τῶν δέ σφισιν ἐν ἀγῶσι πολέμου γενομένων εὐτυχημάτων, καὶ ὡς ἑτέρως, τοσάδε φανερώτατα ὄντα εὕρισκον. ἐκρατήθησαν ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων μάχῃ Πλαταιεῦσιν ἀμυνάντων, ὅτε σφᾶς ἐπέλαβεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ὅρων πολεμῆσαι τῆς χώρας· προσέπταισαν δὲ καὶ δεύτερον Ἀθηναίοις ἀντιταξάμενοι περὶ Πλάταιαν, ἡνίκα δοκοῦσιν ἑλέσθαι τὰ βασιλέως Ξέρξου πρὸ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν.
τῆς δὲ αἰτίας ταύτης δημοσίᾳ σφίσιν οὐ μέτεστιν, ὅτι ἐν ταῖς Θήβαις ὀλιγαρχία καὶ οὐχὶ ἡ πάτριος πολιτεία τηνικαῦτα ἴσχυεν· εἰ γοῦν Πεισιστράτου τυραννοῦντος ἔτι ἢ τῶν παίδων Ἀθήνῃσιν ἀφίκετο ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα ὁ βάρβαρος, οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως οὐ καὶ Ἀθηναίους κατέλαβεν ἂν ἔγκλημα μηδισμοῦ.
ὕστερον μέντοι καὶ Θηβαίοις νίκη κατʼ Ἀθηναίων ἐπὶ Δηλίῳ τῷ Ταναγραίων ἐγένετο, καὶ Ἱπποκράτης τε ὁ Ἀρίφρονος, ὃς στρατηγὸς ἦν Ἀθηναίοις, καὶ τῆς ἄλλης στρατιᾶς τὸ πολὺ ἔπεσε. Λακεδαιμονίοις δὲ παραυτίκα μὲν ἀπελθόντος τοῦ Μήδου καὶ ἄχρι τοῦ Πελοποννησίων πρὸς Ἀθηναίους πολέμου τὰ ἐκ Θηβῶν εἶχεν ἐπιτηδείως· διαπολεμηθέντος δὲ τοῦ πολέμου καὶ Ἀθηναίοις καταλυθέντος τοῦ ναυτικοῦ, μετʼ οὐ πολὺ Θηβαῖοι μετὰ Κορινθίων ἐς τὸν πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους πόλεμον προήχθησαν.
κρατηθέντες δὲ μάχῃ περὶ Κόρινθόν τε καὶ ἐν Κορωνείᾳ, νικῶσιν αὖθις ἐν Λεύκτροις ἐπιφανεστάτην νίκην ὁπόσας γενομένας Ἕλλησιν ἴσμεν κατὰ Ἑλλήνων· καὶ δεκαδαρχίας τε, ἃς Λακεδαιμόνιοι κατέστησαν ἐν ταῖς πόλεσιν, ἔπαυσαν καὶ ἁρμοστὰς τοὺς Σπαρτιάτας ἐκβάλλουσιν. ὕστερον δὲ καὶ τὸν Φωκικὸν πόλεμον, ὀνομαζόμενον δὲ ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων ἱερόν, συνεχῶς δέκα ἔτεσιν ἐπολέμησαν.
εἴρηται δέ μοι καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἀτθίδι συγγραφῇ τὸ ἐν Χαιρωνείᾳ σφάλμα συμφορὰν γενέσθαι τοῖς πᾶσιν Ἕλλησι· Θηβαίους δὲ καὶ ἐς πλέον κατέλαβεν, οἷς γε καὶ ἐσήχθη ἐς τὴν πόλιν φρουρά. Φιλίππου δὲ ἀποθανόντος καὶ ἐς Ἀλέξανδρον ἡκούσης τῆς Μακεδόνων ἀρχῆς, Θηβαίοις ἐπῆλθεν ἐξελεῖν τὴν φρουράν· ποιήσασι δὲ ταῦτα προεσήμαινεν αὐτίκα ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἐπιόντα ὄλεθρον, καί σφισιν ἐν Δήμητρος ἱερῷ Θεσμοφόρου σημεῖα ἐγένετο ἐναντία ἢ πρὸ τοῦ ἔργου τοῦ ἐν Λεύκτροις·
τότε μὲν γὰρ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τὰς θύρας ὑφάσματι ἀράχναι λευκῷ, κατὰ δὲ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ Μακεδόνων ἔφοδον μέλανι ἐξύφηναν. λέγεται δὲ καὶ Ἀθηναίοις ὗσαι τέφραν ὁ θεὸς ἐνιαυτῷ πρότερον πρὶν ἢ τὸν πόλεμον τὸν ἐπαχθέντα ὑπὸ Σύλλα τὰ μεγάλα σφίσιν ἐνεγκεῖν παθήματα.
Of the successes and reverses of the Thebans in battle, I found the following to be the most famous. They were defeated by the Athenians who had come to the help of the Plataeans in a war about boundaries. They sustained a second reverse when they were arrayed against the Athenians at Plataea, at the time when they are supposed to have preferred the cause of King Xerxes to that of Greece. The people were not to blame for that, because at the time Thebes was governed by an oligarchy, and not by its hereditary constitution. Similarly, if the barbarians had attacked Greece while Pisistratus or his sons ruled at Athens, it is quite certain that the Athenians also would have incurred the charge of siding with the Medes. Afterwards, however, the Thebans won a victory over the Athenians at Delium in the land of Tanagra, and the Athenian general, Hippocrates, son of Ariphron, fell with most of his army. From the moment the Medes withdrew from Greece down to the Peloponnesian war, the Thebans were on good terms with the Lacedaemonians ; but when the war was over and the Athenian navy destroyed, the Thebans and Corinthians were soon drawn into a war with Lacedaemon. They were defeated at Corinth and Coronea ; but at Leuctra they gained the most splendid victory that ever, to our knowledge, Greek gained over Greek. They then put down the decemvirates which the Lacedaemonians had set up in the cities, and they expelled the Spartan governors. Afterwards they waged for ten years continuously the Phocian, or, as the Greeks call it, the Sacred War.
In my description of Attica I have already said that the defeat at Chaeronea was a disaster for the whole of Greece. On the Thebans the blow fell with especial weight, for a garrison was introduced into their city. When Philip was dead and the crown of Macedonia devolved on Alexander, the Thebans contrived to overpower the garrison. Scarcely, however, had they done so when God foreshadowed to them their impending destruction. And in the sanctuary of Lawgiver Demeter the omens were the opposite of those that had preceded the battle of Leuctra. For before Leuctra spiders spun white threads over the doors of the sanctuary ; but at the approach of Alexander and his Macedonians, they spun black threads over the doors. It is said that God rained ashes on the Athenians the year before Sulla engaged them in the war which cost them such fearful sufferings.
Cite This Text