Alexander Sacks Thebes
—Jason
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Ancient Greece consisted of numerous city-states, some stronger than others, all in competition for territory and resources. One of the oldest of these was Thebes, in Boeotia, a province of Central Greece. The people of Thebes were the dominant cultural and military center of the region and a key power in greater Greek politics. Thebes played many roles throughout its history: as both an ally or enemy to Athens and Sparta, a traitor state to its fellow Greeks, and eventually, a victim of Alexander the Great.
The geographic position of Thebes ensured that the city-state and its people were a bulwark of military strength. Hostile powers, both domestic and foreign, bordered the Thebans; their presence reinforced the need for strong fortifications and a large military. The most common domestic enemies the Thebans faced were either the Phocians, to their west, or the Athenians, Corinthians, and Spartans to their south, though any of these powers could be cajoled into an alliance against common foes. The foreign enemies Thebans faced were those they considered barbarians coming from their north: the Illyrians, Thessalians, Thracians, and most troublesome, the Macedonians. If any of these groups wanted to raid into southern Greece, their forces needed to either push through or pay off the Thebans.
This constant threat of invasion by either fellow Greeks or barbarians ensured that the Thebans developed a keen sense of political and military expediency for their survival. As other Greek city-states either gained or lost power, Thebes allied itself with whomever provided the best terms for them. Both Athens and Sparta courted Thebes throughout their own conflicts and eventually developed the view that Thebans were an untrustworthy, but necessary, ally. Thebes also needed to balance its relationship with the northern peoples: Macedon briefly served as an ally. The Macedonian royal family sent hostages to Thebes, most famously the future King Philip II, to act as both collateral for good behavior and as a cultural exchange to improve the semi-Greek Macedonians.
A major threat to Thebes came in the form of the invasion during the Second Persian War (480-479 BC) which pitted the Greek city-states against the Persian Empire. King Xerxes of Persia assembled an enormous army and navy to conquer mainland Greece and marched overland to northern Greece: Thebes was directly in his path. The leaders of the city sent 400 Theban heavily armed foot soldiers, known as hoplites, to join their fellow Greeks assembling at Thermopylae. There they came under the command of the Spartan King Leonidas, along with his own 300 hoplites and 6,300 other Greeks. While this Theban contingent joined its fellows, the city leaders made an alliance with Xerxes to spare their city and people from destruction. Once word of this treaty filtered to Leonidas, he ordered most of the Greek hoplites, save his own men, 1,100 Boeotians, and the 400 Thebans, to retreat further south. Leonidas and his contingent of soldiers were surrounded and slaughtered at Thermopylae. The survival instincts of Thebans made them traitors in the eyes of their fellows. This treachery was damaging to Thebes’s reputation as the Greeks crushed the Persians at the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE) and Battle of Plataea (479 BCE).
Thebes was stuck in a position of being a secondary power after the Athenians and Spartans expelled the Persians. Athens and Sparta were the two most powerful and dominant city-states after the end of the Persian Wars. Sparta sought to retreat into the Peloponnesian Peninsula, where it ruled, to watch over its subject peoples. Athens became the leader of Delian League, a defensive alliance of Greek states, and slowly built an empire. Sparta, and many other city-states, became wary of Athenian intentions: this proved to be a boon for Thebes. The Peloponnesian Wars (431 to 405 BCE) broke out between the two Greek super-powers and their allies. Since Thebes was the strongest city-state in Boeotia, both Athens and Sparta approached them for alliance. The Thebans took full advantage of this, switching sides over the course of the wars.
Thebes rose to a short period of power once Athens had been defeated by the Spartans. Their good fortune blossomed once the Greek city-states tired of Sparta’s heavy-handed form of governance. The Theban military had learned much about their enemies and had developed countermeasures against the vaunted Spartan hoplites. Man for man, the Spartans’ military training was superior to any other Greek’s, but the Thebans “stacked” one flank of their phalanx with addition hoplites to crush the thin Spartan battleline. The Thebans allied with a revitalized Athens and shattered the Spartan army in battle. By 405 BCE, Thebes was one of the strongest city-states to come out of the Peloponnesian wars.
The city and its people did not enjoy this status for long: a neighboring power would soon humble the Thebans. The Kingdom of Macedon, whose people were cousins of the Greeks, had watched carnage of the Peloponnesian Wars and stayed neutral. While the Greek city-states tore themselves apart, the Macedonian kings were taming their barbaric neighbors and slowly building a strong, though small kingdom. Thebes was the closest thing to ally that the Macedonians could count on in Greece, and the two powers allied with each other to crush their common northern enemies. Male members of the Macedonian royal family were sent to Thebes as hostages to secure the relationship. The most famous of these royal “guests” was Philip, youngest son of the king, who spent nearly a decade there.
Philip was not imprisoned while a hostage, rather, he was free to discuss political, philosophical, or military matters with the Theban leadership. During this time, he observed the Theban military and paid keen attention to their tactics and weapons: this would prove vital to the success of Macedon in the coming years. Once he returned home, and usurped the throne, Philip swiftly retrained and reorganized the Macedonian infantry and cavalry according to what he learned. New weapons, tactics, and training molded the Macedonian army into one of the deadliest fighting machines in the ancient world. Philip’s new army was designed to not only defeat the neighboring barbarians and Persians: he had his mind turned to conquering his “fellow” Greeks.
After defeating the surrounding tribal groups, Philip sent envoys to the southern Greek city-states asking for an alliance to launch an invasion of the Persian Empire. Philip would be leader of the Greek-Macedonian coalition and the Greeks subordinate to his command. Thebes, Athens, and Sparta wanted no part in this “barbarian’s dream” and rejected his overtures. Philip responded by marching south to put these city-states in their place. Philip commanded the Macedonian infantry, while entrusting the cavalry to his son Alexander, as he confronted the Thebans and Athenians outside the city of Chaeronea in 338 BCE. The Macedonian army destroyed the Theban and Athenian armies and forced the Greek city-states into the alliance.
King Philip did not get to enjoy his victory, while hosting a party at his capital he was assassinated in 336 BC. His son inherited his father’s throne and allies, becoming Alexander III, and fully expected the Greeks to follow his leadership. Thebes determined that the alliance died with Philip and refused to aid the new Macedonian king. Fearing that any sign of weakness would destroy his chances of controlling the Greek world, Alexander consolidated his power and quickly marched on Thebes. The Macedonian army surrounded and then sacked the city. Only the temples, priests, the house, and family of the poet Pindar, were spared from destruction or enslavement. The remaining 30,000 Theban citizens were sold into slavery as a lesson to the remaining Greek city-states not to rebel. The final reckoning for this fascinating city-state and its people was price paid by those who were duplicitous towards Alexander the Great.