BOEOTIA, the name of two ancient kingdoms,
one of which was founded or rather restored by Cad-
mus, and named by him Bacotia, from the ox which
is said to have directed him to the place where he built
the capital of his new kingdom, better known after-
wards by the name of Thebes. But as the inhabitants
were scarcely ever distinguished as a nation by the name
of Bacotians, but of Thebans, we refer to the article
THEBES for their history, &c.
The other Boeotia was in Thessaly, and is said to
have been founded by Boeotus the son of Neptune and
brother of Æolus, by Arne the daughter of Æolus
king of Æolis. This last, having sent his daughter to
Metapontum a city of Italy, she was there delivered
of those two sons, the eldest of whom she called after
her father's name Æolus; and he possessed himself of
the islands in the Tyrrhenian, now the Tuscan sea,
and built the city of Lipara. Boeotus the younger
son went to his grandfather and succeeded him in his king-
dom, called it after his own name, and the capital
city Arne, from his mother. All that we know of these
Boeotians is, that they held this settlement upwards of
200 years; and that the Thessalians expelled them
from it; upon which they came and took possession of
that country, which till then had been called Cadmeis,
and gave it the name of Bacotia. Diodorus and Ho-
mer tell us, that these Boeotians signalized themselves
at the Trojan war; and the latter adds, that five of
Boeotus's grandsons, viz. Peneleus, Leitus, Prothec-
nor, Arcesilaus, and Clonius, were the chiefs who led
the Boeotian troops thither.