~ ~ ENCYCLOP.JEDIA BRITANNICA ,y 425 NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611 ~ ,Il?~ ~ Editorial Offices Dear Britannica Contributor: Some time ago you contributed the enclosed copy to Ency- clopaedia Britannica. We have been proud to be able to continue to publish it in the set. Because the material is no longer brand new, however, we have thought it only fair to ask you as the author whether or not its condition is still satisfactory. Are you still content to be identified as the contributor? If not, would you be willing to indicate to us changes you consider necessary? Please note that we are not asking you to undertake any major rewriting or revision at this time. If you believe that drastic changes are required, we would be glad to know that. If, on the other hand, only minor change or updating is necessary, you may if you wish make corrections on one of the two copies enclosed with this letter. (The second copy is for your own use.) We also enclose a copy of your description as it now appears in Britannica. We find that it is no longer safe to assume that a contributor's description will remain accurate for more than a brief time. If yours is out of date, or if the address to which this letter was mailed is no longer current, would you please indicate changes on the enclosed sheet? Britannica values highly the contributions of the thousands of writers represented in its volumes. We hope that you will welcome, as many of our authors have already said that they would welcome, this opportunity to review the condition of what is still being published as your statement. The Editors THEBES bers of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, who have also made a tered Thera (i.e., c. 1360, if the Spartans went to Thera as well complete facsimile record of the reliefs and inscriptions in the as to Melos c. 1100); for a superb collection of Babylonian seals, great temple. The high gate in the eastern side of the perimeter mainly of 14th-century date, which was found in the burnt layer wall of the temple area is battlemented like a fortress. Within of the final destruction, is likely to have formed part of the crown the precinct are other, smaller temples: one dates from the reign jewels of the Cadmean royal house. of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut, but was altered and added to History.-After the migrations of the Early Iron Age the peo- in various reigns and during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods; ple of Boeotia were of mixed stock, some speaking an Aeolic and another is the small mortuary temple of a Saite queen. There are others a northwest Greek dialect, and at Thebes a Dorian clan, a sacred lake and a well, and extensive remains, as in the Rarnes- the Aegeidae, was very influential. Thebes was governed for cen- seum, of houses and vaulted magazines built of mudbrick. turies by an oligarchy of aristocratic clans that held large estates The Palace of Amenhotep IlL-South of the temple of (klaroi), and laws were passed c. 725 to maintain the number of Medinet Habu lie the ruins of what must have been one of the estates. In the 6th century a league of Boeotian cities was formed finest buildings in western Thebes: the palace of King Amenhotep (see BOEOTIA), including Thebes. But Thebes pursued an indi- III and Queen Tiy at Malkata. It is in fact four palaces, one of vidual policy in supporting Pisistratus, who became tyrant of which was occupied by the "great royal wife," for whom her hus- Athens c. 546, and in attacking Plataea, which allied itself with band constructed a huge lake on which she could sail in her barge. Athens in 519. From this sprang a lasting enmity between Thebes The lake, now called Birket Habu, can still be traced by a line of and Athens, because Plataea lay just west of the main route from mounds to the southeast of Malkata. Little is left of the brick Thebes to the Isthmus of Corinth through the Megarid, and the palace itself; it was excavated by G. Daressy and others, lastly alliance of Plataea and Athens threatened to cut this line of com- by archaeologists sent out by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, munication. New York, who were able to restore a few of the splendid wall When hostilities broke out in 519, the Boeotian League sup- paintings. ported Thebes and was defeated by Athens. In 506 Boeotia, Chal- See AMON; EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE; EGYPT: History; see cis, and Sparta combined against Athens, but Boeotia again suf- also references under "Thebes" in the Index. fered defeat and Thebes turned to Aegina for help. When the BIBLIOGRAPHY.-A.M. Blackman, Luxor and Its Temples (1923) j Persians invaded Greece, 400 Thebans went to help defend Ther- G. Legrain, Les Temples de Karnak (1929); Karl Baedeker, Egypt and the Sudan, 8th ed. (1929); B. Porter and R. L. B. Moss, Topo- mopylae. When they were surrounded, they surrendered, and graphical Bibliography of Ancient Egypt, vol. i, Theban Tombs (1927), hatred for Athens encouraged Thebes to join the Persians. The vol. i, 2nd ed., part 1: Private Tombs (1960), vol. ii, Theban Temples Theban cavalry and infantry fought well on the Persian side at the (1929) ; H. E. Winlock, The Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in Battle of Plataea; the city then stood a siege of 20 days before Thebes (1947) and Excavations at Deir el Bahri (1942) j E. Naville, The Temple of Deir el-Bahari, 7 vol. (1894-1906) and The XIth surrendering the leaders of its close oligarchy to the Greeks (479). Dynasty Temple at Deir el-Bahari, 3 vol. (1907-13) j H. H. Nelson A period of decline followed when Thebes was more or less under et al., M edinet H abu, Publications of the Oriental Institute of the the control of Sparta or Athens and its government fluctuated be- University of Chicago, 12 vol. (1930-57) j A. Wolf, Das schiine Fest tween oligarchy and democracy. Then in 446 the Boeotian League von Opet (1931) j (? Steindorff and W. Wolf, Die thebanische Graber- won its independence. In 431 Thebes attacked Plataea and started welt (1936); G. Lefebvre, Hisioire des grands pretres d'Amon de Karnak (1929) ; E. Otto, To pographie des thebanischen Gaues (1952) ; the Peloponnesian War (q.v.), during which the Thebans won a G. Steindorff and K. Seele, When Egypt Ruled the East (1942). dominant position in the Boeotian League. A number of small (M. S. DR.) states sought refuge behind the city's strong fortifications; they THEBES (Greek THEBAI; modern Greek THIVAI), a city of were treated at first as equals and then as subjects. Thebes soon Boeotia, central Greece. Pop. (1961) 15,779. Thebes is situated controlled 4 of the league's 11 wards,' and the federal council on a low ridge dividing the two plains of Boeotia. The town has met there. Moreover, Theban troops won a decisive victory at abundant springs of water, the most famous in antiquity being Delium (q.v.) in 424. When Athens surrendered (404), Thebes called Dirce, and the fertile plain in the vicinity is well irrigated. proposed its destruction, but Sparta preserved Athens as a-rival to The road and railway system of east central Greece passes through Boeotia. Thebes therefore adopted a policy of opposition to Thebes, and nature makes it the chief market town of a rich agri- Sparta, assisting the Athenian democrats and instigating the Corin- cultural area; it is the seat of the Greek Orthodox bishop of thian War (395-386). This policy failed, for Sparta disbanded Thebes and Levadhia. the Boeotian League in 386 and placed a garrison in Thebes in 382. PrehistorY.-The ancient citadel, called the Cadmea, was first For 60 years, since 446, the constitution of Thebes had been a inhabited in the Early Bronze Age and then taken over by a Middle moderate oligarchy in which the franchise was limited to the prop- Bronze Age people who probably spoke Greek and may have been ertied class. In 379 Thebes rose against Sparta and became a called Aones (perhaps a form of Iaones; i.e., Ionians). During democracy. As the Thebans liberated the Boeotian cities from the 15th century B.C. a palace of Minoan plan was built on the Sparta, they reconstituted the league on a democratic basis, with Cadmea and adorned with frescoes showing Theban women in an assembly of Boeotians meeting at Thebes. By reducing their Minoan dress; the so-called Palace Style of pottery was in use neighbours to dependent status, they soon controlled three of the at this time, some vases being imported. from Crete, and contacts new league's seven wards; their leaders Melon, Pelopidas, and between Thebes and Knossos increased in 1450-1400 (see CRETE). Epaminondas were influential in the Boeotian assembly; and their Thebes became even wealthier in the period after 1400, when the corps d'elite, the Sacred Band, defeated the Spartans at Tegyra rulers used golden vessels and built a great circuit wall; indeed, (375) and Leuctra (371). In 371-362 Thebes was the leading Boeotia rivaled Argolis as a centre of Mycenaean power until the military power in Greece. Epaminondas (q.v.) tried to make it palace and wall were destroyed about 30 years before the Trojan the capital of a unified Boeotia, and Boeotia head of a group of War, i.e., c. 1230. Greek legend attributed the citadel to Cad- federal states, but the people abused their position by destroying mus, the wall to Amphion (qq.v.), and the sack of "seven-gated Orchomenos and placing garrisons in allied cities.