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Thebes is a town in central Greece which has been continuously inhabited for five millennia. It was an important Mycenaean centre in the middle to late Bronze Age and was a powerful city-state in the Classical period, participating in both the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, reaching its peak of influence in the early 4th century BCE when it was the most powerful city in Greece.

Historical Overview

Strategically situated on a low plateau commanding the surrounding plains of Boeotia, Thebes (also known as Kadmeia) was first inhabited around 3000 BCE. The fact that the modern town lies directly upon the historical site has created difficulties in reconstructing an accurate history for the ancient city. In the early to mid-third millennium, there is evidence of fortified buildings with rock-cut foundations, stone-paved courtyards, mud-brick walls and drains.

Following the Dark Ages in Greece (c.1100 to 700 BCE), Thebes re-emerged as an influential Greek city-state.

From 2500 BCE there is evidence of food and wool production and storage - grinding stones and terracotta loom-weights and spools, and bronze carpentry tools. Trade, both local and further afield, is suggested by the presence of precious goods such as gold, silver, ivory, and Cycladic influenced stone vessels. From 2000 BCE the site expanded with the first presence of stone cists and pits for burials and shaft graves which contained precious objects.

From 1700 BCE the settlement became more dense, and during the 14th century BCE the site reached its Bronze Age peak during the Mycenaean period. There is evidence of palatial buildings of two stories and with wall paintings, greater fortifications (probably of a Cyclopean nature and referred to in Homer's ), workshops (especially for jewellery), and stone-built aqueducts with terracotta pipes. Clay Linear B tablets and seals suggest the site was an important trading centre in olive oil, wood, livestock, wool, and leather goods. Finds of Cretan stirrup jars suggest that contacts were spread across the Aegean. From the 13th century BCE there are also chamber tombs with benches and drains, some with wall paintings and precious grave objects such as gold jewellery and bronze weapons. The end of this period is marked by evidence of earthquake and fire damage.

In the 4th century BCE, two Theban leaders achieved long lasting fame: Pelopidas, who was the subject of one of Plutarch's Lives, and the brilliant military strategist and student of philosophy, Epaminondas. These two generals, Pelopidas campaigning in central and northern Greece and Epaminondas in the Peloponnese, were largely responsible for Thebes' greatest period of regional dominance.

An unusual feature of the Theban army was the Sacred Band. This was a military corps founded by Gorgidas and consisting of 300 infantrymen linked in homoerotic pairs, the idea being soldiers would fight better if their lover were at their side. The Sacred Band, used for the first time as an independent unit by Pelopidas, defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Tegyra in 375 BCE. Even more decisive was the Battle of Leuktra in 371 BCE, where the Spartans were roundly defeated and where the victory monument set up by the Thebans is still visible today. This was sweet revenge for Sparta's imposition of a garrison at Thebes from 379 to 376 BCE. Victorious, Thebes created a new Arcadian capital at Megalopolis and was now firmly established as the most powerful city-state in Greece. Incidentally, a young Philip, the future king of Macedonia, was captured by Pelopidas whilst campaigning in Thessaly and taken hostage to democratic Thebes where he studied military tactics. The Sacred Band remained undefeated until 338 BCE and the invasion of the Macedonians.

In 364 BCE Pelopidas was killed (but victorious) in the Battle of Kynoskephalai which forced Macedonia to join the Theban led Boiotian League. Shortly after, in 362 BCE, Epaminondas fell in the indecisive Battle of Mantinea against a Spartan and Athenian led alliance. With the loss of their two great generals, Theban dominance began to wane and Sparta and Athens would become the two major players in Greece.

In 338 BCE Thebes joined old rivals Athens and Corinth in order to face the invading Philip (now King) of Macedonia in the Battle of Chaironeia. Thebes ended on the losing side, though, and Philip established a Macedonian garrison in the city. However, Thebes - noted for its scheming against local rivals - was even more harshly treated by Philip's heir, Alexander, who destroyed the city and sold the population into slavery.

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Thebes is a town in central Greece which has been continuously inhabited for five millennia. It was an important Mycenaean centre in the middle to late Bronze Age and was a powerful city-state in the Classical period, participating in both the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, reaching its peak of influence in the early 4th century BCE when it was the most powerful city in Greece.

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Everything you need to know about the ancient polis of Megara. Created by Anoop, Brandon, Glenn, Hanna, Vishruth, and Yoanna

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Corinth, Greek Kórinthos, an ancient and a modern city of the Peloponnese, in south-central Greece. The remains of the ancient city lie about 50 miles (80 km) west of Athens, at the eastern end of the Gulf of Corinth, on a terrace some 300 feet (90 metres) above sea level. The ancient city grew up at the base of the citadel of the Acrocorinthus-a Gibraltar-like eminence rising 1,886 feet (575 metres) above sea level. The Acrocorinthus lies about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) south of the Isthmus of Corinth, which connects the Peloponnese with central Greece and which also separates the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs from each other. The citadel of the Acrocorinthus rises precipitously above the old city and commands the land route into the Peloponnese, a circumstance that gave Corinth great strategic and commercial importance in ancient times.

The site was occupied from before 3000 bce, but its history is obscure until the early 8th century bce, when the city-state of Corinth began to develop as a commercial centre. Corinth's political influence was increased through territorial expansion in the vicinity, and by the late 8th century it had secured control of the isthmus. The Corinthians established colonies at Corcyra and Syracuse, which would later assure them a dominant position in trade with the western Mediterranean.

During the 8th and 7th centuries Corinth was ruled by the Bacchiad family of nobles, but they were eventually overthrown by Cypselus, who, followed by his son Periander, ruled the city as tyrants from about 657 to 550. These tyrants founded further colonies, but the chief source of Corinth's wealth remained its possession of the isthmus, which controlled not only the land traffic between Attica and the Peloponnese but also the traffic between the Aegean and Ionian seas by way of the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs. Periander facilitated the transit of ships and cargoes, which were hauled overland from gulf to gulf, by building a stone roadway between them, thus sparing seafarers the arduous voyage around the southern tip of the Peloponnese. By this time Corinth had harbours on both gulfs that flanked it, Lechaeum on the Gulf of Corinth and Cenchreae on the Saronic Gulf. Under the tyrants, Corinth's colonial expansion was extended along the Adriatic and into Macedonia.

The tyranny of the Cypselids was followed in about 550 bce by an oligarchical government that embarked on a major building program for the city. In the second half of the 6th century, however, Corinth was outstripped by Athens in both seamanship and commerce, and it was often the bitter commercial rivalry between Corinth and Athens that was to generate crises in Greek politics over the next 200 years. After the Greco-Persian Wars ( c. 546- c. 448 bce), Corinth joined Sparta against Athens during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 bce), but, though that conflict brought about the military defeat of Athens, it did little to revive the power of Corinth, which joined with some of its former allies to defeat Sparta in the Corinthian War (395-387 bce).

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Corinth was subsequently involved in most of the political conflicts of Greece, but chiefly as a pawn in the struggles of more powerful city-states because of the strategic value of its citadel. Corinth's independence finally ended in 338 bce when Philip of Macedon garrisoned the Acrocorinthus and made the city the centre of the League of Corinth. The city remained the puppet of Macedonia and subsequently of the Achaean League until the latter involved it in a fatal conflict with Rome, and in 146 bce Corinth was destroyed by the Roman general Lucius Mummius.

In 44 bce Julius Caesar reestablished Corinth as a Roman colony. The new Corinth flourished and became the administrative capital of the Roman province of Achaea. The city is known to readers of the New Testament for the letters addressed to its Christian community by the apostle Paul. It enjoyed some prosperity under Byzantine rule but declined in the later European Middle Ages. After the Turkish conquest in 1458, it was reduced to a country town.

The remains of the ancient city of Corinth lie just north of the Acrocorinthus, with which it was joined by a circuit wall about 6 miles (10 km) in circumference. The city was connected with its principal port, Lechaeum, by two parallel walls and a paved highway that led to the propylaea, the entrance to the agora (the city's main marketplace). Most of the substantial remains in the agora are works from the Roman period, but it acquired its present extent much earlier, in the 4th century bce, with the construction of an enormous stoa (portico), 525 feet (160 metres) in length, that enclosed its southern side. Immediately behind the south stoa began the road leading to the city's other port of Cenchreae, on the Saronic Gulf. On a small rise northwest of the agora stand seven Doric columns, which are the remains of the Temple of Apollo ( c. 550 bce). The remains of other temples, villas, a theatre, shops, public baths, pottery factories, a gymnasium, a large triumphal arch, and other buildings dot the site, which since 1896 has been extensively excavated.

Modern Corinth, three miles northeast of the site of ancient Corinth, was founded in 1858 after an earthquake leveled the latter. It is primarily a hub of communications between northern and southern Greece and is the primary point of export for local fruit, raisins, and tobacco. It is also the chief town of the dímos (municipality) of Corinth in the Peloponnese (Modern Greek: Pelopónnisos) periféreia (region), as well as the seat of an archbishop. Pop. (2001) 30,434; (2011) 30,176.

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Corinth, an ancient and a modern city of the Peloponnese, in south-central Greece. The remains of the ancient city lie about 50 miles (80 km) west of Athens, at the eastern end of the Gulf of Corinth, on a terrace some 300 feet (90 metres) above sea level.

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Árgos, city in the nomós (department) of Argolís, northeastern Peloponnese (Modern Greek: Pelopónnisos), Greece. It lies just north of the head of the Gulf of Argolís (Argolikós Kólpos).

Árgos Karin Helene Pagter Duparc

The name Árgos apparently signified an agricultural plain and was applied to several districts in ancient Greece. Historically, the Argolís was the easternmost portion of the Peloponnesian peninsula, and the city of Árgos was its capital. Agamemnon, Diomedes, and other heroes from Argolís's fertile plain figure prominently in the Iliad of Homer. The present city of Árgos lies about 4 miles (6.5 km) from the gulf below Kástro hill (ancient Lárissa), a site probably occupied since the Early Bronze Age and very prominent in Mycenaean times ( c. 1300-1200 bce). A small market town on the Corinth-Návplion rail line, it is built over much of the site of the Classical city.

Árgos was probably the base of Dorian operations in the Peloponnese ( c. 1100-1000 bce), and from that time onward it was the dominant city-state of Argolís. Under the Argive king Pheidon (7th century bce), Árgos was the dominant city-state in all the Peloponnese until the rise of Spartan power. The Argives defeated the Spartans at Hysiae (669). In 550 and again in 494, however, Sparta defeated Árgos, which took no part in the Greco-Persian Wars. As Spartan power continued to grow, Árgos allied with Athens in 461 and again during the Peloponnesian War in 420, but, after the defeat of the Athenian League in 418 and an oligarchic revolution in Árgos, the city allied itself with Sparta. Peace with Sparta was broken when Árgos united federally with Corinth (392) as the Corinthian War started. Argive loyalty to Corinth soon wavered, and, when Thebes revolted against Sparta (379), democrats took power in Árgos and participated in Theban victories over Sparta at Leuctra (371) and Mantineia (362).

Waning Theban power brought renewed Spartan aggression that forced the Argives to appeal to Philip II of Macedonia, who restored to them their old province of Cynuria on the western side of the Gulf of Argolís. After several more incursions, principally Macedonian, into its territory, Árgos joined the Achaean League in 229, remaining active except during brief Spartan occupations of the city (225 and 196).

The Roman conquest and the destruction of Corinth (146) increased the importance of Árgos, which became the centre of the Achaean League. The city flourished in Byzantine times, but when the Frankish principality of Achaea was established (1204 ce) after the Fourth Crusade with Naupliaas its capital, Árgos consequently declined. In 1397 the Turks captured Árgos, and again in 1500, massacring the inhabitants and replacing them with Albanians. During the War of Greek Independence (1821-29), the first free Greek Parliament was convened at Árgos (1821 and 1829).

Archaeological excavations began on the site-just northeast of the present city, on a rocky spur of Mount Euboea (Évvoia) near the ruins of Mycenae (Mykínes)-in 1854, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Athína) began excavations on the Argive Heraeum (Heraion) in 1892 and 1895. The Heraeum had been the centre of the worship of the mother-goddess Hera and the natural sanctuary of the Argolís long before the Dorians came ( c. 1100-1000 bce).

After the Dorian invasion a large temple was erected on the Heraeum, probably in the late 7th century bce, but nothing survives of this except the limestone platform and a part of the column-supporting pavement, or stylobate. The Greek geographer Pausanias records the burning of the temple (423 bce) through its priestess's negligence. A more splendid temple was begun by the local architect Eupolemus, designed in limestone with Doric columns. This temple was flanked by impressive stoas, or colonnaded halls.

The French School at Athens conducted various excavations at Árgos before and after World War II, uncovering the remains of a temple of Apollo. On the lower ground their researches uncovered another temple site, as well as the site of what was in all probability the Bouleuterion (council house) of the Greek city, city baths and a Heroon (hero-cult shrine) of Roman date, and a cemetery with graves extending from the middle Helladic period ( c. 2000- c. 1600 bce) to late Roman times.

In the early Classical period, prominent Argive sculptors included Ageladas and his student Polyclitus, who executed a colossal gold and ivory cult statue of Hera in the temple at the Heraeum, since lost-though some idea of the head may be gained from certain Argive coins of this period. Today, Árgos is a prosperous agricultural and commercial centre for vegetables and fruits grown in the plain and for food-processing industries based on them. Pop. (2001) 24,239.

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Árgos: Árgos, city in the nomós (department) of Argolís, northeastern Peloponnese (Modern Greek: Pelopónnisos), Greece. It lies just north of the head of the Gulf of Argolís (Argolikós Kólpos). The name Árgos apparently signified an agricultural plain and was applied to several districts in ancient

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Rise of City-States: Athens and Sparta [ushistory.org]

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Has some city-states on it

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Ancient Greece for Kids: Greek City-States

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Kids learn about the city-states of Ancient Greece. Powerful cities such as Corinth, Thebes, Argos, and Rhodes.

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This will take you to the content page. Click on the Greek City-State you are researching to find out more.

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Ancient Greek City-States for Kids and Teachers - Ancient Greece for Kids

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Each ancient Greek city-state had its own form of government and its own army, and even sometimes its own navy. Each city-state certainly its own way of doing things. Still, the city-states of ancient Greece had many things in common.