Thespiae

Thespiae was an ancient Greek city-state in Boeotia, central Greece, built before about 750 BC at the foot of Mount Helicon near the Thespius River and occupied into the Roman period. During the Persian invasion of 480 BC it sent 700 hoplites who stayed to fight beside the Spartans at Thermopylae, one of the few Boeotian cities to remain loyal to the Greek cause, and it later suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Delium in 424 BC before joining Alexander the Great's alliance against Thebes in 335 BC. The city was linked in myth to Heracles's slaying of the Lion of Cithaeron and was home to the philosopher-courtesan Phryne.