Lake Copais is surrounded by a magnificent plain, which, however, like other soils that are too rich, is unhealthy, and now forms the valley of Livadia: the ancients regarded it as belonging partly to Haliartus. Another plain is that of Thebes, which, though not as level as the other, is yet a very fertile and beautiful district. Boeotia is altogether a rich country; its waters abound in fish, its plains yield abundant corn, its hills are covered with olives, and in the neighbourhood of Anthedon excellent wine is produced. The Boeotians themselves, on the other hand, had the reputation of being dull and rude (_pingue sub aëre nati_). Nevertheless, however, the country produced Pindar; before him, Corinna; and, in later times, Plutarch, of whom we may justly say μωμήσεταί τις μᾶλλον ἢ μιμήσεται. He now no longer enjoys the same reputation as in former times, but notwithstanding all the charges that may be brought against him, he is an extremely amiable man and a pleasing author, and his writings are rich outpourings of plain wisdom; they contain no profound speculations, but are the lively productions of an extremely ingenious and well-read man. In his moral treatises he shows himself to be possessed of great depth of feeling. Pindar is one of those authors of whom we may say, that it is a man’s own fault if he takes no pleasure in him. What Quinctilian says of Cicero, may be applied also to Pindar: the more he pleases us, the farther we are advanced. Among the active statesmen of Boeotia, Epaminondas and Pelopidas are preeminent, especially the former, whose personal character is entitled to high esteem; considering the wretchedness of the time in which they lived, they were truly extraordinary men; but their misfortune was, that they belonged to a state, the rise of which necessarily involved the downfall of Greece. Subsequently, during the Macedonian period, which is described by Polybius, the Boeotians are the most senseless, the most powerless, and characterless of all the Greeks, and share the misfortune of the Achaeans: when their policy had become quite miserable, they threw themselves into relations in which they could not but perish.