With my limited knowledge I have to say that I have not found anything that hints at Thebes being a monarchy in the time period. Maybe they just wanted to make a Monarchy city state in the region of mainland Greece. If I remember correctly at earlier versions where they were fewer tags the only city state tag to have a monarchy except Thebes was Megalopolis.
Maybe the more we'll known king of Thebes Oidipous (sp? the one that went intimate with his mother) was also an inspiration even if being in a completely different period (if even a bit based on reality).
Honestly to my knowledge kings were very very rare in southern mainland modern Greece. Usually you had some tyrant at some point or another. Most tyrants were well before the game's time period and often didn't last for many generations. The absolute monarchy was something almost barbaric for the Greeks. In most ancient sources you will find Persia or norther Greek tribes mention having a king.
Even Sparta was not really a monarchy in its later sense (there I said it
). To my understanding the two kings of Sparta were more like figureheads and less like actual monarchs. Maybe Sparta's government could be compared to some point to the modern UK (although in times of war the war king could have more power). In any case I think that they rearlly decided without counsel.
Sorry to sidetrack the thread!
