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The Boeotians

Greek people of central Greece, most of them on the King's side, 480-479 BCE

In the game: Level 11: The Finale

The Boeotians lived in the plain north of Attica, around Thebes. Herodotus says most of their cities gave earth and water to Xerxes, and Boeotians fought for the Persians at Plataea alongside other Greeks of the north and centre. Their choice split the Greeks of central Greece and left Thebes to answer for it after the battle.

In the game: The game names the Boeotians in the Chronicle, the decrees and the field briefings for Plataea. They have no mechanic of their own beyond what those texts show.

Thebes and the cities of Boeotia

Ancient account

Herodotus says that when Xerxes' heralds asked for earth and water, the Boeotians gave it, except the Thespians and the Plataeans. Thebes was the leading city of the region, and the Boeotians lay on the army's line of march.

Herodotus 7.132

Thermopylae and the two Boeotian cities

Ancient account

Boeotians were on both sides at Thermopylae. Herodotus says the Thespians stayed and died with the Spartans, while about 400 Thebans were held with Leonidas, and that the Thebans themselves said they were kept against their will. He says they surrendered at the end and that Xerxes had them branded as prisoners.

Herodotus 7.222, 7.233

Their place in Mardonius's line

Ancient account

Herodotus says Mardonius set the Boeotians, Locrians, Malians and Thessalians, with a thousand Phocians, opposite the Athenians, Plataeans and Megarians. Herodotus gives the whole Greek force on the Persian side as 50,000, a figure historians treat as too high.

Herodotus 9.31

Advice and fighting at Plataea

Ancient account

Herodotus says the Thebans urged Mardonius to use bribery and to cut the Greek supply lines rather than fight at once. In the battle he says the Boeotians fought hard against the Athenians and lost about 300 of their leading Thebans. After the Persian line broke, he says the Boeotian cavalry covered the retreat.

Herodotus 9.2, 9.67-69

Thebes after the battle

Ancient account

Herodotus says the Greeks besieged Thebes for about twenty days and demanded the pro-Persian leaders. They surrendered, and Herodotus says Pausanias had them taken to Corinth and executed. Herodotus also reports the Theban defence that the city had not acted as a whole but under a ruling faction.

Herodotus 9.86-88

Why Boeotia chose Persia

Disputed

Herodotus sets the choice partly on fear and partly on the pro-Persian faction in Thebes. In Thucydides, the Thebans themselves say their city was ruled by a small group of men in 480, which fits their excuse but also served their interest. Modern historians weigh geography, rivalry with Athens and the weakness of the Greek defence of central Greece, and no source settles it.

Thucydides 3.62