The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

PERIOD VI. CIRC. B.C. 426395.
Once more did the Athenians make an attempt to
regain their lost ascendency in Boeotia, in compliance with
the wishes of the repressed democratic parties in the
various Boeotian towns, but it was all to no purpose. Near
Delium, which they had seized and garrisoned, they sus-
tained a crushing defeat which put an end for ever to all
hopes of recovering
Boeotia. From this time until the
close of the Peloponnesian war and the fall of Athens,
Thebes was reckoned among her bitterest enemies.
But after the close of the Peloponnesian war and the
humiliation of Athens, B.C. 404, a complete revolution took
place in the sentiments and policy of the previous allies
of Sparta. Thebes especially, which so long as Athens
was a formidable rival was her bitterest foe, now afforded
a refuge to the Athenian fugitives, and supplied sub-
stantial aid to Thrasybulus in his noble struggle against
the Thirty, in gratitude for which he dedicated in the
Herakleion at Thebes statues of Athena and Herakles,
said to be by Alcamenes (Paus. ix. 11, 4). This timely
assistance and sympathy was more than requited by
Athens in 396, when she sent an army into Boeotia to help
Thebes against the Spartans, who had invaded their ter-
ritory
'
from both sides at once. The result of this
Boeotian war,' as it is usually called, was the defeat of the
Spartans and the death of their great general Lysander
under the walls of Haliartus. Orchomenus, as the rival