According to tradition, the Boeotians were a wandering people; they are said first to have been driven by the Cadmeans into the Thessalian valley of Arne, which therefore cannot well have been as small as it is drawn in our maps; and afterwards they returned from Thessaly to Boeotia. This narrative shows essentially the same paralogism which so often occurs in the history of ancient nations: wherever two nations of the same stock appear in different places, they are connected with each other by means of migrations to and fro. If the Boeotians and the ancient Thessalians belonged to the same race, one tradition may have stated that the Boeotians migrated into Thessaly, and another, that they proceeded from Thessaly to Boeotia; both statements combined produce the before-mentioned result. I do not mean to say that during the immigration of the Emathians into Thessaly, the Boeotians did not go to Boeotia; but if this should be the case, still I cannot imagine that they should previously have been driven into Thessaly. The early history of Boeotia is mysterious and confused; ancient tribes are there mentioned under the strangest and altogether un-Hellenic names, as for example, the Aones, the Hyes, or Hyantes, who are said to have been Thracians. The tradition that there existed a Phoenician settlement at Thebes, is in my opinion more historical: the name Cadmus is Phoenician, and according to all appearance seems to be the representative of the Phoenician colony which was established at Thebes. This trace is too distinct to allow of anything being said against it. In times which lie beyond the history of Greece, the Phoenicians had settlements in the Greek islands, as in Cythera, Thasos, the Cyclades, and many other parts of the country; it is therefore not difficult to believe that they should also have formed a settlement at Thebes, though some miles distant from the sea. Besides this ancient Phoenician colony, there existed in Boeotia the ancient kingdom of the Minyans of Orchomenos, the existence of which is certain, and is loudly attested even at the present day by the indestructible ruins of Orchomenos, which are as gigantic as those of Tiryns and Mycenae. I am quite disposed to ascribe these structures to the Minyans, concerning whom we still possess mythical traditions, as well as the enormous works by which lake Copais was drained; those who built Orchomenos were a mighty people like that which constructed the tunnel of Alba and the buildings of ancient Rome. But the beginnings of Boeotian history are hidden in impenetrable darkness; and the fall of Orchomenos, although in the Homeric Catalogue the city is still distinct from Boeotia, belongs to so early a period, that fable describes it as the work of Heracles. In the Heracleia there is the legend that Thebes paid tribute to Orchomenos, and that Heracles reversed the relation. These are, no doubt, the fundamental outlines of a true history: and the