stories of the wars for the possession of Thebes are likewise symbolical, and personified indications of actual wars which devastated Boeotia. I allude to both the earlier war and that of the Epigoni in which Thebes was laid waste, but we cannot arrive at any historical detail. The real history of Thebes does not begin till the time of the Persian wars; in the case of Athens and Sparta, we know many things before that period, though they may be doubtful and falsified; but our information about Thebes does not begin until the time I have just mentioned. We then find Thebes standing in the same relation to Boeotia in which Alba stood to the early, and Rome to the later Latium; Thebes and Boeotia form two connected masses, of which the great city was originally, both in right and in might, equal to the collective body of Boeotians; but it then aimed at a supremacy which in all essential points it actually gained, except over a few places. The Boeotarchs were the common magistrates for all Boeotia; their number is uncertain; but in some instances it amounts to eleven. They seem originally to have been elected in common, six by the Thebans and six by the Boeotians;[53] but afterwards Thebes assumed to itself the right of appointing them, and raised only Thebans to the office. This struggle is the nucleus of Boeotian history from the time of the Persian wars down to the battle of Leuctra. After that battle, most of the Boeotian towns submitted to Thebes. Thespiae and Plataeae alone did not stoop; and being powerful towns, they joined Athens, a step which was unfortunate for both places. The Plataeans went to Athens and were received there; but they returned and were expelled a second time, so that in the Macedonian period Plataeae was quite a desolate place, in which there was only one temple and a few inns. So long as Sparta had not overthrown Athens, she supported the claims of Thebes, but afterwards declared herself in favour of the autonomy of the Boeotian towns; hence the unexpected seizure of the Cadmea, after which Thebes rose with its well-known energy. From that moment until the battle of Leuctra matters were in utter confusion. At first when the Thebans shook off the Spartan yoke, they were joined by the other Boeotians; but when the latter did not obtain equal rights, the struggle began afresh, and in the end the Boeotians were obliged to submit. It was not till Thebes had been destroyed by Alexander, that a relation of perfect equality was restored; the city rebuilt by Cassander was without importance, and the whole country henceforth plays a subordinate and miserable part in the history of Greece.