THE GREAT DAYS OF THEBES
I. LEGENDS AND EARLY HISTORY OF THEBES
Up to the end of the Peloponnesian War, the history of Greece had
been chiefly the history of Athens and Sparta. The end of the war
left Sparta supreme, but she did not know how to use her power. She
was stern and harsh, cared little for literature, and disliked
changes. She had not the imagination to put herself in the place of
Athens and to understand how she should rule such independent,
sea-faring, intellectually alert and artistic people. The short
period of her supremacy ended in failure, and then she was, in her
turn, overthrown by another Greek state. This state was Thebes, a
state which had not hitherto played a very honourable part in Greek
history. Always jealous of Athens, she had taken every opportunity
to side against her. She had treated the sturdy, independent little
city of Plataea with great cruelty; she had sided with the Barbarian
invader during the Persian Wars and with Sparta during the
Peloponnesian War, and it was only when the Spartan rule became {323}
intolerable to friends and enemies alike, that she offered a refuge
to the Athenian exiles.
The city of Thebes lay in the rich plains of Boeotia, where meat and
corn and wine were to be had abundantly. The near by hills provided
excellent hunting, and the Thebans were a people known to their
neighbours as loving pleasure and all the good things of the world,
as being good fighters, but men who were intellectually dull. There
were some exceptions, however, for Thebes produced two men of genius:
Pindar, the poet, and Epaminondas, the mighty general.
Pindar was born in the sixth century B.C. but he lived to be an old
man, and the Persians had been driven out of Greece before he died.
He was a noble, and his poems are the last lyrics that sing of an
order of society that was about to give way to the rule of the
people. Many of Pindar's lyrics were written in honour of the
winners at the Olympic Games, and in reading them one can almost see
the chariot racing along the course, and hear the people shouting,
and feel the joy of the victor as he receives his prize. Pindar was
very conservative; he belonged to a generation which had not yet
begun to question the existence of the gods, and all his poems are
filled with unquestioning faith in them and in their righteousness.
Especially did he delight to honour Apollo, and long after his death
it was believed that he was particularly dear to the god, for it was
said that every night at Delphi he was honoured by the summons: "Let
Pindar the poet come in to the supper of the god."
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But if Thebes had had no honoured past in history, she was rich in
legend and story. Thebes had been founded by Cadmus in obedience to
the word of Apollo. On the spot where the city was to be built, he
had slain a fearful dragon, and taking the dragon's teeth he had sown
them in the ground as a sower sows his seed, and immediately a host
of armed men had sprung up from the ground, who became the first
citizens of the new city. With their help, Cadmus built a citadel
which was known through all the days of Theban history as the Cadmeia.
Thebes was surrounded by strong walls and the city was entered by
seven gates. Another story told how the foundations of these walls
and gateways had been laid by Amphion, who then took his lyre and
played such divine music on it that the walls rose by magic as he
played, until they stood in such strength that they completely
protected the city, and later were able to endure a great siege.
But the gods had not always smiled upon Thebes. Pindar tells us that
"for every good a mortal receives from the gods, he must likewise
receive two evils," and this seemed to be true of the royal house of
Thebes. Dark and tragic are the tales of the fate of these ancient
rulers. It was Oedipus, who having first guessed the answer to the
riddle of the Sphinx, then in ignorance killed his own father and
became King, only to learn in later years of what he had done, and to
be driven forth from his kingdom, blind and helpless. Other legends
tell of Antigone, the faithful daughter of Oedipus, who accompanied
him in his wanderings and tended him until his death.
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II. EPAMINONDAS
Epaminondas was born in Thebes late in the fifth century B.C. He
belonged to a very old family, one of the few which claimed to be
descended from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus. Though of an
ancient family, he was poor, but he was among the best educated among
the Thebans; he had been taught to play the harp and to sing to its
accompaniment, to play the flute and to dance. A wise philosopher
was his instructor, to whom he was so attached that, young as he was,
he preferred the society of the grave and stern old man to that of
companions of his own age. After he grew up and began to practise
gymnastics, he studied not so much to increase the strength as the
agility of his body; for he thought that strength suited the purposes
of wrestlers, but that agility made a man a better soldier, so he
spent most of his time in war-like exercises.
Epaminondas, we are told, was
modest, prudent, grave, wisely availing himself of opportunities,
skilled in war, brave in action and of remarkable courage. He
was so great a lover of truth that he would not tell a falsehood,
even in jest; he was also master of his passions, and gentle in
disposition. He was a remarkable keeper of secrets, a quality no
less serviceable sometimes than ability to speak eloquently.[1]
Amongst the statesmen who helped to make Greece great, none were more
honourable or of {326} greater integrity than Epaminondas. It was
not possible to corrupt or bribe him and he was entirely free from
covetousness. This was shown when the envoy of King Artaxerxes the
Persian came to Thebes to bribe Epaminondas with a large sum of gold
(to get the Thebans to help the King), but Epaminondas said to him:
There is no need for money in this matter; for if the King
desires what is for the good of the Thebans, I am ready to do it
for nothing; if otherwise, he has not sufficient silver or gold
to move me, for I would not exchange the riches of the whole
world for my love for my country. I do not wonder that you have
tried me thus as you did not know me, seeing that you thought me
like yourself, and I forgive you; but get you away immediately
lest you corrupt others, though unable to corrupt me.[2]
Under Epaminondas, Thebes became the ruling power in Greece, but only
for a very short time. The Thebans were good soldiers only as long
as they had inspiring leaders, without a great leader they were
unable to hold what they had gained. One of the characteristics of a
great man is that he knows how to use his opportunities, and
Epaminondas had this gift. The story of his life is the story of a
great general. At his side was his friend Pelopidas, a man of
extraordinary courage, of great enthusiasm, and of utter devotion to
his leader.
Epaminondas made the Theban army a very formidable fighting force,
and with this powerful army {327} he set himself to break the power
of Sparta and to put that of Thebes in its place. In 371 B.C. the
Spartans were defeated by the Thebans under Epaminondas in a great
battle at Leuctra, not far from Thebes, and this victory made Thebes
for the time the chief military power in Greece. For nine years she
kept her power, though fighting continued. Epaminondas wanted to
capture Sparta itself, and he marched four times down into the
Peloponnesus. In spite of the long marches his men were obliged to
make, they were in splendid condition. They had implicit faith in
their general and would follow him anywhere. "There was no labour
which they would shrink from, either by night or by day; there was no
danger they would flinch from; and with the scantiest provisions,
their discipline never failed them."[3]
The Thebans had marched for the fourth time to the Peloponnesus, and
they were at Mantinea, and here in 362 B.C. Epaminondas fought his
last great battle against Sparta. Thebes was victorious, but she
bought her victory dearly, for Epaminondas was mortally wounded. As
he was carried from the field, he asked for the two captains who
stood nearest to him and would take his place. But he was told that
both had been killed. "Then make peace with the enemy," he murmured,
and drawing out the spear which had wounded him, he fell back dead.
Epaminondas was dead, and there was no one to take his place. He had
broken the power of Sparta, and the Peloponnesus was now divided into
{328} a number of camps, each at war with the other, and confusion
reigned everywhere in Greece. Thebes had been no more able to unite
Greece than Sparta had been, but under Epaminondas the art of war had
been so developed and changed that in the hands of a commander of
genius, an army had become a more formidable weapon than had ever
before been deemed possible.
Six years before the battle of Mantinea, a half-barbarian boy of
fifteen had been brought from Macedonia to Thebes as a hostage. This
boy was Philip of Macedon, and he spent three years in Thebes,
learning all that the greatest military state then in Greece could
teach him. He was destined himself to be a great commander, and the
father of one yet greater. There was now no Greek state powerful
enough to uphold Greek freedom. As a statesman, Epaminondas had
failed, for he left nothing but confusion behind him, but as a
general of genius, he was the teacher of Philip and Alexander of
Macedon, whose growing power was now to menace the freedom, not only
of Greece, but of the world.
[1] Cornelius Nepos: _Life of Epaminondas_.
[2] Cornelius Nepos: _Life of Epaminondas_.
[3] Xenophon: Hellenica, VII.
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