Boeotian League
Bloc | Defunct
550 BCE to 335 BCE
Boeotia has significant political importance, owing to its position on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth, the strategic strength of its frontiers, and the ease of communication within its extensive area.
On the other hand, the lack of good harbors hinders its maritime development.
The Boeotian people, although they include great men like Pindar, Hesiod, Epaminondas, Pelopidas and Plutarch, are portrayed as proverbially dull by the Athenians.The importance of the legendary Minyae has been confirmed by archaeological remains (notably the "Treasury of Minyas").
The Boeotian population seems to have entered the land from the north possibly before the Dorian invasion.
With the exception of the Minyae, the original peoples are soon absorbed by these immigrants, and the Boeotians henceforth appear as a homogeneous nation.
Aeolic Greek is spoken in Boeotia.In historical times, the leading city of Boeotia is Thebes, whose central position and military strength make it a suitable capital; other major towns are Orchomenus, Plataea, and Thespiae.
It is the constant ambition of the Thebans to absorb the other townships into a single state, just as Athens has annexed the Attic communities.
But the outlying cities successfully resist this policy, and only allow the formation of a loose federation which, initially, is merely religious.
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Orchomenos, among the first Boeotian cities to coin money in about 550 BCE, is famed in legend for its wealth.
The worship of the Charites or Graces is an important cult.
The Boeotian League first develops as an alliance of sovereign states in Boeotia, a district in east-central Greece, about 550 BCE, under the leadership of Thebes.
Athenian alliances, not just with Sparta's enemy Argos but in 519 with Boeotian Plataea are the first firm evidence of the tension between Athens and Sparta that is to determine much of Classical Greek history.
The Plataeans, faced with coercion from their bigger neighbor Thebes, had sued for this alliance at the prompting of Sparta itself; this, however, is evidence of among other things Spartan-Athenian hostility because Sparta's motive, it is said, is to stir up trouble between Thebes and Athens.
The prosperity of Euboea, the large, mostly mountainous island adjacent to the east coast of the Greek mainland, has been checked by several decades of war, beginning about 700 BCE, between Chalcis and Eretria.
Though it lost influence in the West, Eretria may have emerged from the war the stronger power, but by the classical period, Chalcis has become the leading city of Euboea.
The Euboeans, having lost their former trade advantages on the mainland, are forced into an alliance with Boeotia and Sparta against Athens.
Athenians in 506 capture Chalcis and settle the Lelantine Plain with their own citizens.
Greek lyric poet Corinna, born at Tanagra in Boeotia (probably an elder contemporary of Pindar, as their artistic rivalry inspires much commentary) explores the language of epic poetry and composes vivid narrative lyrics detailing Boeotian mythology and local legends of her native land.
The Second Persian War is a very different proposition from the first.
Xerxes in 481 BCE uses a bridge of boats to cross the Hellespont at Abydos with a huge fleet and an army of over one hundred thousand troops. (Herodotus estimates the Persian army to number in the millions, but modern scholars tend to doubt his figures, replacing them with far lower ones.)
The unprecedented size of Xerxes' forces makes their progress quite slow, giving the Greeks plenty of time to prepare their defense.
A military coalition of Greek city-states led by Sparta and known as the Peloponnesian League, also called the Spartan Alliance, is a major force in Greek affairs, forming the nucleus of resistance to the Persian invasions.
League policy, usually decisions on questions of war, peace, or alliance, is determined by federal congresses, summoned by the Spartans when they think fit; each member state has one vote.
A general Greek league against Persia is formed in 481.
Quarrels like that between Athens and Aegina must be set aside and help sought from distant or colonial Greeks such as the Cretans, Syracusans, and Corcyrans, whose extraordinarily large fleet of sixty ships (possibly developed against Adriatic piracy but also—surely—against Corinth) will be a prime asset.
Corcyra, however, waits on events, and Crete stays out altogether, while Syracuse and Sicily, now under the tyranny of Gelo, generally have barbarian enemies of their own to cope with, the Carthaginians.
Command of the army is given to Sparta, …
…that of the navy to Athens.
The combined Greek fleet, which, even without western Greek help, numbers about three hundred and fifty vessels, is thus only about one-third the size of the Persian fleet.
Greek unity, though impressive, is not complete; …
…conspicuous among the “Medizers” is Thebes, whose hostility to Athens over mutual interest in the Plataea district leads to Theban collaboration with Persia, while …
A force of two hundred and seventy-one ships under Themistocles awaits the Persian navy at Artemisium.
Themistocles, serving under a Spartan admiral (since Corinth and Aegina will not serve under an Athenian), conducts the main fleet to the narrow straits north of Euboea.
At sea, a detachment of two hundred Persian ships attempts to surprise the Greek fleet, but the Greeks, forewarned, engage the main Persian navy in an inconclusive battle.
Rounding Euboea, the Persian ships approach en masse down a coast with few beaches, and that night a typical north Aegean storm destroys the Persian squadron while the Greeks are safely in port, inflicting losses that probably, in the end, prove decisive.