Béotie

The Béotie (in Greek Βοιωτία , old Boiōtía , modern Viotía ) is an area of central Greece. It is bordered by the Attique in South-east, by the gulf of Eubée in the East, by Phthiotide in North, Phocide in the West and the gulf of Corinth in the South. The modern capital is Livadiá, word which means meadow, pasture, a emblematic economic reality of the area. The ancient capital was Thèbes (current Thiva).

Geography

Béotie includes/understands two mountainous solid masses, that of the Parnassus (2457 m) in the West, the borders phocidiens, and that of Hélicon (1748 m) in the South. It includes/understands also a rather vast plain, that of Orchomène, on the middle price of Kifisos. the lower course of this small river is marked out of two lakes: the lake Yliki and the lake Paralimni. Béotie is crossed by the highway connecting Athens and Thessalonique, it gives access the island of Eubée by the bridge of Chalkida and Delphes by the road of the Parnassus. Names has a tourist attraction: the monastery of Osios Loukas and its mosaics of the 12th century.

Ancient geography

Its two principal cities were Orchomène and Thèbes, which drew up both in flat rich person favourable with the breeding of the horses and the culture of corn.

The Catalog of the vessels provides 30 toponyms for Béotie, that is to say more than any other Greek area.

It had moreover the two famous mountains of the Cithéron and the Hélicon (dedicated to the Muses).

With the traditional time, most of the plain of the north where Orchomène was drawn up was covered by the not very deep lake with Copaïs, famous for its eels, and which was fed by the Céphise philistine and his affluents. Another river, the Asopos, is described in Iliade as having “a bed of thick snap rings and pastures bulky” (IV, 383), and its name sometimes comes to poetically qualify the town of Thèbes or Béotie (for example at Euripide, Begging , v. 571: ἡ ᾿Ασωπία/ He Asôpía ).

Ancient history

The country was occupied starting from the Neolithic and had an importance marked with the Bronze Age. Vestiges mycéniens with Orchomène, and myths relating to the richness of the Minyens which emigrated of Thessalie leave think that the city was older than Thèbes béotienne, but the rise in this one and the flood of the lake Copaïs contributed to its decline.

The majority of the myths philistines are concentrated on the town of Thèbes, whose power in any time determined the importance of the role of Béotie in the history of this period. But Thèbes was never enough strong to make be worth its authority on all the towns of Béotie and make only one State of it.

The towns of Thespies and Platées often appeared in the policy béotienne. The businesses of Béotie were managed by a confederation of cities, of which some were recalcitrant members, in particular Platée which establishes bonds with Athens to ensure its independence.

Béotie played an ambiguity part, if it were not actively unfair in Greece, at the time of the medic Guerres. Whereas Athens tended to extend its capacity in the middle of fifth century BC, it invades and beat the Philistines with the Bataille of Œnophyta in -457, and thus forced all its cities, except Thèbes to recognize its supremacy. But its independence was returned in Béotie ten years later, when Athens was beaten with Coronée. A new defeat with Délium in -424 put a term at all the hopes of the Athenians to reconquer Béotie.

Fourth century BC was pilot extension of supremacy thebaine on the remainder of Béotie, in particular under the command of Épaminondas, and the defeat of Sparte to Leuctres in -371 and again to Mantinée in -362.

As the remainder of Greece, Béotie could not resist the rising power of the Macedonia under Philippe, and after the defeat of the forces thebaines and Athenian to Chéronée in -338, and the destruction of Thèbes in -335 by Alexandre Large the, Béotie declined quickly.

Béotie is one of the principal theaters of operations of the first war against Mithridate VI of the Bridge: the Roman general L. Cornelius Sylla gains there two decisive victories over the general pontic Archelaos with Chéronée and Orchomène in -86. Sylla also put at bag the town of Thèbes.

Reputation

The Athenians saw the inhabitants of Béotie like uncultivated people, oaf and little refined, from where drift the current adjective “philistine” who nominates a little cultivated person, and indifferent to knowledge.

But it in Béotie, is also named then generally “Aonie” (Ἀονία/ Aonia ), that the poets located the Mont Hélicon, remains Muses “aoniennes”. The epithet “aonien” also applies to several gods or heroes originating in Béotie (Dionysos, Héraclès, Hippomène,…).

Famous births of Béotie: Hésiode: would have been born (- VIII ièm) in Ascra, small borough of Béotie. Plutarque: Born in Chéronée in Béotie, between years 43 and 50 of our era.

See too