As early as the twelfth century (B.C.) royalty was abolished in Boeotia--its territory was divided into several independent states, of which Thebes was the principal, and Plataea and Cheronaea among the next in importance.
Each had its own peculiar government; and, before the Persian war, oligarchies had obtained the ascendency in these several states.

They were united in a league, of which Thebes was the head; but the ambition and power of that city kept the rest in perpetual jealousy, and weakened, by a common fear and ill-smothered dissensions, a country otherwise, from the size of its territories [105] and the number of its inhabitants, calculated to be the principal power of Greece.

Its affairs were administered by eleven magistrates, or boeotarchs, elected by four assemblies held in the four districts into which Boeotia was divided.
VII.

Beyond Boeotia lies Phocis, originally colonized, according to the popular tradition, by Phocus from Corinth.

Shortly after the Dorian irruption, monarchy was abolished and republican institutions substituted.