THEBES

thebes has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the People, Dates, Places and Events category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the entire history of european integration and the future of Europe.

Thebes is one of the most important place in the history of european integration and will probably have influence on the future of United europe, even if the ancient greek city do not exist anymore but remained as a pillar of the Greeks civilty strictly connected to their myth and culture, to some of their main heroes still famous and studied nowadays, and to part of the European languages.

Thebes was a greek polys (πόλις) in Beothia and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world! It played an important role in Greek myths as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others. The ancient Greek Thēbais (Θήβαις) was the name indicating the first fortified city (often called "Seven-Gated Thebes") among Greeks that owed its importance in prehistoric days—as later—to its military strength: the Danaan people kingdoms worthy of note (alongside Crete and Mycenae) lost contact with ancient Egypt but gained it with Miletus and Cyprus. Archaeological excavations around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, the first known alphabet of the history of european integration, indicating the importance of the site in the Bronze Age.

Where is Thebes of Greece? Thebes is situated in a plain between Lake Yliki (ancient Hylica) and the Cithaeron mountains, which divide Beothia from Attica regions: its elevation is 215 mt. above sea level, about 50 km northwest of Athens, nowadays is the largest municipality of the region Beothia Central of Greece. By reading the greek myth, Thebes had been founded by hero Cadmus, son of Zeus and descendant of the Gods Oceanian progeny, as capital of a kingdom over Thebeans and Illyrians: he came from Thebe capital of the High Egypt Reign and named the new town, while the sacred area he founded on the hill received the name Cadmeus because he probably had been buried there. At that time in Thebes of Egypt was venerated the Sun God Ammon (the same of the Siwa temple visited by Alexander the great) to which was dedicated the temple of Dodona of the Epirothes where served as priest IO, mother of the first pharaoph with Zeus and ancestor of Cadmus (read this article)... who was brother of Europa.

The mythic age is deeply related to Thebes cause of its heroes, that became greek heroes: Eurialo had been one of the Argonauts together with Heracles, author of "the twelve labors" and ancestor of many european genealogies, who tried to became king of Thebes as well of Dionysus (another son of Zeus) and Diomede, one of the protagonist of the Troy War, while glory covered forever the general Epaminondas who defeated definitely the strongest troops of Spartans leading the Aeolian tribes, that founded many colonies in Magna Graecia like the Aeolian archipelago and Acireale city. Cadmus was famous for teaching the Phoenician alphabet (Linear-B) and building the Acropolis, where took place the immolation of his daughter Semele, mother of Dionysus with Zeus. His direct descendant king Laius whose misdeeds culminated in the tragedy of Oedipus and the wars of the Seven against Thebes and the Epigoni, and the downfall of his house is still today a masterpiece of the classical literature teached in the european schools and universities.

Thebes has always been the major rival of Athens at the point to side against them during the Persian Wars since the late VI century B.C., when Thebans were obliged to face the hostile contact with the Athenians substainign the small near village of Plataea. So in 457 B.C. Thebes allied to Sparta that, needing a counterpoise against Athens in central Greece, reversed her policy and reinstated it as the dominant power in Boeotia: the great citadel served this purpose well by holding out as a base of resistance when the Athenians overran and occupied the rest of the country. And when the Peloponnesian War came, the Thebans had their vindication by inflicting a severe defeat to the force of Athenians at the Battle of Delium and for the first time displayed the effects of that disciplinated military organization that eventually raised them to predominant power in Greece. After the downfall of Athens, Thebes broke off the alliance and secretly supported the restoration of democracy in the rival city to find in it a counterpoise against Sparta: a few years later, influenced perhaps in part by Persian gold, they formed the nucleus of the league against Spartans, defeated at the Battle of Coronea (394 B.C.) and finally at Leuctra in 371 B.C.. That event allowed Thebeans to carry their arms into Peloponnesus and destroy the ancient traditional aristocratic social basis of the Spartan economy. Similar expeditions were sent to Thessaly and Macedonia to regulate the affairs of those regions but the result was their complete breakup at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.) that signed the egemony of king Philip II over all Greeks, and when Thebes revolted against the new greek power Alexander the Great came and destroyed the city in 335 B.C..

The modern city contains the Archeological museum of Thebes, the remains of the Cadmea (Bronze Age and forward citadel) and scattered ancient remains. The Holy Church of Luke the Evangelist is also in Thebes and contains Luke's tomb and relics.

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