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The Boeotian League (Thebes)

Models: Dark Fernir, Model Modifications & Skins: Spirit of Rob, Thespian Model & Skin: Dark Fernir & Hades, Research & Text: Apostates & Team, Map: Uranos, Additional Art: Lupus.




The icon is the club of Hercules within the shape of a typical boeotian shield
These are the two typical symbols of the boeotian league and the city of Thebes, merged together.




- "You die childless Epameinond ?"
- ''By Zeus this is not true; I leave you my immortal daughters, Leuktra and Mantineia...''

Epaminond's last dying words to his mourning comrades...




The Boeotian League

Boeotians are considered to have moved from Macedonia and were originally of Dorian stock, before they mixed with the previous populations who were Aeolians, along with the Minyes and the mythological Kadmians, who were the descendants of Kadmos, who had established the acropolis of Thebes.

The Thebans claimed Dorian descent and their city was the city where Hercules himself was born, according to the myth. The most prosperous Boeotian city before the Boeotians inhabited Thebes was Orchomenos, but later, Thebes gained considerable wealth and power, and rapidly became the dominant city of Boeotia. The Hellenic dialect spoken in Boeotia belonged to the Aeolic group along with the Thessalian and Lesbian dialects, but was mixed with many Doric elements.

The majority of the Boeotian cites had followed Thebes and allied with the Persians, except for 2 cities famous for their warriors, the cities of Plataia and Thespiai. The city of Plataia was a traditional ally of Athens but after an agreement it participated in the Boeotian league. Nevertheless they were the only Greeks who helped the Athenians in the battle of Marathon by sending 1000 of their troops, whereas the 700 brave Thespians commanded by Diadromos' son, Demophilos, were the only Greeks who willingly decided to defend Thermopylai after a treasonous Greek informed the invaders of a path which would allow them to surround the Greeks. Despite the fact that they were not professional soldiers they fought bravely down to the last man. A number of Thespians also fought later in the Battle of Plataia without carrying shields or any defensive equipment, since the destruction of their city by the Persians which followed the Battle of Thermopylai, left them in a desperate situation. On the other hand, the Plataians had offered to crew the Athenian triremes in the naval battle of Artemision, even though they had no previous experience in naval combat. Despite the Theban decision to turn against the rest of the Greeks, these 2 cities put on a glorious performance against the invaders. The cities of Plataia and Thespiai figure as enemies of Thebes and were traditional allies of Sparta and Athens respectively.

Thebans were always ready to betray the Greek cause. Hellenic mythology describes a campaign against Thebes lead by 7 generals from the Peloponnese, allied with Argos. When the campaign failed, it was repeated again by their sons and finally ended with the complete destruction of the city of Thebes, an act which is not often recorded in mythology and history. This razing of the city seems to have indeed occurred some time during the 13th century BC. The city of Thebes was also later completely destroyed by Alexander the Great, and it seems Thebans and Boeotians in general were not popular amongst Greeks.

The Thebans were considered traitors and butchers, because when they defeated an enemy Hellenic phalanx they would continue to slaughter the routing soldiers, and enjoy doing it ! Also, after their victory at Leuktra against the Spartans, the Thebans were the first to build a monument to commemorate their victory out of indestructable materials, this was not done before amongst Greeks. Considering the Thebans were always more than willing to ally with the Persians and undermine the Greeks, it makes quite an impression that Epameinondas didn’t destroy the helpless Sparta after the battle of Mantineia and respected their King, Agesilaos. Thanks to the genius of Epameinondas and its superbly trained army, led by the Sacred Band, Thebes gained the hegemony of Hellas for a short time by defeating the invincible Sparta and inspired Phillip II of Macedon to reform his army into an unbeatable force.

The Greeks used some rude phrases to describe a stupid man, by using the phrase “Boeotian mind” or to comment a dirty one, as a “Boeotian pig”. Such comments were mostly unjustified, since Boeotians and especially Thebans, had proven their virtues even when they fought against other Greeks in Plataia and Chaironeia, by disregarding death. Boeotia was the birthplace of eminent Greeks like Hesiodus, Pindar and Ploutarch, and hosted one of the richest mythological backgrounds in Hellas. Generally, the Boeotians were known to the rest of the Ancient Hellas, for their "love" of the human body! They spent almost all of their time in gymnasiums, so that they were always in good shape, and possessed great strength and stamina. In battle, they based their efforts to win mostly by their physical strength rather than by discipline and order. It was even said that they were the most robust amongst all Hellenes!

Some time after the end of the Persian invasion, the Thebans reformed the Boeotian league and it was unharmed by the Peloponnesian War, thereby gaining the potential to become the hegemon of Hellas!

Playing with the Boiotian league will demand a very careful choice of your alliances and hostilities untill your faction becomes the dominant power in southern Hellas. A direct attack on the strong factions like the Lacedaimonians or Corinthians early in the game, may turn out to be a catastrophic error.




Locations/Regions around Boeotia







Boeotian League Units



Left to Right:
Top Row: Boeotian Hoplite; Theban Hoplite; Elite Band of Thebes; Family Members Bodyguards
Bottom Row: Boeotian Hippeis; Thespian Hoplite; Orchomenian Hoplite; Theban Hippotai




Boeotian Hoplites

Boeotia is a region of Hellas where some of the most vicious battles of antiquity have taken place. The Boetoians have repeatedly proved their martial skills and their valour against each other and against superior enemies like the Athenians and the Spartans and later against the Thessalians and the Macedonians.
Their equipment slightly differs from the rest of the Greeks since they carry the unique boeotian shield and usually wear the simple boeotian helmet.
Each city of the Boeotian league has to provide a number of those hoplites. On their shields they selected the serpent/snake which is strongly associated with boeotia through myths.




Theban Hoplites

The leading city of the Boeotian League is Thebes, in fact the Boeotian League most often operated in the interests of Thebes. The Thebans are known to be the most robust of all the Greek peoples; on their shields they traditionally have the club of Hercules, who was born in Thebes. It is recorded that they spent a lot of their time working on their bodies, thus their tactic in the field of battle is usually based on their physical strength rather than their discipline and command skills. They are also said to be the most bloodthirsty, especially when they face other Greeks, since after the battle, they like to hunt down the enemy and kill as many as they can.




Elite Band of Thebes/Hieros Lochos

The Hieros Lochos (Sacred Band) has not been formed yet in our mods timeframe; however most of the team wanted that name in, and maybe its a good way to make a reference to it and honour the brave men of that corp. Before the formation of the Hieros Lochos, Thebes had an elite band of a few hundred of their best citizens. our unit has on their shields the sphinx from the Oidipodus myth.




Family-Member Bodyguards

These hoplites are recruited from the best families and possess superior skills and equipement. On their shields you can see Poseidon who was a respected deity in Boeotia, although boeotians possessed practically no naval skills!




Boeotian Cavalry

Each city of the Boeotian league has to provide a number of cavalry troops to the common army which is about 1/10 of the total number of hoplites. The cavalry they provide don’t have any kind of unique equipment nor do they utilise the shock impact of a charge, but the horsemen are very well trained to fight on horseback compared to other southern Greeks.




Theban Hippotai

The cavalry of Thebes is recorded to have slain 500 hoplites in the Battle of Plataia, since they are capable of directly attacking hoplites it can be assumed that they wore some kind of body protection and also used heavy "kopis" swords specially adapted for use in cavalry assualts against infantry.




Thespian Hoplites

The Thespian "Melanochitones" (or "Black Cloaks") are the hoplites of the city of Thespies, they are some of the bravest hoplites of Hellas who not only fought to the last man in Thermopylai but also took part in the Plataia battle, with no shields of their own, since their city was destroyed by the Persians, they used the Boeotian shield which had a moon symbol painted on it, the symbol of Artemis their patron goddess and besides the black cloak, their equipment is also dark. They are known to be specialists using the "kopis/machaira" sword so we decided to make them a shock troop armed only with swords.




Orchomenos Hoplites

Orchomenos is an important city of Boeotia as noted, prior to the rise of Thebes, it was probably the most influential city and can provide reliable hoplites. These soldiers carry a shield with an image of grain on it.





If you would like to learn more about Hegemonia-City States, visit us at our development forum?.


Thanks again from the "Hegemonia" team...

So who do i have to kill to get more pics of the Thespian Hoplite, i think they look sweet my new favorite faction

Tell me about it! Definitely one of the coolest looking units I've seen in any RTW mod.

god great work guys! cant wait to make Herakles proud !

Guys (gr: re paidia), I think somethink is wrong about the Thespians (simera oi Thespies legodai Rimokastro) their favourite god was Heros , the nephew of Aphrodite , and Artemis comes second. And the club of Hercules does not look very nice. Did you think about his lion-helmet on the shields of Thebans. Also Boetian helmets looked like hats more than this

Thebes had a special unit 0f 300 men, the Ieros Lohos which was a developed unit of Filippos loxi falaga with Sharissas

They smashed spartans in the battle of lefktra in 371BC

I think it would be a good addition

The sacred Band of Thebes was formed by Gorgidas and it was constituted of 150 love-pairs. It was highly used during the Theban hegemony in Greece where it prooved its high quality.Actually,recently, it is said that at this time the equipment was turned into lighter (Iphicrates' reforms) and that Thebans had already adopted this new style of fighting ,that helped them to be faster and more flexible and offered them an advantage ,when they fought hoplites with heavy- heavy equipment.
As for the "Logxi Phallagga",this has to do with the battle-formation ,where for the first time ,the best hoplites (Sacred Band in this case) of the army were deployed on the strongest left side.
About Phillipos II , he grew as a hostage in Thebes ,where he learnt millitary.Of course his later military reforms in Macedonia were influenced by this fact ,but sarissa was probably a Macedonian innovation ,although Thebans may have used longer pikes than other Greeks ,but not so long as sarissa.
Just to refer that Thebans ,rarely left the battle and most of the times they were fighting to the end , even if this meant the death of all, and that a corp of 400 Thebans took place in the battle of Thermopylae, on the side of Spartans and Thespians and it was only after the defeat that Thebans took the side of the Persians.
Dionysus , son of Semeli and Zeus, was the most beloved god of Thebans and they were proud for his and Heracles' achievements as they were said to have travelled and qonquered all the world.However , originally the first god that was worshipped in Thebes,was probably Aphrodite by its first citizens ,that may have been either from Phoenicia ,or from Egypt ,as myth declares,in the deeper ancient times ,were origins and city-foundings are so confused.Just to say that Hellenas was brother of Phoinikas , and both sons of Deucalion, the only who survived the great floods.

I know the history kuburas i wrote just for an addition nothing else
dont forget how much Alexander admired them when they fought to death til the last man

Alexander hated Thebans.After defeating them in the battlefield,he looted and ruined the city to a single brick and brought its population to exile.
But to be true, he did admire a lot Pindar ,whose house was the only to survive from the Macedonians.

They are out of our time frame but we have kept the name to refer to the elite unit of Thebes/Boeotian League

I love that theban shield btw the thespians are my 2nd vavorite faction

Excelent work but there are some historical errors reguarding the Biotian Units.

1. The close corinthian helmet wasn't so popular in Biotia & Thessaly, instead of those (that maybe impresive) they were using the open front Biotain helmets (quite similar to the ones of cavalry) & the Pilos-shapped helmet (Specialy during Thebes accent to power)

2. The 8-shapped Biotian shield was more common than the round-shapped hoplon

I would like to send some photos how can I do it?

1) That is way there is only one faction unit with a Corinthian, the family bodyguards as they are a small unit and they are very much in the minority as you said most of them have either boeotian or pylos helms.

2) The Boeotian Faction is actually been reworked atm focusing mostly on the shield shape, but also better helmet models.

To post pictures you have to upload the image to an image hosting site like www.imageshack.us then post the link that the site gives you.

I didn't mean to offend anyone (Spirit of rob), i judge in base of what i see in the factions preview.

I will try to upload some images tomorow.

I apreciate your job because you are trying too be as realistic and accurate you can.

One more thing the greek armies where using a big variety of light armoured skirmishers that should be considered in the factions units.

none taken

We put the skirmishers into the Zonal recruitment one so Greek skirmisher units are recruitable if your army is in Greece, and asiatic ones are present if you are in Asia for example.