Boeotian League

The Boeotian Confederation was a league of cities of 15 pole ice in the middle Greek landscape Boeotia under the leadership of Thebes , who from the sixth to the fourth century BC. Existed in ancient Greece . It reached its greatest political and military importance after the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. BC, in which a Boeotian army under the leadership of the Theban general Epaminondas defeated the Spartans who had been considered invincible until then in open battle .

The federation was divided into 11 districts, each of which was headed by an elected Boiotarch as the executive officer. As the most important city of the Federation, Thebes provided four Boeotarchs, Orchomenos and Thespiai two each and Tanagra one , according to the number of its districts . Two officials represented the other, smaller cities.

In its history, the federation has shuttled back and forth between the poles of an alliance of polis with equal rights and the instrument of power of the strongest polis, Thebes. With the strengthening of Thebes under the statesmen Gorgidas , Epaminondas and Pelopidas from approx. 380 BC Thebes assumed more and more the role of the leading power, which culminated in the fact that it not only subjugated renegade Graubünden militarily, but also destroyed their cities from around 375 ( Plataiai and Thespiai) and took their votes for the Federal Assembly. The refusal of Thebes at the peace congress in Sparta 371 to let the Graubünden swear individually and thus to recognize their autonomy, led to the Spartan campaign, after which Thebes was able to take over the leading role in Hellas for a few years.

literature

• Pierre Salmon: Etude sur la Confédération Béotienne (447/6 - 386). Son organization et son administration (= Académie Royale de Belgique. Classe des Lettres et des Sciences Morales et Politiques. Mémoires. Collection in Oktavo. Série 2, Tom. 63, Fasc. 3, ISSN  0378-7893 ). Palais des Académie, Brussels 1978.