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.