Editing Thebes, Greece (section)

==History==
===Early history===
Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed [[cist]] graves dated to [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] times containing weapons, ivory, and tablets written in [[Linear B]]. Its attested name forms and relevant terms on tablets found locally or elsewhere include {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀳𐀣𐀂}}}}, ''te-qa-i'',{{refn|group=n|Found on the TH Ft 140 tablet.<ref name=LinearB>{{cite web |url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/thebes/ |title=Thebes |work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B |last=Raymoure |first=K.A. |publisher=Deaditerranean |access-date=19 March 2014 |archive-date=15 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115050847/http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/thebes/ |url-status=dead }} {{cite web |title=The Linear B word te-qa-ja |url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/ShowWord.aspx?Id=16897 |publisher=Palaeolexicon. Word study tool for ancient languages }} {{cite web |title=KN 5864 Ap (103) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/2035 }} {{cite web |title=PY 539 Ep + fr. + fr. + fr. (1) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4577 }} {{cite web |title=TH 65 Wu (γ) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5503 }} {{cite web |title=MY 508 X (unknown) |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5637 }} {{cite web |title=TH 140 Ft (312) |website=DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo |url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5348 |publisher=[[University of Oslo]] }}</ref>}} understood to be read as *''Tʰēgʷai̮s'' (Ancient Greek: {{lang|grc|[[wiktionary:Θῆβαι##Inflection|Θήβαις]]}}, ''Thēbais'', i.e. "at Thebes", ''Thebes'' in the [[dative]]-[[locative]] case), {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀳𐀣𐀆}}}}, ''te-qa-de'',{{refn|group=n|Found on the [[Mycenae|MY]] X 508, TH Wu 65, tablets.<ref name=LinearB/>}} for *''Tʰēgʷasde'' ({{lang|grc|Θήβασδε}}, ''Thēbasde'', i.e. "to Thebes"),<ref name=LSJThebai/><ref>{{LSJ|*qh/basde|Θήβασδε|ref|mLSJ}}.</ref> and {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀳𐀣𐀊}}}}, ''te-qa-ja'',{{refn|group=n|Found on the [[Knossos|KN]] Ap 5864, [[Pylos|PY]] Ep 539, tablets.<ref name=LinearB/>}} for *''Tʰēgʷaja'' ({{lang|grc|Θηβαία}}, ''Thēbaia'', i.e. "Theban woman").<ref name=LSJThebai/>
[[File:Bell idol Louvre CA 573 √.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Theban workshop (Oinochoe type), 7th century BC]]
<nowiki>*</nowiki>''Tʰēgʷai'' was one of the first Greek communities to be drawn together within a fortified city, and that it owed its importance in prehistoric days—as later—to its military strength. [[Sigried Deger-Jalkotzy|Deger-Jalkotzy]] claimed that the statue base from [[Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III|Kom el-Hetan]] in [[Amenhotep III]]'s kingdom ([[Helladic period#Late Helladic III (LHIII)|LHIII]]A:1) mentions a name similar to Thebes, spelled out quasi-syllabically in [[egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]] as ''dy-qꜣj-jꜣ-s'', and considered to be one of four ''tj-n3-jj'' ([[Danaan]]?) kingdoms worthy of note (alongside Knossos and Mycenae). *''Tʰēgʷai'' in LHIIIB lost contact with Egypt but gained it with "Miletus" ([[Hittite language|Hittite]]: ''[[Milawata]]'') and "Cyprus" (Hittite: ''[[Alashiya|Alashija]]''). In the late LHIIIB, according to Palaima,<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://sites.utexas.edu/scripts/files/2016/07/palaima_2004a.pdf |title=Sacrificial Feasting in the Linear B documents |journal=Hesperia |volume=73 |issue=2 |year=2004 |pages=217–246 |first=Thomas G. |last=Palaima |doi=10.2972/hesp.2004.73.2.217|s2cid=162875563 }}</ref> *''Tʰēgʷai'' was able to pull resources from Lamos near [[Mount Helicon]], and from [[Karystos]] and [[Amarynthos]] on the Greek side of the isle of [[Euboia]].

The central area of Thebes, known as the [[Cadmea]], shows signs of destruction towards the end of the Mycenaean era and much of the site was abandoned. In the words of [[Richard Hope Simpson]], "The decline of Thebes after the end of the LH IIIB period recalls the Hypothebai (or "sub-Thebes") of the Homeric Catalogue of the Ships (''Iliad'' ii 505), but we have no reliable indications as to where this residual "lower town" may have been located."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hope Simpson |first1=Richard |title=Mycenaean Greece |date=1981 |publisher=Noyes Press |location=Park Ridge, NJ |isbn=0-8155-5061-8 |page=70 |url=https://archive.org/details/mycenaeangreece0000simp/page/70/ |access-date=11 March 2025}}</ref> The Homeric Hypothebai may have been the seed of the Archaic and Classical polity of Thebes when the city was reestablished in earnest.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mozhajsky |first1=Andrej Y. |last2=Юрьевич |first2=Можайский Андрей |title=Hypothebai of the Iliad as an evidence of the beginning of the formation of the Theban polis |journal=Vestnik drevnei istorii |date=1 September 2024 |volume=84 |issue=3 |pages=618–639 |url=https://journals.rcsi.science/0321-0391/article/view/280395 |access-date=11 March 2025 |language=ru |issn=0321-0391}}</ref>

===Archaic and classical periods===
{{further| Epaminondas|Theban hegemony|Boeotarch}}
[[File:Plan of Thebes.jpg|thumb|left|Topographic map of ancient Thebes]]
As attested already in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'', Thebes was often called "Seven-Gated Thebes" (Θῆβαι ἑπτάπυλοι, ''Thebai heptapyloi'') (''Iliad'', IV.406) to distinguish it from "[[Thebes, Egypt|Hundred-Gated Thebes]]" (Θῆβαι ἑκατόμπυλοι, ''Thebai hekatompyloi'') in Egypt (''Iliad'', IX.383).

[[File:Amth82.jpg|thumb|160px|Ancient coin depicting a Boeotian shield, [[Archaeological Museum of Thebes]]]]
In the late 6th century BC, the Thebans were brought for the first time into hostile contact with the [[Classical Athens|Athenians]], who helped the small village of [[Plataea]] to maintain its independence against them, and in 506 BC repelled an inroad into Attica. The aversion to Athens best serves{{according to whom|date=August 2021}} to explain the apparently unpatriotic attitude which Thebes displayed during the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece|Persian invasion of Greece]] (480–479 BC). Though a contingent of 400 was sent to [[Battle of Thermopylae|Thermopylae]] and remained there with [[Leonidas]] before being defeated alongside the Spartans,<ref>Herodotus [[#Bibliography|Bibliography]] VII:204 ,222,223.</ref> the governing aristocracy soon after joined King [[Xerxes I of Persia]] with great readiness and fought zealously on his behalf at the [[Battle of Plataea]] in 479 BC.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} The victorious Greeks subsequently punished Thebes by depriving it of the presidency of the [[Boeotian League]] and an attempt by the Spartans to expel it from the [[Delphic Amphictyony|Delphic amphictyony]] was only frustrated by the intercession of Athens.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

[[File:Thebes Harmonia AR Stater 83000129.jpg|thumb|Thebes silver [[stater]] (450–440 BC) portraying [[Harmonia]]]]
In 457 BC [[Sparta]], needing a counterpoise against Athens in central Greece, reversed her policy and reinstated Thebes as the dominant power in Boeotia. The great citadel of Cadmea served this purpose well by holding out as a base of resistance when the Athenians overran and occupied the rest of the country (457–447 BC). In the [[Peloponnesian War]], the Thebans, embittered by the support that Athens gave to the smaller Boeotian towns, and especially to Plataea, which they vainly attempted to reduce in 431 BC, were firm allies of Sparta, which in turn helped them to besiege Plataea and allowed them to destroy the town after its capture in 427 BC. In 424 BC, at the head of the Boeotian levy, they inflicted a severe defeat on an invading force of Athenians at the [[Battle of Delium]], and for the first time displayed the effects of that firm military organization that eventually raised them to predominant power in Greece.
[[File:Greek Silver Stater of Thebes (Boeotia), a Stunning Depiction of Dionysos.jpg|thumb|200px|Silver [[stater]] of Thebes (405–395 BC). Obverse: Boeotian shield, reverse: Head of bearded [[Dionysus]].]]
[[File:362BCThebanHegemony.png|thumb|300px|Map of Greece during the height of Theban power in 362 BC, showing Theban, Spartan and Athenian power blocks]]

After the downfall of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Thebans, having learned that Sparta intended to protect the states that Thebes desired to annex, broke off the alliance. In 404 BC, they had urged the complete destruction of Athens; yet, in 403 BC, they secretly supported the restoration of its democracy in order to find in it a counterpoise against Sparta. A few years later, influenced perhaps in part by Persian gold, they formed the nucleus of the league against Sparta. At the [[Battle of Haliartus]] (395 BC) and the [[Battle of Coronea (394 BC)|Battle of Coronea]] (394 BC), they again proved their rising military capacity by standing their ground against the Spartans. The result of the war was especially disastrous to Thebes, as the general settlement of 387 BC stipulated the complete autonomy of all Greek towns and so withdrew the other Boeotians from its political control. Its power was further curtailed in 382 BC, when a Spartan force occupied the citadel by a treacherous ''[[coup de main]]''. Three years later, the Spartan garrison was expelled and a democratic constitution was set up in place of the traditional oligarchy. In the consequent wars with Sparta, the Theban army, trained and led by [[Epaminondas]] and [[Pelopidas]], proved itself formidable (see also: [[Sacred Band of Thebes]]). Years of desultory fighting, in which Thebes established its control over all Boeotia, culminated in 371 BC in a remarkable victory over the Spartans at [[Battle of Leuctra|Leuctra]]. The winners were hailed throughout Greece as champions of the oppressed. They carried their arms into [[Peloponnesus]] and at the head of a large coalition, permanently crippled the power of Sparta, in part by freeing many [[helot]] slaves, the basis of the Spartan economy. Similar expeditions were sent to [[Thessaly]] and [[Macedon]] to regulate the affairs of those regions.

===Decline and destruction===
[[File:Ruins of Thebes.jpg|thumb|Ruins of Thebes]]
The predominance of Thebes was short-lived, as the states that it protected refused to subject themselves permanently to its control. Thebes renewed its rivalry with Athens, which had joined with them in 395 BC in fear of Sparta, but since 387 BC had endeavoured to maintain the balance of power against its ally, preventing the formation of a Theban empire. With the death of [[Epaminondas]] at the [[Battle of Mantinea (362 BC)]], the city sank again to the position of a secondary power.

In the [[Third Sacred War]] (356–346 BC) with its neighbor [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]], Thebes lost its predominance in central Greece. By asking [[Philip II of Macedon]] to crush the Phocians, Thebes extended the former's power within dangerous proximity to its frontiers. The revulsion of popular feeling in Thebes was expressed in 338 BC by the orator [[Demosthenes]], who persuaded Thebes to join Athens in a final attempt to bar Philip's advance on Attica. The Theban contingent lost the decisive [[Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)|battle of Chaeronea]] and along with it every hope of reassuming control over Greece.

Philip was content to deprive Thebes of its dominion over Boeotia; but an unsuccessful revolt in 335 BC against his son [[Alexander the Great]] while he was campaigning in the north was punished by Alexander and his Greek allies with the destruction of the city (except, according to tradition, the house of the poet [[Pindar]] and the temples), and its territory divided between the other Boeotian cities. Moreover, the Thebans themselves were sold into [[Slavery in ancient Greece|slavery]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/14224/Alexander-the-Great Alexander the Great]. ''Encyclopædia Britannica.''</ref>

Alexander spared only priests, leaders of the pro-Macedonian party and descendants of Pindar. The end of Thebes cowed Athens into submission. According to Plutarch, a special Athenian embassy, led by [[Phocion]], an opponent of the anti-Macedonian faction, was able to persuade Alexander to give up his demands for the exile of leaders of the anti-Macedonian party, and most particularly Demosthenes and not sell the people into slavery.<ref name="Phocion">{{cite book |author=Plutarch |title=Phocion |page=17}}</ref>

===Hellenistic period===
{{Expand section|1=<nowiki />
*End of the Hellenistic period
*Roman Period|date=April 2013}}
Ancient writings tend to treat Alexander's destruction of Thebes as excessive.<ref name="diodorus" /> Plutarch, however, writes that Alexander grieved after his excess, granting them any request of favors, and advising they pay attention to the invasion of Asia, and that if he failed, Thebes might once again become the ruling city-state.<ref>Plutarch's Lives, Volume III, Life of Alexander, Chapter 13</ref> Although Thebes had traditionally been antagonistic to whichever state led the Greek world, siding with the Persians when they invaded against the Athenian-Spartan alliance, siding with Sparta when Athens seemed omnipotent, and famously derailing the Spartan invasion of Persia by [[Agesilaus]]. Alexander's father Philip had been raised in Thebes, albeit as a hostage, and had learnt much of the art of war from [[Pelopidas]]. Philip had honoured this fact, always seeking alliances with the Boeotians, even in the lead-up to Chaeronea. Thebes was also revered as the most ancient of Greek cities, with a history of over 1,000 years. Plutarch relates that, during his later conquests, whenever Alexander came across a former Theban, he would attempt to redress his destruction of Thebes with favours to that individual.

====Restoration by Cassander====
Following Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, Thebes was re-established in 315 BC<ref name="parianchronicle" /> by [[Cassander]], one of the diadochi who was ruling in Greece.<ref name="Beckett, p.688">Beckett, ''Universal Biography, Vol. 1'' p. 688</ref> In restoring Thebes, Cassander sought to rectify the perceived wrongs of Alexander – a gesture of generosity that earned him much goodwill throughout Greece.<ref name="Thirlwall, p.325">Thirlwall, ''The History of Greece, Vol. 2'' p. 325</ref> In addition to currying favor with the Athenians and many of the Peloponnesian states, Cassander's restoration of Thebes provided him with loyal allies in the Theban exiles who returned to resettle the site.<ref name="Thirlwall, p.325"/>

Cassander's plan for rebuilding Thebes called for the various Greek city-states to provide skilled labor and manpower, and ultimately it proved successful.<ref name="Thirlwall, p.325"/> The Athenians, for example, rebuilt much of Thebes' wall.<ref name="Thirlwall, p.325"/> Major contributions were sent from [[Megalopolis, Greece|Megalopolis]], [[Messene]], and as far away as Sicily and Italy.<ref name="Thirlwall, p.325"/>

Despite the restoration, Thebes never regained its former prominence. The death of Cassander in 297 BC created a power vacuum throughout much of Greece, which contributed, in part, to Thebes' besiegement by [[Demetrius Poliorcetes]] in 293 BC, and [[Siege of Thebes (292-291 BC)|again after a revolt in 292 BC]]. This last siege was difficult and Demetrius was wounded, but finally he managed to break down the walls and to take the city once more, treating it mildly despite its fierce resistance. The city recovered its autonomy from Demetrius in 287 BC, and became allied with [[Lysimachus]], the king of Thrace, and the [[Aetolian League]].

===Roman and Byzantine period===
{{Further|Achaia (Roman province)|Hellas (theme)}}
After the dissolution of the Boeotian League after the [[Achaean War]] of 146 BC, Thebes came under Roman rule. In 27 BC, the city was included in the newly established Province of Achaia. Thebes was assigned to the [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman Empire]] after the imperial division of 395. During the early [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] period it served as a place of refuge against foreign invaders. In the late 7th century,  [[Justinian II]] created the Theme of Hellas with Thebes as the capital. The Holy church of [[Luke the Evangelist]] was built around the 10th century to commemorate the saint's tomb and relics at the location of his death. During the [[Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927]], Thebes was sacked by [[Simeon I of Bulgaria]]. 

From the 10th century, Thebes became a centre of the new silk trade, its silk workshops boosted by imports of soaps and dyes from Athens. The growth of this trade in Thebes continued to such an extent that by the middle of the 12th century, the city had become the biggest producer of [[Byzantine silk|silks]] in the entire Byzantine empire, surpassing even the Byzantine capital, [[Constantinople]]. The women of Thebes were famed for their skills at weaving. Theban silk was prized above all others during this period, both for its quality and its excellent reputation.

[[Benjamin of Tudela]] visited Thebes around 1161 or 1162. At that time, the city served as a regional administrative center, home to a local elite, a major producer of [[silk]] textiles, and an important regional market, all of which contributed to urban and demographic growth. Although there is no specific data on Thebes' overall population, estimates suggest it housed between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, typical for a major Byzantine provincial city. Benjamin of Tudela reported that Thebes had a [[Jews|Jewish]] population of 2,000, the largest Jewish community in any Byzantine city of the 12th century, except for Constantinople.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacoby |first=David |title=Travellers, Merchants and Settlers in the Eastern Mediterranean, 11th–14th Centuries |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=9780367600624 |pages=160–161 |chapter=Benjamin of Tudela and his „Book of Travels“}}</ref>

Though severely plundered by the [[Normans]] in 1146, Thebes quickly recovered its prosperity and continued to grow rapidly until its conquest by the Latins of the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1205.

===Latin period===
{{Further|Duchy of Athens}}
[[File:Greece in 1210.svg|thumb|180px|The Duchy of Athens and the other Greek and Latin states of southern Greece, {{circa|1210}}]]
Thanks to its wealth, the city was selected by the Frankish dynasty de la Roche as its capital, before it was permanently moved to Athens. After 1240, the Saint Omer family controlled the city jointly with the de la Roche dukes. The castle built by [[Nicholas II of Saint Omer]] on the Cadmea was one of the most beautiful of Frankish Greece. After its conquest in 1311 the city was used as a capital by the short-lived state of the [[Catalan Company]].

In 1379, the [[Navarrese Company]] took the city with the aid of the [[Latin Archbishop of Thebes]], [[Simon Atumano]].{{refn|group=n|Portions of the historical section were taken from the ''[[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.}}

===Ottoman period===
{{Further|Ottoman Greece}}
[[File:Williams Hugh William - View of Thebes - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|180px|View of Thebes (1819) by Hugh William Williams]]
Latin hegemony in Thebes lasted to 1458, when the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]]s captured it. The [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]] renamed Thebes "İstefe" and managed it until the [[Greek War of Independence]] (1821, nominally to 1832) except for a [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] interlude between 1687 and 1699.

===Modern town===
In the modern Greek State, Thebes was the capital of the prefecture of [[Boeotia]] until the late 19th century, when [[Livadeia]] became the capital.

Today, Thebes is a bustling [[market town]], known for its many products and wares. Until the 1980s, it had a flourishing agrarian production with some industrial complexes. However, during the late 1980s and 1990s the bulk of industry moved further south, closer to [[Athens]]. Tourism in the area is based mainly in Thebes and the surrounding villages, where many places of interest related to antiquity exist such as the battlefield where the [[Battle of Plataea]] took place. The proximity to other, more famous travel destinations, like [[Athens]] and [[Chalkis]], and the undeveloped archaeological sites have kept the tourist numbers low. A notable portion of the inhabitants of Thebes are [[Arvanites]].<ref>Sasse, H. (1991). Arvanitika: die albanischen Sprachreste in Griechenland. Deutschland: O. Harrassowitz, p. 4</ref>
<gallery>
File:Rottmann - Theben 1842.jpg|Thebes, 1842 by [[Carl Rottmann]]
File:Volksfest in Theben - Schweiger Lerchenfeld Amand (freiherr Von) - 1887.jpg|Popular festival at Thebes, 1880s
File:Statue of Pindar, Thiva, Greece.JPG|A bust of [[Pindar]]
File:Thiva Archaeological Museum 2016.jpg|Entrance to the archaeological museum
File:Holy Monastery of Transfiguration-Sagmata 02.jpg|Monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ, Sagmata
</gallery>