Thebes, << theebz, >> was an ancient city in Boeotia, a region in central Greece. At one time, it was the most powerful city-state in all Greece, and the head of a confederacy of cities known as the Boeotian League. The city lay in the southeastern part of Boeotia, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Athens. According to ancient legends, Cadmus, a prince of Phoenicia, founded Thebes. The city appears in the Oedipus legends (see Oedipus ).
The historical record of Thebes begins about 500 B.C., when the people of Thebes and of Plataea, another ancient Greek city, began to quarrel. Later, Thebes helped the Persians in their invasion of Greece in 480 B.C. As a result, Thebes became the most hated city in Greece. Thebes fought frequent wars with Athens. The most important of these was the Peloponnesian War, which began in 431 B.C., when a Theban force attacked Plataea. After this war, the Boeotian League fell to pieces under the tyrannical rule of Sparta. The league became important again between 379 and 374 B.C. through the patriotic efforts of Pelopidas. In 371 B.C., the Thebans, led by Epaminondas and Pelopidas, defeated the Spartans at Leuctra, and thus gained control over Greece.
When Epaminondas died in 362 B.C., Theban control of Greece came to an end. Macedonia, a country north of Greece, defeated Thebes and Athens at Chaeronea in 338 B.C. After this defeat, the exhausted Greek states came under the rule of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. The Thebans revolted against Alexander, and he punished them by destroying their city. Thebes was rebuilt in 316 B.C. and was important under the later Roman Empire. The city flourished as a center of the silk trade during the A.D. 1000’s and 1100’s. Thebes began to decline when the Turks gained control of the city. The town of Thivai now stands on the site of Thebes.
