Having espoused the cause of Perseus of Macedon, it was taken by the Roman praetor Lucretius, who sold the inhabitants as slaves, carried off its statues, paintings, and other works of art, and razed it to the ground.
[10][11][12] Strabo speaks of it as no longer in existence in his time, and Pausanias, in his account of the place, mentions only a heroum of Lysander, and some ruined temples which had been burnt by the Persians and had been purposely left in that state.
[13] The Haliartia (Ἁλιαρτία), or territory of Haliartus, was a very fertile plain, watered by numerous streams flowing into Lake Copais, which in this part was hence called the Haliartian marsh.
It was visited in the 19th century by William Martin Leake who says, "that towards the lake the hill of Haliartus terminates in rocky cliffs, but on the other sides has a gradual acclivity.
Some remains of the walls of the Acropolis, chiefly of polygonal masonry, are found on the summit of the hill; and there are several sepulchral crypts in the cliffs, below which, to the north, issues a copious source of water, flowing to the marsh, like all the other streams near the site of Haliartus.
From this spot there is a distance of about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) to a tumulus westward of the Acropolis, where are several sarcophagi and ancient foundations near some sources of waters, marking probably the site.