Editing Thebes, Greece (section)

===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>