Civ: Thebans

[Thalatta]

@wowgetoffyourcellphone, since over the last month there has been "no progress" for every single civ that has ever come to your mind (even "nothing" for some of them... how dare you), I have a few other suggestions for you . Quotes are from The Topography of Thebes From the Bronze Age to Modern Times, by Sarantis Symeonoglou.

 

Kadmeia's Seven Gates: civ bonus to start with walls and gates. Before the end of the Bronze Age "Thebes grew from a small community to one of the largest cities of Greece, famous for its extensive fortifications with seven gates".

Great Wall of Thebes: tech for faster or cheaper wall building. Thebes doubled down with a second ring of fortifications. "In the hope of preventing future Athenian domination, the smaller towns near Thebes must have contributed manpower and funds for the construction of the Great Wall of Thebes with the understanding that it would be used to protect all of them if the need arose", "The second wall, therefore, had been built by 382 B.C., but the date of its construction is not clear".

Oionoskopeion of Teiresias: Temple tech, ideally for morale, if not, it could be a speed bonus. It was an observatory used for "bird divination" (ornithomancy). It was the "only one such station" in Greece "in the Classical period". "Pausanias describes several sanctuaries in topographical proximity to the observatory".

Statue of Herakles: cult statue for DE (alternative to the Lion of Chaeronea, although I prefer the latter). Thebes was considered the birthplace of Herakles (I visited the site of his alleged house). There were "colossal statues in Pentelic marble" for Athena and Herakles in a sanctuary, which also had a "statue of Herakles Promachos in marble", and somewhere else there was a "statue of Herakles Rhinokoloustes", which according to Pausanias "stands in the open".

Pindar: Hero musician (actually poet, but they'd play and sing), if these are added. He was one of the Nine Lyric Poets, born in 518 BC (I thought could be early, but Leonidas was born c. 540 BC). His house was famously spared when Alexander destroyed Thebes.

[Ultimate Aurelian]

On 30/08/2026 at 6:22 PM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

New Civ emblem:

 

Did the Theban army carry aspides of this shape in classical times? Debatable to probably not. It's likely a shape based on earlier archaic examples which are lost to us, but what's not debatable is that the Thebans themselves used this design to represent them. I imagine the design is a part of their national identity and founding iconography. It's all over their coinage and even today is a well-known symbol for Thebes.

My head canon can imagine a scenario where during some excavations on the Cadmean hill to level it off and build their religious and civic monuments they uncovered evidence of their 'glorious' bronze aged past, which included shields or votives in this shape, so they built their founding myths around these objects and possibly even displayed them in their major Cadmean shrines or temples. 

There is a Boeotian shield model in this thread that could be useful as prop or even for some units (might need new textures).

 

Edited Wednesday at 17:13 by Ultimate Aurelian

[Genava55]

On 25/08/2026 at 9:02 AM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Thespian Melanochitone. 

I think they can keep their black-and-white shields. We can also let them keep their black chiton. I think the most important thing is to stop calling them “black-cloak” or “Melanochitone.”

[Ultimate Aurelian]

3 hours ago, Genava55 said:

I think they can keep their black-and-white shields. We can also let them keep their black chiton. I think the most important thing is to stop calling them “black-cloak” or “Melanochitone.”

Is there any evidence of them being swordsmen?

[Genava55]

1 hour ago, Ultimate Aurelian said:

Is there any evidence of them being swordsmen?

I know three important accounts about them:  Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC), Battle of Delium (424 BC) and Battle of Nemea (394 BC)

In the three, there is no mention of their panoply. The best we have is Thermopylae where Herodotus does not detail the Thespians' armor separately from the rest of the Greeks. He describes the Greek forces collectively using long spears and shields. During the final stand, he notes that after their spears broke, the remaining defenders (including the 700 Thespians) fought with swords (xiphē), and eventually with their bare hands and teeth.