Geography

​Next is Boeotia, concerning which and the adjacent tribes it is necessary, for the sake of clarity, to make a recollection of what we have said before. For we assumed that the coast from Sunium extends towards the north, with the sea inclining slightly towards the east, and the inland parts extending towards the west, like parallel strips stretched through the country. Of these, the first is Attica with Megaris, like a certain strip, having on its eastern side the coast from Sunium to Oropus and the border of Boeotia, and on its western side the Isthmus and the sea near Pagae up to the boundaries around Creusa; and the remaining parts include the coast up to the Isthmus and the mountain range, which is broad as it were, separating Attica from Megaris. The second is Boeotia, a certain strip extending from east to west, from the sea near Euboea to the sea near the Crisaean gulf, being in length somewhat equal to Attica or even smaller; in the excellence of its soil, however, it is vastly superior.

​Ephorus also shows that in this respect Boeotia is superior to the neighboring tribes, and that it alone is bordered by three seas and is well-provided with more harbors, receiving products from Italy, Sicily, and Libya at the Crisaean and Corinthian gulfs, while on the parts facing Euboea, the coast splits on either side of the Euripus, in one direction towards Aulis and the territory of Tanagra, and in the other towards Salganeus and Anthedon, with the sea facing Egypt, Cyprus, and the islands being continuous on one side, and the sea facing Macedonia, the Propontis, and the Hellespont on the other. And he adds that the Euripus, being so narrow and joined to Euboea by a bridge two plethra long, has in a way made Euboea a part of Boeotia. Thus he praises the country for these reasons, and says that it is naturally well-suited for leadership, but because those who were successively in charge of it did not make use of careful training and education, even if they ever succeeded, they remained in power only for a short time, as Epaminondas showed; for after his death, the Thebans immediately lost the hegemony, having only tasted it. And the cause of this, he says, is that they neglected learning and intercourse with men, and cared only for military virtue. But he ought to have added that this is especially useful against Greeks, since against barbarians force is superior to reason. Indeed, the Romans too in ancient times, when fighting against wilder nations, had no need of such education, but from the time they began to have dealings with more civilized nations and tribes, they applied themselves to this training also and became masters of all.

​Boeotia, at any rate, was formerly inhabited by barbarians, namely the Aones and the Temmices, who had wandered from Sunium, and the Leleges and the Hyantes. Then the Phoenicians who accompanied Cadmus held it, and he fortified Cadmeia and left the rule to his descendants. And they founded Thebes adjacent to Cadmeia, and together preserved their rule, leading most of the Boeotians until the expedition of the Epigoni. At the time of this expedition, they abandoned Thebes for a short time, but returned again. Likewise, when they were driven out by the Thracians and the Pelasgians, they established their rule in Thessaly together with the Arnaeans for a long time, so that they all came to be called Boeotians. Then they returned to their own land, at the time when the Aeolian fleet was already prepared near Aulis in Boeotia, which the sons of Orestes were sending to Asia. And having added the territory of Orchomenus to Boeotia (for they were not previously in common, nor did Homer register them along with the Boeotians, but separately, calling them Minyae), they together with them drove out the Pelasgians to Athens, after whom a certain part of the city was called Pelasgicon (and they lived under Mount Hymettus), and the Thracians to Mount Parnassus. As for the Hyantes, they founded the city of Hyas in Phocis.