Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/101

B. ix. c. ii. 3, 4. BCEOTIA. 93 3. Bceotia was first occupied by Barbarians, Aones, and Temmices, a wandering people from Sunium, by Leleges, and Hyantes. Then the Phoenicians, who accompanied Cadmus, possessed it. He fortified the Cadmeian land, and trans- mitted the government to his descendants. The Phoenicians founded Thebes, and added it to the Cadmeian territory. They preserved their dominion, and exercised it over the greatest part of the Boeotians till the time of the expedition of the Epigoni. At this period they abandoned Thebes for a short time, but returned again. In the same manner when they were ejected by Thracians and Pelasgi, they established their rule in Thessaly together with the Arna3i for a long period, so that all the inhabitants obtained the name of Boeotians. They returned afterwards to their own country, at the time the .ZEolian expedition was preparing at Aulis in Boeotia which the descendants of Orestes were equipping for Asia. After having united the Orchomenian tract to Boeotia (for formerly they did not form one community, nor has Homer enumerated these people with the Boeotians, but by them- selves, calling them Minyee) with the assistance of the Orcho- menians they drove out the Pelasgi, who went to Athens, a part of which city is called from this people Pelasgic. The Pelasgi however settled below Hymettus. The Thracians retreated to Parnassus. The Hyantes founded Hyampolis in Phocis. 4. Ephorus relates that the Thracians, after making treaty with the Boeotians, attacked them by night, when encamped in a careless manner during a time of peace. The Thracians when reproached, and accused of breaking the treaty, replied, that they had not broken it, for the conditions were "by day," whereas they had made the attack by night, whence the common proverb, " a Thracian shuffle." The Pelasgi and the Boeotians also went during the war to consult the oracle. He cannot tell, he says, what answer was given to the Pelasgi, but the prophetess replied to the Boeo- tians that they would prosper by committing some act of impiety. The messengers sent to consult the oracle suspecting the prophetess of favouring the Pelasgi on account of their relationship, (for the temple had originally belonged to the- Pelasgi,) seized the woman, and threw her upon a burning pile, considering, that whether her conduct had been right or