It stood on level ground commanded by the low range of hills which run eastward from the foot of Mount Helicon to Thebes, near modern Thespies.

[2] Although Thespian hoplites are popularly depicted with dark cloaks and crescent shields, no evidence supports the historical accuracy of these items.

[5] This possibly reflected that land ownership was concentrated in the hands of a small number of nobles, creating difficulty in equipping an effective force of hoplites.

[10] After the city was burned down by Xerxes, the remaining inhabitants furnished a force of 1,800 men for the confederate Greek army that fought at Plataea.

[1] During the Athenian invasion of Boeotia in 424 BCE, the Thespian contingent of the Boeotian army sustained heavy losses at the Battle of Delium.

[1] In the next year, the Thebans dismantled the walls of Thespiae on the charge that the Thespians were pro-Athenian, perhaps as a measure to prevent a democratic revolution.

At the Battle of Nemea in 394 BCE, the Thespian contingent fought the Pellenes to a standstill while the rest of the Spartan allies were defeated by the Boeotians.

[14] After Nemea, Thespiae became an ally to Sparta and served as staging point for Spartan campaigns in Boeotia throughout the Corinthian War.

[16] In 373 BCE Thespiae was subdued by the Thebans, the Thespians were exiled from Boeotia and they arrived in Athens along with the Plataeans seeking aid.

One of the anecdotes told of her is that she offered to finance the rebuilding of the Theban walls on the condition that the words Destroyed by Alexander, Restored by Phryne the courtesan were inscribed upon them.

It is subsequently mentioned by Strabo as a place of some size, and by Pliny as a free city, within the Roman Empire, a reward for its support against Mithridates.

[21] Pausanias wrote that Thespians dedicated at Olympia a statue of Pleistaenus (Πλείσταινος), son of the Eurydamus (Εὐρυδάμος), who was the general against the Gauls.

The Dragon was eventually slain by a man named Menestratus, who, wanting to save his lover Cleostratus, let himself be swallowed while wearing a spiked breastplate.

The city contained many works of art, among them the Eros of Praxiteles, one of the most famous statues in the ancient world; it drew crowds of people to Thespiae.