The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

250 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.
easily expelled, and as no adequate assistance was forthcoming,
the Thebaus were driven to blockade their own
citadel.
In time, no doubt, they would have been successful, had
not Alexander, whose reported death had encouraged them
to revolt, suddenly appeared in Bceotia at the head of an
army of relief. The tables were now again turned, and
Thebes, although she made a brave resistance, was taken by
storm, and her whole population given over by her conqueror
to indiscriminate slaughter. Orchomenus and Plataea
were now more than revenged. Thebes was levelled with
the ground, the Cadmeia being alone spared as a con-
venient fortress by means of which all Boeotia might be
held in subjection.
The Theban territory was now divided among the
cities of Orchomenus, Thespiae, and Plataea, and for twenty
years to come the site of Thebes was a desert.
In the Lamian war (323) the Boeotians held fast to the
Macedonian alliance, as there was nothing they dreaded
so much as the restoration of Thebes, which would im-
mediately have followed the success of the Greeks ;
never-
theless, in B.C. 315, when Cassander advanced into Boeotia
at the head of a formidable army, and announced his
intention of rebuilding the ruined city, they thought it
more politic not only to abstain from all resistance, but
actually to assist in the restoration of their ancient enemy.
Thus after lying in ruins twenty years, the walls of Thebes
once again rose at the bidding of Cassander, amid general
rejoicing throughout Hellas.
It is interesting to observe how, as history repeats
itself, the coinage, so to speak, reflects the history. There
are three distinct periods in which the influence and
importance of Thebes had sunk to the lowest point : first,