TEGEA, an ancient Greek city of Arcadia, on a plateau enclosed by Mts. Parthenium and Maenalus on east and west, and by transverse ranges which separate it from the plateau of Or chomenus and from the Eurotas valley. Tegean territory occu pied the southern part of this plain ; the northern half belonged to Mantineia (q.v.). Its geographical position accounts for the con flicts which arose with Mantineia and with Sparta.
Tegea was one of the most ancient cities of Peloponnesus ; tradition ascribed its concentration (synoecism) out of eight or nine primitive cantons to a mythical king Aleus. As several Cretan townships passed for colonies of Tegea, oversea connec tions may be inferred in prehistoric days. The prominence which legend assigns to its king Echemus in opposing the Heraclid in vasion shows that it was one of the chief Peloponnesian corn munities in pre-Dorian days. For several centuries Tegea screened Arcadia against expanding Sparta; ultimately subdued about 55o B.C. it was allowed to retain independence and Arcadian nation ality. During the Persian invasion the Tegeans displayed a readi ness unusual among Peloponnesian cities; in the battle of Plataea they were the first to enter the enemy's camp. A few years later they headed an Arcadian and Argive league against Sparta, but after losing two pitched battles at Tegea and Dipaea they resumed their former loyalty about 468-467. In 423 there was open war with the Mantineians, and when the latter rebelled against Sparta and allied themselves with Argos and Athens, the Tegeans stood firmly by Sparta's side : in tile decisive battle of Mantineia (418) their troops had large share in the overthrow of the coalition ; and during the early 4th century Tegea continued to support Sparta against the Mantineians and other malcontents. But after the battle of Leuctra the philo-Laconian party was expelled with Mantineian help.
Tegea henceforth took an active part in the revival of the Ar cadian League and in alliance with Thebes against Sparta (371. 362), and the defection of Mantineia confirmed its federalist tendencies. The foundation of the new federal capital Megalo polis threw Tegea somewhat into the shade. Hostile to the Mace donians, in 266 it joined the Chremonidean League against Anti gonus Gonatas. Tc the incorporation of Mantineia into the Achaean League (233) Tegea replied by allying itself with the Aetolians, who in turn made it over to Cleomenes III. of Sparta
(228). From the latter it was transferred by Antigonus Doson to the Achaean League (222) ; in 218 it was again occupied by the Spartans but reconquered in 207 by the Achaean general Philo poemen. In Augustus' time Tegea was the only important town of Arcadia, but its history throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods is obscure ; it ceased to exist as a Greek city after the Gothic invasion of 395. The site is now occupied by the small village of Piali.
Archaeology.—The temple of Athena Alea at Tegea is de scribed by Pausanias as excelling all others in Peloponnese. The original temple built by Aleus, the founder of the city, was superseded by a larger one which was destroyed by fire in 395 B.C. Rebuilding was entrusted to Scopas, the great sculptor; and probably he also provided the pediment sculptures, representing at the front, the hunt of the Calydonian boar, and, at the back, the battle of Achilles and Telephus. Both subjects were inti mately associated with the temple, for Atalanta had dedicated in it the face and tusks of the boar, and Telephus was the son of Heracles and the priestess Auge. Two heads of heroes and that of the boar were found before 1880; later excavation, in 1883, showed the plan of the temple, which had six columns at front and back, and thirteen at the sides. Like the temple at Phigalia (q.v.) it combined all three orders—Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. In 1900 the French School at Athens recovered more fragments, including a head of Heracles and the torso and pos sibly the head of Atalanta, these last two of Parian marble. See GREEK ART.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—HerOdOtUS 1. 65 ff., ix. 35, 7o; Thucydides v. 32-73; Xenophon, Hellenica, vi., vii.; 46, 54 ff., v. 17, xi. 18; Strabo pp. 337, 388; Pausanias W... Leake, Travels in the Morea (London, 1830),.1. pp. 88—ioo, n. 1 E. Curtius, Peloponnesos (Gotha, 1851), 1. pp. W. Loring in Journal of Hellenic Studies, xix. (1899) pp. 25-89; Schwedler, De Rebus Tegeaticis (Leipzig, 1886) ; 'Icrropta pis Teykas. biro rois, Zvvbcri.cov Te-yEaruto (Athens, 1896) ; for coins: B. V. Head, Historia Numorum (Oxford, 1887), pp. 350--351; and art. NUMISMATICS. G. Treu, Mittheil. d. deutsch. Inst. Athen., vi. 1881; W. Dorpfeld, ibid., viii. 1883 ; G. Mendel, Bulletin de correspondence hellinique, xxv. 1901.