again dissolved, and Thebes was garrisoned by Macedonian troops. After a massacre and almost total destruction in a fruitless uprising (336) against Alexander the Great, Cassander rebuilt Thebes in 316. The city's fortunes wavered between independence and subjugation. From about 280 it was once more part of the revived Boeotian League, forming regional alliances as required. For its participation in the Achaean revolt, the city eventually fell under Rome and was stripped of half its territory in 86 by the Roman general Sulla.
The historian Pausanias (2nd century AD) reported Cadmea still inhabited, but the town was overrun by a succession of conquerers and adventurers. In Byzantine and Frankish times it prospered as an administrative and commercial centre, particularly for silk weaving. It had a large Jewish colony in the 12th century. Throughout the Turkish occupation (1435-1829), it was only a poor village, and in the 19th century it was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt. Few artifacts of its earliest days survive.
The present city is the chief market town of a rich agricultural plain, trading in wheat, olive oil, wine, tobacco, and cotton, as well as silk manufacture. It is linked by rail to Athens. Among the few ancient ruins are remnants of the city walls, the palace of Cadmus (c. 1450-1350 BC), and the Ismeneion, or temple of Apollo Ismenius. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 18,191. (Encyclop¾dia Britannica. 2004)
