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Orchomenos 29 pictures 1.33 minutes HQ video The ancient city extends over the slopes of a low hill in the eastern foothills of Mount Akontion. The acropolis of historical times was laid out on the higher part of the hill. Orchomenos bears the same name as the ancient Arcadian city. Ancient Orchomenos was the largest city in Mycenaean Boeotia and was the rival of Thebes for hegemony over the region between the 8th and 4^th centuries B.C. It continued to be tied to Thebes until 395 B.C., when, during the course of the Boeotian war, it entered into alliance with the Spartans against Thebes. In 364 B.C. the city was destroyed by the Thebans. The city was refounded by Philip II after the battle of Chaironeia (338 B.C.). During Alexander the Great's campaign against Thebes (335 B.C.), Orchomenos took the side of the Macedonians. Alexander recompensed the city by granting it privileges, such as the extending of its fortification wall. In the 3^rd and 2^nd centuries B.C. Orchomenos and the other cities of Boeotia (Thebes, Plataia, Thespiai and Tanagra) reformed the Boeotian League. Orchomenos was destroyed by the Roman general Sulla in 86 B.C., during the Mithridatic Wars. During the 9^th century A.D., in 874, the church of the Panayia Skripou was erected above the ancient sanctuary of the Graces; according to a number of inscriptions incorporated into the monument, it was built by Leon Basilikos Protospatharios. Theater A Greek theater discovered in good condition is at Orchomenos in Boeotia where the musical and literary competitions in honor of the Charites were held. The Charites were the goddesses of grace. Tholos the tholos tomb features a long, wide entrance passage or dromos, a trilithon door of impressive height with an architrave fashioned from a six-meter-long stone block. The domed ceiling of the circular chamber has partly collapsed. The burial chamber or thalamos was paneled with green tiles decorated with rosettes, spirals and floral motifs that can also be seen in the ceramics produced during the same period (14^th to 13^th centuries B.C.). The tomb was robbed in ancient times. Inside the tholos were found a statue base and a base for an altar, dating to the 3^rd century B.C. Back to Greece Index