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Tegea was a settlement in
Arcadia, The legendary founder of Tegea was Tegeates, a son of Lycaon. It was
one of the most ancient and powerful towns of ancient Arcadia, situated in the
southeast of the country. Its territory, called Tegeatis was bounded by Cynuria
and Argolis on the east, from which it was separated by Mount Parthenium, by
Laconia on the south, by the Arcadian district of Maenalia on the west, and by
the territory of Mantineia on the north. In the Archaic period the nine demoi
that underlie Tegea banded together in a synoecism to form one city; the
inhabitants of the demoi were incorporated, by Aleus in the city of Tegea, of
which this hero was the reputed founder. The Tegeatae were early divided into 4
tribes, to each of which belonged a certain number of metoeci or resident
aliens. Tegea is mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad, and
was probably the most celebrated of all the Arcadian towns in the earliest
times. The Tegeatae offered a long-continued and successful resistance to the
Spartans, when the latter attempted to extend their dominion over Arcadia. In
one of the wars between the two peoples, Chariläus or Charillus, king of
Sparta, deceived by an oracle which appeared to promise victory to the
Spartans, invaded Tegeatis, and was not only defeated, but was taken prisoner
with all his men who had survived the battle. More than two centuries
afterwards, in the reign of Leon and Agesicles, the Spartans again fought
unsuccessfully against the Tegeatae; but in the following generation, in the
time of their king Anaxandridas II, the Spartans, having obtained possession of
the bones of Orestes in accordance with an oracle, defeated the Tegeatae and
compelled them to acknowledge the supremacy of Sparta, about 560 Thus, Tegea's
struggle against Spartan hegemony in Arcadia came to an end, and it was forced
into some form of collaboration, maybe as one of the earliest members of what
would become the Sparta-centered Peloponnesian League. Tegea, however, still
retained its independence, though its military force was at the disposal of
Sparta; and in the Greco-Persian Wars
it appears as the second military power in the Peloponnesus, having the place
of honour on the left wing of the allied army. Five hundred of the Tegeatae
fought at the Battle of
Thermopylae,
and 3000 at the Battle of Plataea, half of
their force consisting of hoplites and half of light-armed troops. As it was
not usual to send the whole force of a city upon a distant march, it is likely
that on this occasion as not more than three-fourths of their whole number were
dispatched. This would give 4000 for the military population of Tegea, and
about 17,400 for the whole free population. Soon after the Battle of Plataea,
the Tegeatae were again at war with the Spartans. The Tegeatae fought twice
against the Spartans between 479 and 464, and were each time defeated; first in
conjunction with the Argives, and a second time together with the other
Arcadians, except the Mantineians at Dipaea, in the Maenalian district. Tegea,
and especially the temple of Athena Alea in the city, was a frequent place of
refuge for persons who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the Spartan
government. During the Peloponnesian War the Tegeatae were the firm allies of
the Spartans, to whom they remained faithful both on account of their
possessing an aristocratical constitution, and from their jealousy of the
neighbouring democratical city of Mantineia, with which they were frequently at
war. Thus the Tegeatae not only refused to join the Argives in the alliance
formed against Sparta in 421, but they accompanied the Lacedaemonians in their
expedition against Argos in 418. They also fought on the side of the Spartans
in the Corinthian
War, 394 The Temple of Athena Alea burned in 394 and was magnificently
rebuilt, to designs by Scopas of Paros, with reliefs of the Calydonian boar
hunt in the main pediment. After the Battle of
Leuctra in 371,
however, the Spartan party in Tegea was expelled, and the city joined the other
Arcadian towns in the foundation of Megalopolis and in the formation of the
Arcadian League. When Mantineia a few years afterwards quarrelled with the
supreme Arcadian government, and formed an alliance with its old enemy Sparta,
Tegea remained faithful to the new confederacy, and fought under
Epaminondas against the
Spartans at the great Battle of
Mantineia in
362. Tegea at a later period joined the Aetolian League, but soon after the
accession of Cleomenes III to the Spartan throne it formed an alliance with
Sparta, together with Mantineia and Orchomenus. It thus became involved in
hostilities with the Achaeans, and in the war which followed, called the
Cleomenic War, it was taken by Antigonus Doson, the ally of the Achaeans, and
annexed to the Achaean League. In 218, Tegea was attacked by Spartan king
Lycurgus, who obtained possession of the whole city with the exception of the
acropolis. It subsequently fell into the hands of Machanidas, the tyrant of
Sparta, but was recovered by the Achaeans after the defeat of Machanidas, who
was slain in battle by Philopoemen. Tegea was an important religious center of
ancient Greece, containing the Temple of Athena Alea.
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