1. — Introduction

This is an attempt to reconstruct an outline of the history of Thespiai up to 335 BC¹. I shall begin by examining certain Thespian cuits, then turn to a study of the χώρα and urban centre of the polis, then say something about its institutions, and end with a chronological survey.

2. — The cult context

A careful analysis of the cuits of a community should shed some light on the background and composition of its population. Isolated cuits are difficult to interpret, but when there are clusters of identical or similar cuits, and when cuit distribution coincides with evidence from other kinds of data, then the results can be informative, especially with regard to population movements.

Mount Helikon owes its reputation to Hesiod. He dedicated a prize tripod to the Muses of Helikon, on the very spot where they first set him on the way to composition². This is the earliest recorded overt act of veneration of these goddesses³. The first recorded public monuments, statues of the Muses, date from the first quarter of the fourth century, when Thespiai was under the protection of Sparta⁴.

The Muses were only one of several groups of goddesses of the same type, who had the power to drive men mad, or in other words, to inspire them. In Boiotia there were also the three Charites of Orchomenos and the Sphragitid Nymphs of Mount Kithairon, who, according to local tradition, had once uttered oracles there and enchanted the local people⁵. Other groups are known by name only: the Three Maidens of Eleon east of Thebes, the Muses of Mount Thourion outside Chaironeia, the Leibethrian Nymphs, in a cave on Mount Leibethrion, one of the heights of the Helikon range⁶. The worship of these goddesses could have been brought to Boiotia by people travelling the upland mountain routes, transhumant as opposed to settled, herdsmen, perhaps related to the people who brought, from the region of Homole, just across the vale of Tempe from Olympos, the names and epithets derived from that place and found all over Boiotia⁷.

The Muses were not the only gods of Thespiai who probably predate the establishment of the polis. The mother of the Muses, Mnemosyne, has connections with both Helikon and Kithairon, which another mother goddess, Leto, also haunted. Both may have been related to the great goddess of Southern Boiotia, whose cult goes back at least to the Bronze Age, Hera. She is named on a Theban Linear B tablet. Hera was not worshipped in Hellenic Thebes, but, since Mycenaean Thebes controlled all of Southern Boiotia, it is permitted to assume that this Hera was the goddess later worshipped under the epithet Kithaironia, whose cult had its principal centre in Plataia at the foot of Mount Kithairon. She was also worshipped on Euboia⁸, and it is not easy to divorce this cult from the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora, and perhaps at the Argive Heraion as well⁹. Hera surnamed Kithaironia was worshipped at Thespiai too¹⁰. Two inscriptions of the second decade of the fourth century BC have to do with the furnishings of hestiatoria associated with the cult, and may serve as a link between the Hera of Kithairon and the Hera of Perachora. One of these was discovered at Chostia. It lists sacred utensils belonging to the Thespians, most of them at the Heraion, with two smaller lots at Siphai and Kreisys, that is, Kreusis¹¹. It is not certain that the last two were connected with Hera, but no other god is named, and it is likely enough. Chorsiai — if it was the site of the Heraion in this part of Thespian territory —, Siphai, and Kreusis, were all ports on the Gulf of Corinth, easily accessible from Perachora. The other inscription comes from Thespiai itself, and although it is fragmentary, its contents and date are similar¹².

Thespiai and at least one of the other poleis in its extended χώρα — Thisbe — are also attached to the rest of Southern Boiotia by the cult of the bi-form Demeter, worshipped as Achaia at Thespiai, Thisbe, and the Tanagraia, as Eleusinia at Thespiai and Plataia, as Megalartos and Megalomazos at Skolos near the Asopos, and as Thesmophoros at Thebes and Potniai, where she was the direct descendant of the Mycenaean Potnia, who is named on a Theban Linear B tablet. Moreover, at Thebes, Potniai, and Thespiai, the cuits of Demeter and Dionysos seem to have been closely linked, probably another survival from the Bronze Age: the two Thespian cuits were apparently associated with a single extended family, at least in the Hellenistic and Roman period¹³.

One other cult figure ties Thespiai closely to the rest of the Helikon massif itself. This is Charops Herakles, a youthful deity tended by a priestess, at Thespiai, Thisbe, and at the other, northern, end of the route from Koroneia to the coast, on the slopes of Mount Laphystion in the territory of Koroneia, where he is associated with Zeus Laphystios in a union which probably dates back to the Bronze Age. The youthful Charops and his priestess may have been descended from the kourotrophos known on Aigina and at Mycenaean Thebes as Haphaia/Aphaia, and her charge. Traces of this pair are found throughout Hellenic Boiotia, under different names in different places¹⁴.

These cuits suggest that the people who eventually were brought together to form the Hellenic polis of Thespiai included a substantial number who were direct descendants of the Bronze Age population, and others who were descendants of migrants from the north.

The actual foundation of the polis can be associated with the cult of Apollo Archegetas, Apollo the Founder, whose sanctuary was between one and two kilometres Southwest of the city.

A number of other Thespian cuits can be explained as representing the contributions of the various poleis who aided in the reconstruction of Thespiai after the Persian Wars: the Dioskouroi and Kasstoridas from Sparta, Aphrodite Melainis from Corinth, the Eleusinian Demeter and perhaps Athena from Athens¹⁵.

3. — The polis: its χώρα

It is generally assumed that geography was the dominant element governing the boundaries of a polis. The nature of the terrain in Greece is cited as the cause of the fragmentation of the Greek political map. There are exceptions, of which Thespiai is one: it is only on the west and north, were Helikon and the hills bordering the Teneric Plain respectively form natural barriers, that the terrain limits the territory of the polis, and even here, there is no fixed point which could be identified as a boundary. The situation is even more fluid to the east and south, were there are no obvious geographical barriers. To the east, Eutresis was said to have been in Thespian territory, but its legendary rulers — Amphion and Zethos — have more to do with Thebes and Kithairon than they do with Thespiai. Nor is there anything along the course of the river Thespios (Kanavari) to mark it as a boundary. The story of the disposition of the fifty sons engendered by Herakles on the daughters of Thespiai — three moved to Thebes, seven remained behind as δημοῦχοι, and the rest went off with Iolaos to Sardinia — suggests that at some time part of the territory of Thespiai was annexed by or transferred its allegiance to its eastern neighbour¹⁶. Towards the Southwest, the smaller poleis of Thisbe and Chorsiai were at varying times dependent upon or independent of Thespiai, with Thisbe, like Eutresis, gaining its own place in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships. The port of Kreusis, on the other hand, seems always to have been under the control of Thespiai, while Siphai, at the eastern end of the bay of Domvraina/Thisbe, belonged to Thespiai in 424, and at least until the Peace of Antalkidas. We know that Thisbe, Chorsiai, Siphai, and perhaps even Eutresis were independent under the Hellenistic koinon, some of them perhaps as early as 371¹⁷. There is no significant border between Thespiai and Plataia.

The χώρα of Thespiai also included Askra at the eastern end of the Vale of the Muses, as well as the plain of Leuktra, which was bounded on the east by Eutresis, the area called Donakon, located perhaps between Thespiai and Thisbe, and Keressos.

It is not certain how far to the west beyond the Vale of the Muses Thespian territory extended. It may once have gone as far as Hippotai. Hippotai was a strongly fortified village between Koroneia and Thisbe. It is mentioned only by Plutarch¹⁸. The name Ἱππόται is an odd one for this area for, although cavalry would perforce traverse it, the terrain is hardly suitable for the rearing of horsemen. An alternative is to take the name from a divine epithet, in this case as it was applied to the Spartan Dioskouroi by Alkman¹⁹. It is interesting that the only place in Boiotia outside of Thespiai and its territory to provide evidence for the Dioskouroi under that name is Koroneia: perhaps, therefore, Hippotai ought to be seen as a limitary site, marking the boundaries of Thespiai, Koroneia, and Thisbe.

4. — The polis: the ἄίστυ

Another accepted truth is that the typical polis had a defensible stronghold, a hilltop, an akropolis. While it is true that the urban centres of most poleis did have an akropolis, not all did. At least three Boiotian poleis did not have a proper akropolis: Lebadeia, Plataia, and Thespiai²⁰. Clearly something other than the availability of a hill site influenced those who built these cities in their choice of location. Convenience and ease of access to and from the surrounding χώρα seem to have been important factors. The Classical city of Thespiai was built largely south of the river Thespios (Kanavari), which could have afforded only a minimum of protection, and even cut the inhabitants off from the two hills on its northern side, either of which might have done very well as an akropolis²¹. The walls of Thespiai were torn down more than once and at least twice the population was obliged to retire to Keressos. It is a remarkable tribute to the inherent optimism of people — some might call it stupidity — that the citizens of Thespiai, like those of Plataia, persisted in living in a place which was easy to get to rather than one which was easy to protect. Sparta was not the only polis to rely on its manpower rather than on walls of stone.

The Cambridge-Bradford survey of the townsite of ancient Thespiai has shown that, while the site was heavily populated from the Classical period on, signs of settlement during the Geometric and Archaic periods are scarce. In one of their reports, the authors note that «throughout the Bronze Age, and on into the Early Iron Age and even the Archaic period, occupation material presents a curiously sporadic pattern, as if there were not one but several small nuclei of seulement». They observe that for the Geometric and Archaic periods, «this picture conforms to the model for the growth of the historical Greek city from a scatter of separate villages or hamlets», citing Sparta as the classic example²².

The answer to the specific problem posed by Thespiai may, however, lie elsewhere. Herodotos tells us that in 480 BC the Persians destroyed Thespiai and Plataia by fire. The Thespians had already abandoned the city and gone to the Peloponnese²³. Subsequently the city was rebuilt — a portion of the classical wall has been uncovered²⁴ — and a call even went out for additional citizens.

The reason so little pre-classical material has come from the region of the Classical and later townsite may be that the Classical city of Thespiai was built at a different place from that of its predecessor. My own candidate for the site of the Archaic focal point of the polis of Thespiai would be the area around the temple of Apollo discovered accidentally by Paul Jamot in July 1890, at a place called Toumboutsi or Topitsi, and located as a point between one and two kilometres Southwest of the Classical and later town²⁵. The temple is identified as Apollo’s by a bronze spear head found nearby, incised τὀπόλλονος Η[ι]ερόν, in the Attic dialect, in characters of the fifth century BC²⁶. It remained in use until the Hellenistic period. This may be the sanctuary of Apollo Archegetas referred to in a land-lease document of the third century BC²⁷. Although this part of the territory of Thespiai was rural in the third century, it is not impossible that it was at or near the centre of urban activity until early in the fifth. We may compare, for example, Eretria, where the sanctuary of Apollo — the focus of the nucleated settlement — developed, apparently, out of a cluster of houses belonging to the leading family of the polis²⁸. One would expect to find Apollo Archegetas in this kind of setting rather than out in the χώρα of the polis²⁹.

If the original focus of the polis — where the leading family or families of early Thespiai lived — was where I have suggested, then we should look for Keressos in the same general area, rather than to the north or west of the classical city³⁰.

5. — The polis: institutions

Hesiod complains about gift-devouring βασιλεῖς, who gave his undeserving brother the greater part of their inheritance³¹. These basileis must have derived their status from the Mycenaean past, when a basileus held what would now be called a middle management position, either as the representative of the wanax — in this case the wanax at Thebes — or as the head man of a local community or other body³². With the collapse of the central authority, the local leadership was all that remained to fill the vacuum, and the basileis developed eventually either into kings, or, as seems to have been the case where Hesiod lived, into a clique of barons³³.

Another possible survival from the Bronze Age, when Thebes ruled all of Southern Boiotia, is a formai division of authority into units of seven. At Thespiai they are the seven δημοῦχοι, sons of Herakles and the daughters of Thespios: their descendants were for a long time counted among the leading citizens of the polis. At Plataia, their counterparts were the seven Archegetai Heroes, the Founding Heroes. At Thebes itself, they were the seven champions who defended the city against its Argive invaders: scholars tend to focus on the invaders rather than the defenders as the more important personae in this drama, but when seen in the context of the Plataian and Thespian groups, the Theban story takes on a different aspect³⁴.

At Thespiai, aristocratic influence persisted well after the foundation of the polis, and the greedy basileis transformed themselves into snobbish aristocrats, who thought it beneath them to engage in work or farming, and as a resuit, according to Aristotle, as quoted by Herakleides Lembos, most of them were heavily indebted to the thrifty Thebans, who apparently found money making less distasteful³⁵.

Herakleides Kretikos remarks that the Thespians were notorious for πλεονειϰία, quarrelsomeness³⁶. It is true that he attributes faults of character to ail Boiotians, but this does not mean that there is not a germ of fact in what he says. Symptoms of discontent appear as early as Hesiod. The aristocrats were powerful and well entrenched, the demos powerless and resentful. Each group turned for help to their counterparts in Thebes; outside Boiotia, the aristocratic faction allied itself to Spartan interests, the demos to the Athenians. As far as the aristocrats are concerned, their distaste for work of any sort suggests that they were using the Spartans as their rôle models³⁷.

6. — Chronological survey

Every site within the extended territory of Hellenic Thespiai has produced some Bronze Age material, but all, except for Eutresis and Thisbe, on a small scale³⁸. Linear B documents from Thebes refer to Ra-mo and Ra-mi-jo, which have been connected with the river Lamos on Mount Helikon. It would appear from this that the land controlled by Thebes in the Bronze Age extended at least as far west as Mount Helikon³⁹.

The name of the polis occurs first in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships⁴⁰, which lists twenty-nine Boiotian sites — one of them the grove of Poseidon at Onchestos — and two Minyan sites. Many of these were relatively unimportant, which makes it surprising that it does not mention Hesiod’s home at Askra. But on the other hand, Hesiod does not mention Thespiai⁴¹.

Late sources report the existence of a Thessalian town called Thespeia⁴², which may have been in north-eastern Thessaly, near the mouth of the Peneios and Mounts Homoloion and Pelion. The name may therefore have been brought down to Boiotia by the same people who brought the Muses, Nymphs, and the epithet Homoloios. Etymologically it would suit devotées of goddesses who cause inspiration⁴³. If the connection with this wave of migrants is sound, then the name probably did not get down to Boiotia until after the Bronze Age.

The immigration of Hesiod’s father in the early Archaic period reveals not only that there was land available, but that the ruling basileis were not interested in keeping it for themselves and were probably concerned only to exploit the asset.

I have suggested that the Archaic polis of Thespiai had the sanctuary of Apollo Archegetas as its focus, and that the polis incorporated descendants of the Bronze Age population and more recent immigrants. Nothing is known about Thespiai between the Catalogue of Ships and the sixth century BC. During the latter century the Thespians suffered a major Thessalian raid, which they withstood successfully at Keressos.

Two things can be said with certainty about Keressos, first, that there was a place by that name within the territory of Thespiai, and second, that it served as a point of refuge twice, once at the time of the battle of Leuktra — when it did not hold out against Epameinondas — and earlier, before the Persian invasion — when it managed to withstand the Thessalians⁴⁴. Plutarch gives two dates for the latter: sometime before 571, and not long before 480⁴⁵.

The problem of the date is not easy to resolve, but we can try. We must ask first why the Thessalians came into Boiotia by way of Thespiai, that is, by the mountain route: this by-passes much of the Kopais and all of Theban territory, following the upland valleys inside the Helikon range, and opening out into Thespian territory, the field of Leuktra, and thence easily to Plataia⁴⁶. But the normal route through western Boiotia is along the great carriageway which leads from Chaironeia and follows the foot of the hills on the Southern edge of the Kopais, entering the Teneric Plain and central and eastern Boiotia by the pass of Onchestos: this is the route followed by all major invading armies, by the migrating Boiotoi, and in the other direction by the Kadmeians fleeing Thebes, and by the young Apollo on his way to Krisa. The only logical reason for the Thessalians to have taken the upland route rather than the route of choice must be that the latter was blocked because it was too well defended. The major force in this area was Minyan Orchomenos, which controlled the territory west of a line drawn between Kopai and Koroneia, all the way up to Chaironeia. Late in the sixth century, Orchomenos and Thebes and their allies struggled for supremacy in the Kopais⁴⁷, and ultimately Orchomenos was defeated. But earlier on, relations between Orchomenos and other parts of Boiotia were friendly enough: even in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships, the Minyans and Boiotians, although separate, seem to coexist peaceably, and the tombstone of a Thespian buried at Orchomenos in the second half of the sixth century⁴⁸ reveals that there were normal relations between the latter and at least one of the three poleis — the others being Koroneia and Tanagra — which the Thebans regarded as their closest allies in the last decade of the sixth century.

On the whole I lean towards the earlier date for Keressos: it is easier to explain an invasion of Boiotia by way of Thespiai in the first half of the century than towards its end. And, when the Thessalians at Thermopylai claimed that until recently they had controlled Boiotia, they probably meant that they had the free run of the mountain route. We know, for example, that a force of Thessalian cavalry came down to Attica in 510 to help Hippias, and, what is more important, they went back up again, unmolested, even though by then they were in full retreat⁴⁹.

Towards the end of the sixth century, the Boiotians issued their own federal coinage. Orchomenos retained a certain measure of independence, issuing its own small denomination coins, but this does not mean that Orchomenos did not use Boiotian coins of larger denominations. Coins were minted by several member states, identifiable by their initiais: Thebes, of course, Tanagra, Mykalessos⁵⁰, Koroneia, and three others, whose mint marks have been interpreted in more than one way. I follow Denis Knoepfler in attributing the coins with the marks H and Φ to Hyettos and Thespiai respectively, rather than to Haliartos and Pharai⁵¹. Coins with A are more likely to belong to Akraiphia than Haliartos: the latter was not a major site at the time, but Akraiphia was an extremely prosperous, if small, dependency of Thebes⁵². It should be noted that Thespiai remained the only polis within its χώρα ever to mint coins. The periods of independence of Thisbe, Siphai, and Chorsiai did not occur at times when any of these could have operated its own mint.

Thespiai, with Tanagra and Koroneia, were the Thebans’ closest allies in the campaiagn of 506 BC⁵³. But the situation had changed by 480, for when the Persians invaded northern Greece, Thespiai along with Plataia alone of all the Boiotians refused to medize⁵⁴. We can only guess at what happened in the interval: Theban designs on Plataia suffice to explain the estrangement of that polis. Indeed, Plataia was enrolled as a dependent ally of Athens in 519 BC, and its men fought with the Athenians at Marathon. Its border with Thebes was fixed at the river Asopos. As for Thespiai, fear of Theban ambitions, especially in the light of Thebes’ alignment with the Persians, may have led the Thespians to re-evaluate their position. Ties of friendship with opposite numbers in Sparta, Athens, Corinth, as well as Thebes — for Thebans of the same persuasion fought at Thermopylai — may have led the Thespians to behave as quixotically as they did and side with the Hellenes, who were powerless to help them, rather than submit to Persia. Yet another factor which may explain their really unusual behaviour would be their fear of the Thessalians, who had medized.

Seven hundred Thespians and four hundred Thebans were in the force that defended Thermopylai⁵⁵: the Thespians’ almost immediate reward was to have their city — like Plataia — burned by the Persians, who had been reminded by the Thebans that they were not medizing. Even before this, the Thespians had gone to the Peloponnese⁵⁶. We may perhaps assume that not every Thespian left home, but at least those of the hoplite class, who, as a resuit of the involvement of their peers at Thermopylai, would have realized that they were compromised in the eyes of the Persians. Eighteen hundred Thespians fought at Plataia, but as ϕιλοί, light-armed troops, for, as Herodotos notes, they did not have their hoplite armour⁵⁷.

After the battle of Plataia, the victorious Hellenes regarded Plataia itself as sacred ground, and took steps to ensure that the battle was commemorated by themselves and the local people. This involved a commitment — not always honoured — to protect Plataia⁵⁸.

A less well publicized joint undertaking was the re-establishment of Thespiai. Sikinnos, Themistokles’s slave, the paidagogos of his children, who had acted as his go-between with Xerxes before Salamis, was later rewarded by his master, who gave him money and sent him off to be a citizen of Thespiai, when the Thespians were admitting extra citizens⁵⁹. This must have happened quite soon after the battle of 479, in any case before Themistokles’ own eclipse in the late 470’s⁶⁰. It would have been about this time that Polygnotos, who painted a mural in the newly-erected temple of Athena Areia at Plataia, created another mural — subject unspecified — at Thespiai⁶¹.

The additional new citizens would have come from several places. Evidence from cult suggests new input from Athens, Sparta, and Corinth, the poleis which had contributed the largest Hellenic contingents at Plataia. The Athenians even provided an oikist in the person of Thespios, a son of Erechtheus⁶². Also from Athens would have come the epithet Eleusinia for Demeter, brought by people connected with the Eumolpidai⁶³. Close relations with Athens are confirmed by an Athenian decree granting proxenia to four Thespians⁶⁴.

From Sparta came the Dioskouroi and Kasstoridas, son of Kastor, both attested at Thespiai in the fifth century. I have already suggested that the village of Hippotai was named after the Dioskouroi. The Thespian cult of Artemis as Agrotera may also have had its origins with the Spartans⁶⁵. Corinth must have been the home of Aphrodite Melainis. There she had a sanctuary at the northeast edge of the city, which was associated with the fourth century courtesan Lais⁶⁶. The cult of Hera, as I have noted above, is probably connected with Corinthian Perachora, but this goes back to the Bronze Age.

A tombstone of late in the fourth century lists members of a single family who had died in battle: one died at Oinophyta, two at Oropos, one at Koroneia⁶⁷ . It is not possible to identify the last two or three battles exactly, but there was only one battle at Oinophyta, in 458, on the sixty-second day after the battle of Tanagra, when the Athenians defeated the Boiotians and thus gained control of Boiotia and Phokis⁶⁸.

In 424, at the battle of Delion, Thespian hoplites shared the left wing of the Boiotian line with the men of Tanagra and Orchomenos⁶⁹. Although the Boiotians won the battle, their left wing was overcome, with the Thespians in particular being badly worsted. Many of them died in hand-to-hand combat. Of the approximately five hundred Boiotian dead, the names of sixty-one Tanagrans and one hundred Thespians are listed on the surviving blocks from funereal monuments set up by their poleis. The Thespians therefore suffered at least twenty percent of the casualties of the Boiotian side⁷⁰.

In the summer of the following year, the Thebans, accusing the Thespians of ἀττιϰισμός, tore down the city wall of Thespiai. Thucydides daims that this had long been the Thebans’ desire, but that they were now able to do it more easily because, as he puts it, the flower of the Thespians had perished. They could, with greater ease, have done the deed immediately after the battle. The year’s delay suggests that they were reacting to events inside Thespiai subsequent to the battle. The loss of so many men of the hoplite class must have weakened the oligarchic — that is, pro-Theban and pro-Spartan — faction to the point where the democratic faction felt itself to be in a position to take control of the polis. Tearing down the walls was not so much an act of war by Thebes against Thespiai as an act of support for the temporarily hard-pressed hoplite class⁷¹.

It was a precautionary measure which justified itself in the summer of 414, when the Thespian δῆμος rose up against its rulers. The Thebans came to help the latter, and were able to put down the revoit: some were arrested, others fled to Athens, and Thespiai was made safe for its oligarchs⁷².

It is to this sequence of events that I would attach the story of the forty or so remaining sons of Herakles and the daughters of Thespios who went to Sardinia with Iolaos, as part of a larger group which he led, which included Athenians among them⁷³. If there is a real event lurking behind this story, the most likely occasion would have been the aftermath of the expulsion of Thespian democrats in 414.

In the following year, 413, the Boiotians sent three hundred hoplites, including Thespians, to help the Syracusans. These three hundred may have been the standing elite corps of the Boiotian army. They were led by two Thebans and one Thespian⁷⁴.

The constitution of Boiotia, as described by the Oxyrhynchos historian, gives the Thespians two boiotarchs, and control over a territory from Eutresis on the east at least as far west as Thisbe. Thespians fought as part of the Boiotian army at Haliartos in 395 and Nemea in 3 9 4⁷⁵, but in 387 the Peace of Antalkidas set Thespiai and other Boiotian poleis free from Theban control. The inventory of Thespian sacred utensils at the Heraion and at Siphai and Kreusis has been interpreted as resulting from Thespiai’s having lost control over its dependencies after the Peace. However, as Paul Roesch pointed out, this explanation will not work for Kreusis, which seems never to have been independent of Thespiai. The explanation also fails to take into account the fact that the Peace was aimed at Thebes, not at the other Boiotians, and certainly not at Thespiai, which was on close terms with the Spartans⁷⁶. It seems more likely that Thespiai’s territory was not carved up until after the battle of Leuktra, when Thebes took control of Boiotia again.

Before then, however, perhaps shortly after the Spartan capture of Thebes in the summer of 382, Thespiai, Haliartos, and probably Tanagra, came under direct Spartan control as well. When the Spartans were expelled from Thebes at the end of 379, Thespiai remained loyal to them: the Spartan harmost on the Kadmeia asked for help from both Thespiai and Plataia; it came, but was unavailing⁷⁷; and in the winter of 378, Kleombrotos was able to leave Sphodrias as harmost at Thespiai. The latter felt secure enough to launch his illconceived attack on Athens from Thespiai⁷⁸. Subsequently, Phoibidas was installed in his place by Agesilaos, who walled the ἄστυ and not only used Thespiai as his base of operations in 378, but also arbitrated between two Thespian factions who had fallen out with each other⁷⁹.

After the defeat and death of Phoibidas in a skirmish against the Thebans, Sparta sent a detachment to Thespiai under a polemarch⁸⁰. During the 370’s, probably in 376 or 375, Thebes regained control of Thespiai along with other neighbouring poleis⁸¹. This may be the campaign to which Xenophon refers when he says that the Theban cavalry at Leuktra was in good fighting condition as a resuit of their expérience in wars against Orchomenos and Thespiai⁸². It may also have been the occasion at which Thespiai was compelled συντελεῖυ εἰς τὰς Θήβας⁸³. It has been argued that between 373-372 and the summer of 371 Thespiai was destroyed, the polis ceased to exist, and its population was moved into small settlements in the χώρα⁸⁴. However, the archaeological record shows no signs of a serious break, and there is other evidence that the polis was stili in existence in 371. For example, before the battle of Leuktra, the Thespians begged Athens to protect them from Thebes and keep them from becoming ἀπόλιδες⁸⁵. This implies surely that the polis was stili functioning at the time, although Kallias the daidouchos is quoted by Xenophon as saying that Plataiai and Thespiai had been destroyed⁸⁶. The Thespians were nevertheless enough of a threat for Epameinondas to attack them after the battle of Leuktra⁸⁷. He besieged them at Keressos, which, this time, fell. But even this probably did not bring about the dissolution of the state. When Demosthenes in about 353 refers to Thespiai, Plataia, and Orchomenos as having been destroyed, he surely is writing about their urban centres only⁸⁸. He repeatedly mentions Philip’s promise to rebuild the walls of Plataia and Thespiai, from which we can deduce that what was at issue was only the urban centre⁸⁹. According to Demosthenes these promises were not kept, or at least they had not been by 343⁹⁰. Nevertheless, in 340 Thespiai sent a hieromnemon to Delphi, and between 338 and 335 Orchomenos, Tanagra, Thebes, Plataia, Koroneia, and Thespiai, all sent either a hieromnemon, treasurer, or naopoioi⁹¹.These are official delegates, and if they are identified by an ethnikon, the logical conclusion is that the poleis they represented existed at the time⁹². The sack of Thebes, on the other hand, was another matter altogether: the polis was eliminated, root and branch, and ceased to exist not only as a city but as a state until it was rebuilt after 315. Thespiai played a part in its destruction, together with the Plataians, Orchomenians, and others⁹³.

A useful control of political developments as reported by the literary sources is provided by relief stelai — both funerary and votive — either found at Thespiai and its χώρα, or made of Thespian stone. They suggest that, despite the vicissitudes of fortune, everyday life at Thespiai proceeded in as normal a fashion as possible. This can be attributed first, to the continuing prosperity of the upper middle class, who probably lived in the countryside rather than the city, and second, to the fitful nature of warfare in Archaic and Classical Greece, which was usually — although not always — conducted between spring and autumn, leaving quite a bit of the year for normal activity⁹⁴.

7. — Conclusion

To conclude: the polis of Thespiai was founded twice, once in the early Archaic period, its population including descendants of the Bronze Age inhabitants of Southern Boiotia, and people who had migrated into the area from northern Thessaly, and in one famous case at least, from Kyme in Aiolis. The second foundation was after the defeat of the Persians, when, to all appearances, Athens, Corinth, and Sparta helped the exiled citizens of Thespiai to rebuilt their city in a new location and with the addition of new blood. The cuits and legends of Thespiai reflect both foundations.

Thespiai is unusual in that, desite its size and importance, it seems never to have aspired to hegemony in Boiotia. Orchomenos, Tanagra, and even Haliartos, at one time or another challenged Thebes. To be sure, the Thespians participated eagerly in the sack of Thebes in 335, but this was a matter of vengeance, conducted under the protection of a superior power. It was not that Thespiai lacked brave men, either, as Keressos, Thermopylai, Plataia, and Delion testify. It was rather a combination of factors: first, the oligarchic faction at Thespiai was largely in sympathy with their peers at Thebes, and when necessary, relied on them to intervene if the demos threatened; second, like Plataia, but unlike Tanagra, Thespiai was vulnerable to attack. This conceals a possible third factor, a simple lack of ambition extending beyond the confines of their own homeland. We see it as early as Hesiod, and in the general willingness, even inclination, on the part of the Thespians, to entrust themselves to others for their protection: Thebes, Sparta, Athens, and later Rome, all played this rôle at different times. The Thespians were followers, rather than leaders, patients rather than agents. And if it were not for the Muses of Mount Helikon, we might know even less about Thespiai than we do about that other enigmatic Boiotian polis, Tanagra.