The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race Volume I Part 4

The Lacedaemonians were therefore in this war really pressed by an enemy of superior force, a fact alluded to by Tyrtaeus. Meanwhile Sparta was a.s.sisted by the Corinthians,(641) perhaps by the Lepreatans,(642) and even by some s.h.i.+ps of the Samians;(643) but chiefly by Tyrtaeus of Aphidnae, whom an absurd and distorted fable has turned into a lame Athenian schoolmaster. The fact of Sparta seeking a warlike minstrel in Aphidnae, may be accounted for from its ancient connexions with this borough in Attica, which is said to have been in the hands of the Dioscuri. Whether or not Aphidnae at that time belonged to Attica, and was subject to Athens, is a question we shall leave undecided; but there does not seem to be any reason for inferring with Strabo, from the pa.s.sage of Tyrtaeus itself, that the whole tradition was false, and that Tyrtaeus was a Lacedaemonian by birth,(644) though he doubtless became so by adoption. It is to be regretted that we have very little information concerning the war carried on by Sparta with the rest of the Peloponnesians;(645) but the Messenians at a later period withdrew from Andania towards Eira, which is a mountain-fortress on the Neda, the border-stream towards Arcadia, near the sea-coast. When obliged to retire from this stronghold, they were received first by the Arcadians, their ancient and faithful allies (who, according to the tradition, gave them their daughters in marriage(646)); afterwards the exiles sought an asylum with their kinsmen at Rhegium. Aristomenes himself (if he was not put to death by the Spartans) is said to have died at Rhodes, in the house of the n.o.ble family of the Eratidae.(647)

12. Besides the possession of Messenia, nothing was of such importance to the Spartans as the influence which they gained over the towns of Arcadia.

But in what manner these came into their hands is very little known.(648) During the Messenian war Arcadia was always opposed to Sparta. Hence, in the year 659 B.C., the Spartans suddenly attacked and took the town of Phigalea, in a corner of Messenia and Triphylia; but were soon driven out again by the neighbouring Oresthasians.(649) But the place chiefly dreaded by Sparta, as being one of the most powerful cantons in Arcadia, and commanding the princ.i.p.al entrance to Laconia, was Tegea. Charilaus, one of the early kings of Sparta, is said to have been compelled, by the valour of the Tegeate women, to submit to a disgraceful treaty.(650) At a later period also, in the reigns of Eurycrates and Leon the Eurysthenid,(651) Sparta suffered injury from the same state,(652) until it at last obtained the superiority under the next king, Anaxandridas. It was not, however, merely the ingenuity of a mountain-tribe, in protecting and fortifying its defiles, that made victory so difficult to the Spartans; but, although the pa.s.s which separates Tegea from Laconia, and even at the present time retains the vestiges of defensive walls, was of great service in repelling invasions from Laconia,(653) yet Tegea was also formidable in the open field from her heavy-armed troops, which in later times always maintained the second place in the allied army of Peloponnesus.(654)

13. Argos never obtained so great authority in Argolis as Sparta did in Laconia, since, in the former country, the Dorians divided themselves into several ancient and considerable towns;(655) and to deprive Dorians of their independence seems to have been more contrary to the principles of that race, than to expel them, as the Spartans did the Messenians. Argos was thus forced to content itself with forming, and being at the head of a league, which was to unite the forces of the country for common defence, and to regulate all internal affairs. An union of this kind really existed, although it never entirely attained its end. It was probably connected with the temple of Apollo Pythaeus, which, as we remarked above, was considered as common to the Epidaurians and Dryopians. An Argive Amphictyonic council is mentioned in the account of the Messenian war,(656) and is evidently not a fiction, although erroneously there introduced. That it still continued to exist in the 66th Olympiad is clear from the fact, that, when the inhabitants of Sicyon and aegina furnished Cleomenes with s.h.i.+ps to be employed against Argos, each town was condemned to pay a fine of 500 talents.(657) These penalties could not have been imposed by Argos as a single town, but in the name of a confederacy, which was weakened and injured by this act. We find that the Eleans could impose similar penalties in the name of the Olympian Zeus.(658) But the very case here adduced shows how refractory was the conduct of the members of this alliance with regard to the measures taken by the chief confederate.

14. To this internal discord were added the continual disputes with Lacedaemon. Herodotus states, that in ancient times (_i.e._ about the 50th Olympiad, or 580 B.C.) the whole eastern coast of Peloponnesus as far as Malea (comprising the towns of Prasiae, Cyphanta, Epidaurus Limera, and Epidelium), together with Cythera, and the other islands, belonged to the Argives.(659) According to the account of Pausanias the territory of Cynuria, a valley between two ranges of mountains, on the frontiers of Laconia and Argos, inhabited by a native Peloponnesian race, had been from early times a perpetual subject of contention between the two states. The Lacedaemonians had subdued this district in the reigns of Echestratus and Eurypon.(660) During the reigns of Labotas and Prytanis, the Spartans complained of an attempt of the Argives to alienate the affections of their Perici in Cynuria:(661) as, however, we know not by what authority this statement is supported, we shall allow it to rest on its own merits.

In the reign of Charilaus the Lacedaemonians wasted the territory of Argos.(662) His son Nicander made an alliance with the Dryopians of Asine against Argos. Accordingly this people were expelled by Eratus, the Argive king, from their town,(663) and fled to their allies in Laconia; from whom they obtained, after the end of the first Messenian war, a maritime district, where they built a new Asine, and for a long time preserved their national manners,(664) as well as their connexion with the ancient religious wors.h.i.+p of their kinsmen, the inhabitants of Hermione.(665)

15. A clearer point in the Argive and Peloponnesian history is the reign of Pheidon. The accounts respecting this prince having been collected and examined in another work, it is merely necessary to repeat the result.(666) Pheidon the Argive, the son of Aristodamidas, was descended from the royal family of Temenus, the power of which had indeed since the time of Medon, the son of Ceisus, been much diminished, but yet remained in existence for a long time. Pheidon broke through the restrictions that limited his power, and hence, contrary however to the ancient usage of the term, was called a _tyrant_. His views were at first directed towards making the independent towns of Argolis dependent upon Argos. He undertook a war against Corinth, which he afterwards succeeded in reducing. In all probability Epidaurus, and certainly aegina, belonged to him; none of the other towns in the neighbourhood were able to withstand the bold and determined conqueror.(667) The finis.h.i.+ng stroke of his achievements was manifestly the celebration of the Olympic games, over which he, as descendant of Hercules (the first conqueror at Olympia), after having abolished the aetolian-Elean h.e.l.lanodicae, presided, in conjunction with the inhabitants of Pisa, the ancient town of Pelops, which at this time, and many centuries after this time, had not relinquished its claims to the management of the festival. This circ.u.mstance also enables us to fix with certainty the period of his reign, since, in the Elean registers, the 8th Olympiad was marked as having been celebrated by him (747 B.C.). But it was this usurpation that united the Eleans and Lacedaemonians against him, and thus caused his overthrow. While the undertakings of Pheidon thus remained without benefit to his successors, he has been denounced by posterity as the most rapacious of tyrants in Greece; but, had he succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng a permanent state of affairs, he would have received equal honours with Lycurgus. Yet, notwithstanding his failure, some of his inst.i.tutions survived him, which adorn his memory. He is known to have equalized all weights and measures in Peloponnesus, which before his time were different in each state; he was also the first who coined money. He was enabled to undertake both with the greater success, since the only two commercial towns at that time belonging to Peloponnesus lay in his dominions, viz. Corinth (whence he is sometimes called a Corinthian) and aegina. According to the most accurate accounts he first stamped silver-money(668) in aegina (where at that time forges doubtless existed), and, after having circulated these, he consecrated the ancient and then useless bars of metal to Here of Argos, where they were exhibited in later times to strangers.(669)-Many of the most ancient drachmas of aegina, with the device of a tortoise, perhaps belong to this period, since the Greek coins struck before the Peloponnesian war appear to indicate a progress of many centuries in the art of stamping money. Those however which we have are sufficient to show that the same standard was prevalent throughout Peloponnesus,(670) a difference in weight, measure, and standard not having been introduced till after the Peloponnesian war. This again was a second time abolished by the Achaean league, and an equality of measures restored.(671)

16. After the fall of Pheidon the old dispute with Lacedaemon still continued.(672) In the 15th Olympiad (720 B.C.) the war concerning the frontier territory of Cynuria broke out afresh;(673) the Argives now maintained it for some time,(674) and secured the possession of this district chiefly by the victory at Hysiae in Olymp. 27. 4. (669 B.C.(675)) And they kept it until the time of Crsus (Olymp. 58.), when they lost it by the famous battle of the three hundred, in which Othryadas, though faint with his wounds, erected the trophy of victory for Sparta:(676) a history the more fabulous, since it was celebrated by sacred songs at the Gymnopaedia.(677) Inconsiderable in extent as was the territory(678) for which so much blood was shed, yet its possession decided which should be the leading power in Peloponnesus. It was not till after this had taken place that Cleomenes, in whose reign the boundary of Lacedaemon ran near the little river Erasinus, was enabled to attack Argos with success.

The power of Argos in the neighbourhood of the city was very insecure and fluctuating. Towards the end of the second Messenian war Argos had conquered the neighbouring town of Nauplia; the Lacedaemonians gave Methone in Messenia to the expelled inhabitants.(679) The temple of Nemea, in the mountains towards Corinth, was, from its situation, the property of the independent Doric town Cleonae; the Argives took it from them before Olymp.

53. 1. 568 B.C.,(680) and henceforth celebrated the games of Zeus. The Argives however again lost it; and some time before the 80th Olympiad the Cleonaeans again regulated the festival,(681) a privilege which they probably did not long retain. It is likely that about 580 B.C. the town of Orneae, between Argos and Sicyon, which had anciently carried on wars with the latter city, was rendered subject to the former, from which circ.u.mstance the Perici of Argos obtained the general name of _Orneatans_; to which cla.s.s the Cynurians also belonged before the battle of Thyrea.(682) But these events properly belong to the period, on the history of which we are now about to enter, and which we will designate in general as _the time of the tyrants_.

Chapter VIII.

-- 1. The Doric principles of government opposed to despotic (or tyrannical) power. -- 2. Tyrants of Sicyon. -- 3. Of Corinth. -- 4.

Of Epidaurus and of Megara overthrown by Sparta. -- 5. Other tyrants overthrown by Sparta. -- 6. Expedition of Cleomenes against Argos. -- 7. Internal history of Argos. -- 8. Contests between Megara and Athens.

1. The subject of this chapter may be best expressed in the words of Thucydides:(683) "The tyrants of Athens, and of the rest of Greece, of which many states had been governed by tyrants before the Athenians, were, with the exception of those in Sicily, in most instances, and especially in later times, overthrown by the Lacedaemonians, whose state was never under a despotic government, and who, having become powerful through the early establishment of their own const.i.tution, were enabled to arrange to their own liking the governments of other states." It is a remarkable circ.u.mstance in the history of Greece, that at the same period of time tyrants everywhere obtained the supreme authority in Doric, Ionic, and aeolic cities; a proof that, although these nations were derived from different races, the same stage in the progress of social life was every where attended with the same phenomena. Those states alone in which the features of the Doric character were most strongly marked, viz., Sparta and Argos, resisted this influence; and we shall in general find that it was by a subversion of the Doric principles that the tyrants obtained their power. This will be made evident by a consideration of the absolute monarchies in the Doric states of Peloponnesus.

2. The inhabitants of SICYON appear in ancient times to have been distinguished from other Dorians by a lively and excitable temperament, and by a disposition which they had at an early period transferred to their mythical hero Adrastus, whose "tongue was softly persuasive."(684) This very disposition, however, under the actual state of circ.u.mstances, opened the way to tyranny. In this instance of Sicyon, as in many others, the tyrant was the leader of the lower cla.s.ses, who were opposed to the aristocracy. It was in this character that Orthagoras came forward, who, not being of an ancient family, was called by the n.o.bles a cook.(685) But, notwithstanding its low origin, the family of this person maintained the supremacy for a longer period than any other, according to Aristotle(686) for a century, as they did not maltreat the citizens, and upon the whole respected the laws. Their succession is Orthagoras, Andreas, Myron, Aristonymus, and Cleisthenes,(687) of whom, however, the second and fourth never ascended the throne, or only reigned for a short time. Myron was conqueror at Olympia in the chariot-race in the 33d Olympiad (648 B. C), and afterwards built a treasury, in which two apartments were inlaid with Tartessian bra.s.s, and adorned with Doric and Ionic columns.(688) Both the architectural orders employed in this building, and the Tartessian bra.s.s, which the Phocaeans had then brought to Greece in large quant.i.ties from the hospitable king Arganthonius,(689) attest the intercourse of Myron with the Asiatics; we shall presently see that this same correspondence was of considerable importance for the measures of other tyrants. Cleisthenes appears to have employed violence in obtaining the sovereignty,(690) which he held undisturbed, partly by creating terror through his military fame and exploits in arms, and partly by gaining the support of the people by the introduction of some democratic elements into the const.i.tution. With regard to the latter measure, the singular alterations which he made in the tribes of Sicyon will be explained hereafter.(691) We will here only remark that Cleisthenes himself belonged to the subject tribe, which was not of Doric origin; and while he endeavoured to raise the latter, at the same time he sought to depress, and even to dishonour the Doric tribes, so that he entirely destroyed and reversed the whole state of things which had previously existed. For this reason Cleisthenes was at enmity with Argos, the chief Doric city of this district.(692) For the same reason he proscribed the wors.h.i.+p of the Argive hero Adrastus, and favoured in its place the wors.h.i.+p of Dionysus, a deity foreign to the Doric character; and lastly, prohibited the Homeric rhapsodists from entering the town, because Homer had celebrated Argos, and, we may add, an aristocratic form of government. These characteristic traits of a bold and comprehensive mind are gathered from the lively narrative of Herodotus. The same political tendency was inherited by his son-in-law Megacles, the husband of the beautiful Agariste, to obtain whose hand many rival youths had a.s.sembled in the palace of Cleisthenes, like the suitors of old, for that of Helen;(693) and it was particularly manifested in Cleisthenes of Athens, who changed the Athenian const.i.tution by abolis.h.i.+ng the last traces of separate ranks. With regard, however, to the warlike actions of Cleisthenes, he must have been very celebrated for his prowess; since in the war of the Amphictyons against Cirrha, although denounced as a stone-slinger (that is, a man of the lowest rank),(694) by the Pythian priestess, he shared the chief command of the army with the Thessalian Heraclid, Eurylochus, and helped to conquer the city.(695) This took place in the third year of the 47th Olympiad, or 592 B.C.(696) Out of the plunder of the town Cleisthenes built a portico for the embellishment of Sicyon;(697) he was also conqueror in the chariot-race at the second Pythiad (Olymp. 49. 3. 584 B.C.)(698) It may perhaps be possible from the scattered accounts concerning this prince to form a notion of his character. Cleisthenes was undoubtedly a man who was able to seize the spirit of the time, which aimed at great liberty and excitement-the very contrary of the settled composure of the Dorians; and, combining talents and versatility with the love of splendour and pageantry, ridiculed many things. .h.i.therto looked upon with awe, and set no limits to his love of change. Notwithstanding these qualities, he was, as is probable from the general testimony of Thucydides, overthrown by Sparta, perhaps soon after 580 B.C.;(699) nor was the ancient state of things restored at Sicyon till 60 years afterwards,(700) during which interval another tyrant named aeschines reigned, belonging however to a different family.

3. The CORINTHIAN tyrants(701) were nearly allied with those of Sicyon; since the former, not belonging to the Doric n.o.bility, were placed in the same situation as the latter with regard to this cla.s.s. In Corinth, before the commencement of the dynasty of tyrants, the ruling power was held by the numerous(702) Heraclide clan of the Bacchiadae, which had changed the original const.i.tution into an oligarchy, by keeping itself distinct, in the manner of a caste, from all other families, and alone furnished the city with the annual prytanes, the chief magistrates. Cypselus the son of Aetion, the grandson of Echecrates, from a Corinthian borough named Petra,(703) and not of Doric descent, although connected on his mother's side with the Bacchiadae, overcame, with the a.s.sistance again of the lower cla.s.ses,(704) the oligarchs, now become odious through their luxury(705) and insolence, the larger part of whom, either voluntarily or by compulsion, quitted Corinth;(706) and Cypselus became tyrant about the 30th Olympiad (660 B.C.),(707) from the inability of the people to govern itself independently. However violently the Corinthian orator in Herodotus accuses this prince, the judgment of antiquity in general was widely different. Cypselus was of a peaceable disposition, reigned without a body-guard,(708) and never forgot that he rose from a demagogue to the throne. He also undertook works of building, either from a taste for the arts, or for the purpose of employing the people. The treasury at Delphi, together with the plane-tree, was his work.(709) To him succeeded his son Periander, who was at first equally or more mild than his father.(710) Soon, however, his conduct became sensibly more violent, and, according to Herodotus, he was instigated by his correspondence with Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus, who counselled him by every method to weaken, or even to exterminate, the n.o.bility of his city.(711) Many of his actions were evidently prompted by the wish of utterly eradicating the peculiarities of the Doric race, which were closely connected with an aristocratic spirit.

For this reason he abolished the public tables, and prohibited the ancient education.(712) He awed the people by his military splendour, and maintained triremes on both coasts of the Isthmus;(713) his person he protected by three hundred body-guards.(714) To maintain the city at peace, and to avoid all violent commotions, was a principle, on the observance of which the security of his dominion depended, and upon which a complete system of regulations was founded. With this view he abolished a criminal court(715) for the condemnation of such as wasted their patrimony, inasmuch as persons in this situation were likely to become innovators. He interdicted immoderate luxury, and an extravagant number of slaves. Idleness he considered as especially dangerous. So little true did he remain to the democratic principles of his father, that he expelled the people from the city;(716) and in order the more readily to accustom them to agricultural and mechanical labour, only permitted them to wear the dress of peasants.(717) His own expenses were trifling, and therefore he required no other taxes than harbour-dues and market-tolls. He also avoided, where his projects did not require it, all violence and open injustice; and was even at times so strict a maintainer of public morality, that the numerous procuresses of the luxurious Corinth were by his orders thrown into the sea;(718) the hospitable damsels of Aphrodite(719) being protected by religion. He, as well as his father, made the construction of splendid monuments of art(720) a means of taxing the property of the rich, and of employing the body of the people; though indeed his own refined taste took pleasure in such works. And in general, if considered in reference to the cultivation of taste and intellect, and the interests of agriculture and trade, the age of the tyrants was productive of a very great advancement in the Grecian states. The unpliant disposition, strict in the observance of all ancient customs and usages, was then first bent and subdued, and more liberal and extended views became prevalent. The tyrants were frequently in intimate connexion with the inhabitants of Asia Minor, whom Sparta despised for their luxury and effeminacy; and from the Lydian sultan in his harem at Sardes, a chain of communication, most important in its consequences, was established through the princes of Miletus and Samos with the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of Sparta. Periander was in correspondence not only with Thrasybulus, but also with Halyattes, the king of Lydia, and sent to the latter prince some Corcyraean youths to be castrated according to the oriental custom.(721) The names of his kinsmen, Psammetichus and Gordias, the latter Phrygian, the former Egyptian, are proofs of an hospitable intercourse with those countries. On the other side of Greece, the policy of the Cypselidae led them to attempt the occupation of the coast of the Ionian sea as far as Illyria, and to establish a connexion with the barbarous nations of the interior.(722) Periander was of a daring and comprehensive spirit, and rivalled by few of his contemporaries, bold in the field, politic in council, though misled by continual distrust to undertake unworthy measures, and having too little regard for the good of the people when it interfered with his own designs; a friend of the arts, of an enlightened mind, but at the same time overcome by the strength of his pa.s.sions; and, although devoid of awe for all sacred things, yet at times a prey to the most grovelling superst.i.tion. After the death of Periander, Psammetichus(723) the son of Gordias, of the same family, succeeded to the sovereignty, but only reigned three years, having been, without doubt, overthrown by the Spartans in Olymp. 49. 3. 582 B.C.(724)

4. Periander was married to the fair Melissa, whose beauty had captivated him in the house of her father, the tyrant Procles, while she was distributing wine to the labourers in a thin Doric dress.(725) Procles was ruler of EPIDAURUS and the island of aegina, which were at that time still closely united; he himself was related by marriage to the princes of Orchomenus, and appears from this circ.u.mstance, and from his connexion with the family of Cypselus, to belong to the number of tyrants, who, being hostile to the Dorian aristocracy, obtained their power by the a.s.sistance of the lower ranks.

And when we also add that Theagenes of MEGARA, the father-in-law of Cylon the Athenian,(726) precisely resembled the princes already mentioned in his conduct (since he likewise obtained his power by attacking the rich landed proprietors, and had killed their flocks upon the pastures of the river),(727) and that like the others he endeavoured to please the people by embellis.h.i.+ng the city, by the construction of an aqueduct, and of a beautiful fountain;(728) it is easy to perceive in the dynasties of the Sicyonian, Corinthian, Epidaurian, and Megarian tyrants, a powerful coalition against the supremacy of the Dorians, and the ancient principles of that race, the more powerful, as they knew how to render subservient to their own ends the opinions which had lately arisen; and it is a matter of wonder that Sparta should have succeeded in overthrowing this combination.

5. If, indeed, it is also borne in mind that the Ionic, as well as the aeolic and Doric(729) islands and cities of Asia, and also Athens, together with Phocis, Thessaly, and the colonies in Sicily and Italy, were all in the hands of tyrants, who doubtless a.s.sisted one another, and knew their common interest; and that Sparta alone, in most instances at the instigation of the Delphian oracle, declared against all these rulers a lasting war, and in fact overthrew them all, with the exception of the Sicilian tyrants; it must be confessed, that in this period of Grecian history no contest took place either greater, or, by its extent as well as its principles, of more important political and moral consequences. The following tyrants are stated by ancient historians to have been deposed by the Spartans:(730) the Cypselidae of Corinth and Ambracia, the former in Olymp. 49. 3. (584 B.C.), the latter probably somewhat later; the Pisistratidae of Athens, who were allied with the Thessalians, in Olymp.

67. 3. (510 B.C.);(731) their adherent Lygdamis of Naxos,(732) probably about the same time: aeschines of Sicyon, about the 65th Olympiad(733) (520 B.C.); Symmachus of Thasos; Aulis of Phocis; and Aristogenes of Miletus, of whom we know only the names;(734) the larger number were dethroned under the kings Anaxandridas and Ariston, Cleomenes and Demaratus. Of these tyrants, some they deposed by a military force, as the Pisistratidae; but frequently, as Plutarch says, they overthrew the despotism without "moving a s.h.i.+eld," by despatching a herald, whom all immediately obeyed, "as, when the queen bee appears, the rest arrange themselves in order."(735) In the time of Cleomenes also (525 B.C.) Sparta sent out a great armament, together with Corinthian and other allies, against Polycrates of Samos, the first Doric expedition against Asia, not, as is evident from the trivial reason stated by Herodotus, (viz. in order to revenge the plunder of a cauldron and a breastplate,) but with the intent of following up their principle of deposing all tyrants.(736) But the besieging of a fortified town, situated upon the sea, and at so great a distance, was beyond the strength of Peloponnesus. The last expedition of Sparta against the tyrants falls after the Persian war, when king Leotychidas, the conqueror at Mycale, was sent for the purpose of ejecting the Aleuadae of Thessaly, who had delivered up the country to the Persians in 470 B.C. or somewhat later. Aristomedes and Angelus were actually dethroned, but the king suffering himself to be bribed by others, the expedition did not completely succeed.(737)

We may suppose with what pride the amba.s.sador of Sparta answered Gelon the tyrant of Syracuse (however brilliant and beneficial his reign may have been), when he required the command in the Persian war: "Truly the Pelopid Agamemnon would lament, if he heard that the supremacy was taken from the Spartans by Gelon and the Syracusans!"(738)

6. To these important changes in the political history of that time we may annex the subordinate events in the interior of Peloponnesus.

Sparta, by the conquest of Cynuria, had obtained the key of the Argive territory. Soon after this, Cleomenes, the eldest son of Anaxandridas the Eurysthenid, succeeded to the throne, a man of great boldness and strength of mind, sagacious, enterprising, accustomed, after the manner of his age and country, to express himself in a concise and emphatic language, only too much inflated by family and personal pride, and in disposition more nearly resembling his contemporaries the tyrants than beseemed a king of Sparta. The first exploit of this prince(739) was the expedition against Argos. He landed in some vessels of Sicyon and aegina on the coast of Tiryns, overcame the Argives at the wood of Argos,(740) slew the greater part of the men able to bear arms, and would have succeeded in capturing their city, had he not, from an inconceivable superst.i.tion, dismissed the allied army without making any further use of the victory, and contented himself with sacrificing in the temple of Here.(741) At the same time Argos, in consequence of this defeat, remained for a long time crippled, and it was even necessary that a complete change in her political condition should take place, in order to renovate the feeble and disordered state into which she had fallen.

7. For after the bond-slaves or _gymnesii_(742) of Argos had for a time governed the state thus deprived of its free inhabitants, until the young men who had in the mean time arisen to manhood overcame and expelled them, the Argives, as Aristotle(743) relates, saw themselves compelled, in order to restore the numbers of their free population, to collect about them the surrounding subjects of their city, the Perici, and to distribute them in the immediate neighbourhood.(744) The completion of this plan took place one generation after the fatal battle with Cleomenes, at the time of the Persian war, in which Argos, whose attention was wholly occupied with strengthening her affairs at home, took no part. At that time the Argives, in order to increase their own numbers, dispeopled nearly all the large cities in the surrounding country, and transplanted the inhabitants to Argos;(745) particularly Tiryns, Mycenae, Hyseae, Orneae, and Midea.(746) Tiryns and Mycenae were in the time of the Persian war free, and even independent communities, which followed the command of Sparta without the consent of Argos; the latter town indeed contested with Argos the right to the administration of the temple of Here, and the presidency at the Nemean games.(747) The destruction of their city, which the Argives undertook in concert with the Cleonaeans and Tegeates,(748) was effected in the year 464 B.C. (Olymp. 79. 1). But of the Mycenaeans, a few only followed the Argives, as the larger number either took refuge at Cleonae (which city was at that time independent, and had for some time the management of the Nemean games)(749), at Ceryneia in Achaia, and even in Macedonia.(750) Of the Tirynthians also some fled to Epidaurus, and some to Halieis in the territory of the Dryopians, in which place the expelled Hermioneans also found an asylum.(751) For Hermione, which Herodotus during the time of the Persian war considers as a Dryopian city,(752) was subsequently taken by the Argives.(753) The other cities which have been mentioned, had however, as we know of Orneae and also Hysiae, previously belonged to Perici, being subjects of Argos, and were only then incorporated for the purpose of enlarging the metropolis.(754) The Argives, by these arbitrary proceedings, secured themselves as well against external foes as against their former enemies the bond-slaves, and also acquired a large number of laborious and industrious inhabitants, who, by the continuance of peace, soon re-established the prosperity and wealth of Argos.(755) The oracle has well marked out the principles which were then expedient for the welfare of that state, when it recommended it, as "_the enemy of its neighbours, and friend of the G.o.ds, to draw in its arms, and __ remain in watchful quiet, guarding its head; for that the head would save the body_."(756) At the same time, however, by these proceedings, a complete change in the const.i.tution was brought about, and Argos, as we shall see hereafter, gradually lost the peculiar features of the Doric character.

The other actions of Cleomenes of which we have any knowledge refer to the political changes at Athens, and could only be connectedly related in a history of the Athenian const.i.tution, or in reference to the events in aegina, which we have narrated elsewhere.

8. It is remarkable that during this whole time, in which Sparta founded her empire, we read of no serious contest between Dorians and Ionians. For although the border-states, Megara and aegina (the latter after its revolt from Epidaurus), carried on a continued war with Athens, the whole race took no part in the contest, and Sparta herself fulfilled the office of an impartial arbitrator between Athens and Megara. Even before the time of Solon, the Athenians and Megarians fought in the territory of Eleusis.(757) The chief struggle was for the island of Salamis, which Solon is supposed to have gained by the well known stratagem,(758) a fact however which was denied by Daimachus of Plataea.(759) According to the Megarian account, some refugees from their own city (named ??????e???) betrayed the island to the Athenians.(760) So much is certain, that five Spartan arbitrators (Critolaidas, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas, Anaxilas, and Cleomenes), in obedience to ancient traditions and fables respecting the original owners of Salamis, adjudged the possession of Salamis to the Athenians. Yet in the troubles which succeeded the banishment of Megacles, this island was again lost, as well as the harbour Nisaea, which had been before conquered.(761) They soon however regained it, and Megara appears from that time forth to have given up all hopes of recovery: as in this age the power of Athens increased so rapidly, that Megara could no longer think of renewing her ancient contests.

Since it is not my object to give a continuous and general narration of facts, but only to extract what is most instructive for the condition of the Doric race, I shall not carry on the history of the Dorians out of Peloponnesus to a lower point, as their local connexions would lead us far astray into other regions. For the same reason I will only touch upon a few events of the Persian wars, confining myself to the internal affairs of Peloponnesus during that period, among which the supremacy of Sparta is the most important and remarkable.

Chapter IX.

-- 1. Sparta the head of the Peloponnesian confederacy. Its members and their order of precedence. -- 2. Mode in which the supremacy of Sparta was exercised. -- 3. Congress of the confederacy. -- 4.

Non-interference of the confederacy with the internal affairs of the confederate States. -- 5. Sparta the head of the confederacy by general acknowledgment. -- 6. h.e.l.lenic league during the Peloponnesian war. -- 7. Sparta withdraws from the command of the Allied Army. -- 8. Ionia never completely liberated by Athens from the power of Persia. -- 9. War between Sparta and Arcadia. -- 10.

Revolt of the Helots; third Messenian war. -- 11. Dissolution of the alliance between Sparta and Athens. Battles of Tanagra and nophyta. Five years' truce. Thirty years' truce. -- 12. Origin of the Peloponnesian war. -- 13. Opposite principles of the contending parties in the Peloponnesian war. -- 14. Its influence upon Sparta.

1. Sparta, by the conquest of Messenia and Tegea, had obtained the first rank in Peloponnesus, which character she confirmed by the expulsion of the tyrants, and the overthrow of Argos. From about the year 580 B.C. she acted as the recognised commander, not only of Peloponnesus, but of the whole Greek name. The _confederacy_ itself however was formed by the inhabitants of that peninsula alone, on fixed and regular laws; whereas the other Greeks only annexed themselves to it temporarily. The order of precedence observed by the members of this league may be taken from the inscription on the footstool of the statue of Zeus, which was dedicated at Olympia after the Persian war, the Ionians, who were only allied for a time, being omitted.(762) It is as follows: Lacedaemon, Corinth, Sicyon, aegina, Megara, Epidaurus,(763) Tegea, Orchomenus, Phlius, Trzen, Hermione, Tiryns, Mycenae, Lepreum, and Elis; which state was contented with the last place, on account of the small share which it had taken in the war. The defenders of the Isthmus are enumerated in the following order;(764) Lacedaemonians, Arcadians, Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Phliasians, Trzenians, and Hermionians, nearly agreeing with the other list, only that the Arcadians, having been present with their whole force, and also the Eleans, occupy an earlier place; and the Megarians and aeginetans are omitted, as having had no share in the defence. This regular order of precedence is alone a proof of a firm union. The Tegeates, since they had joined the side of Lacedaemon, enjoyed several privileges, and especially the place of honour at the left wing of the allied army.(765) Argos remained excluded from the nations of Peloponnesus, as it never would submit to the command of Sparta; the Achaeans, indifferent to external affairs, only joined themselves momentarily to the alliance:(766) but the Mantineans, though latterly they followed the policy of Argos,(767) were long attached to the Peloponnesian league; for at the end of the Persian war they sent an army, which arrived too late for the battle of Plataea;(768) having before, together with the other Arcadians, helped to defend the Isthmus;(769) they had also been engaged in the first days of the action at Thermopylae;(770) and they were at this time still the faithful allies of the Lacedaemonians.(771) Their subsequent defection from Sparta may be attributed partly to their endeavours to obtain the dominion of Parrhasia, which was protected by Lacedaemon;(772) to their hostility with Tegea,(773) which remained true to Sparta after the great war with Arcadia, which began about 470 B.C. and to the strengthening of their city (s??????s??), and the establishment of a democratic government, through the influence of Argos.(774)

2. The supremacy of Sparta(775) was exercised in the expeditions of the whole confederacy, and in transactions of the same nature. In the first, a Spartan king-after it had been thought proper never to send out two together-was commander-in-chief, in whose powers there were many remains of the authority of the ancient Homeric princes. Occasionally, however, Sparta was compelled to give up her privilege to other commanders, especially at sea, as, for instance, the fleet at Salamis to Eurybiades.

When any expedition was contemplated, the Spartans sent round to the confederate states,(776) to desire them to have men and stores in readiness.(777) The highest amount which each state could be called on to supply was fixed once for all, and it was only on each particular occasion to be determined what part of that was required.(778) In like manner, the supplies in money and stores were regularly appointed;(779) so that an army, with all its equipment, could be collected by a simple summons. But agricultural labour, festivals, and the natural slowness of the Doric race, often very much r.e.t.a.r.ded the a.s.sembling of this army. The contributions, chiefly perhaps voluntary, both of states and individuals, were registered on stone: and there is still extant an inscription found at Tegea, in which the war supplies of the Ephesians, Melians, &c, in money and in corn, are recorded.(780) But the Lacedaemonians never exacted from the Peloponnesian confederacy a regular annual contribution, independent of circ.u.mstances; which would have been in fact a tribute: a measure of this kind being once proposed to king Archidamus, he answered, "that war did not consume according to rule.(781)" Pericles, however, properly considers it as a disadvantage to the Peloponnesians that they had no paid troops, and that neither in common nor in the several states they had ama.s.sed any treasure.(782) The object of an expedition was publicly declared: occasionally however, when secrecy was required, it was known neither to the states nor to their army.(783) The single allied states, if necessity demanded it, could also immediately summon the army of the others;(784) but it is not clear to what extent this call was binding upon them. The Spartan military const.i.tution, which we will explain hereafter, extended to the whole allied army; but it was doubtless variously combined with the tactics of the several nations.(785) To the council of war, which moreover only debated, and did not decide, the Spartan king summoned the leaders of the several states, together with other commanders, and generally the most distinguished persons in the army.(786)

3. According to the const.i.tution of the Peloponnesian league, every common action, such as a declaration of war, or the conclusion of a peace or treaty, was agreed on at a congress of the confederates. But, as there was no regular a.s.sembly of this kind, the several states sent envoys (???e???), like the deputies (p???????) of the Ionians, who generally remained together only for a short time.(787) All the members had legally equal votes;(788) and the majority sometimes decided against a strong opposition;(789) Sparta was often outvoted, Corinth being at all times willing to raise an opposition.(790) We have however little information respecting the exact state of the confederacy; it is probable indeed, from the aristocratic feelings of the Peloponnesians, that, upon the whole, authority had more weight than numbers; and for great undertakings, such as the Peloponnesian war, the a.s.sent of the chief state was necessary, in addition to the agreement of the other confederates.(791) When the congress was summoned to Sparta, the envoys often treated with a public a.s.sembly (?????t??)(792) of the Spartans; although they naturally withdrew during the division. Of these envoys, besides Sosicles the Corinthian, we also know the name of Chileus of Tegea, who prevailed upon the ephors, after a long delay, to send the army to Plataea, and who did much to allay the differences existing between the members of the then numerous confederacy.(793)

4. But upon the _internal_ affairs, laws, and inst.i.tutions of the allied states, the confederacy had legally no influence. It was a fundamental law that every state (p????) should, according to its ancient customs (?att?

p?t??a), be independent and sovereign (a?t????? ?a? a?t?p????);(794) and it is much to the credit of Sparta, that, so long as the league was in existence, she never, not even when a favourable opportunity offered, deprived any Peloponnesian state of this independence. Nor were disputes between individual states brought before the congress of the allies, which, on account of the preponderance of Sparta, would have endangered their liberty; but they were commonly either referred to the Delphian oracle, or to arbitrators chosen by both states.(795) When Elis claimed an ancient tribute from Lepreum, both states agreed to make Sparta their arbitrator by a special reference. In this character Sparta declared that Lepreum, being an independent member of the confederacy, was not bound to pay the tribute: and Elis acted unjustly in refusing to abide by her agreement, on the plea that she had not expected the decision.(796) For disputes between citizens of different states there was an entirely free and equal intercourse of justice (_commercium juris dandi repetendique_).(797) The jurisdiction of the states was also absolutely exempt from foreign interference (a?t?d????).(798) These are the chief features of the const.i.tution of the Peloponnesian confederacy; the only one which in the flouris.h.i.+ng times of Greece combined extensive powers with justice, and a respect for the independence of its weaker members.

5. Sparta had not become the head of this league by agreement, and still less by usurpation; but by tacit acknowledgment she was the leader, not only of this, but of the whole of Greece; and she acted as such in all foreign relations from about the year 580 B.C. Her alliance was courted by Crsus: and the Ionians, when pressed by Cyrus, had recourse to the Spartans, who, with an amusing ignorance of the state of affairs beyond the sea, thought to terrify the king of Persia by the threat of hostilities. It is a remarkable fact, that there were at that time Scythian envoys in Sparta, with whom a great plan of operations against Persia is said to have been concerted; which it is not easy to believe.(799) In the year 520 B.C. the Plataeans put themselves under the protection of Cleomenes,(800) who referred them to Athens; a herald from Sparta drove the Alcmaeonidae from their city:(801) afterwards Aristagoras sought from the protector of Greece(802) aid against the national enemy: and when the aeginetans gave the Persians earth and water, the Athenians accused them of treachery before the Spartans: and lastly, during the Persian war, Greece found in the high character of that state the only means of effecting the union so necessary for her safety and success.(803)

6. In this war a new confederacy was formed, which was extended beyond Peloponnesus; the community of danger and of victory having, besides a momentary combination, also produced an union destined for some duration.

It was the a.s.sembly of this league-a fixed congress at Corinth during, and at Sparta after, the war-that settled the internal differences of Greece, that invited Argos, Corcyra, and Gelon to join the league, and afterwards called upon Themistocles to answer for his proceedings.(804) So much it did for the present emergency. But at the same time Pausanias, the regent of Sparta, after the great victory of Plataea (at which, according to aeschylus, the power of Persia fell by the Doric spear),(805) prevailed upon the allies to conclude a further treaty. Under the auspices of the G.o.ds of the confederacy, particularly of the Eleutherian (or Grecian) Zeus, they pledged themselves mutually to maintain the independence of all states, and to many other conditions, of which the memory has been lost.

To the Plataeans in particular security from danger was promised.(806) The Ionians also, after the battle of Mycale, were received into this confederacy.(807)

7. The splendid victories over the Persians had for some time taken Sparta, which was fitted for a quiet and pa.s.sive existence, out of her natural sphere; and her king Pausanias had wished to betray his country for the glitter of an Asiatic prince. But this state soon perceived her true interest, and sent no more commanders to Asia, "that her generals might not be made worse:" she likewise decided to avoid any further war with the Persians, thinking that Athens was better fitted to carry it on than herself.(808) The decision of the Spartans was doubtless influenced by the defection of the Ionians from Pausanias, and their refusal to obey Dorcis, whom the Spartans had sent with a small body of men in his place.

Nevertheless, the chief motives which determined them must have lain deeper; for without the Greeks of Asia Minor, they could, by the a.s.sistance of the naval powers of Peloponnesus, Corinth, aegina, &c, have continued a war which promised more gain and plunder than trouble and danger. If the speech were now extant in which Hetoemaridas the Heraclid proved to the councillors that it was not expedient for Sparta to aim at the mastery of the sea,(809) we should doubtless possess a profound view, on the Spartan side, of those things which we are now accustomed to look on with Athenian eyes. Nor is it true that the supremacy over the Greeks was in fact transferred at all from Sparta to Athens, if we consider the matter as Sparta considered it, however great the influence of this change may have been on the power of Athens. But Sparta continued to hold her pre-eminence in Peloponnesus, and most of the nations of the mother-country joined themselves to her: while none but the Greeks of Asia Minor and the islands, who had previously been subjects of Persia, and were then only partially liberated, perhaps too much despised by Sparta, put themselves under the command of Athens.(810)

8. But the _complete_ liberation of Asia Minor from the Persian yoke, which has been considered one of the chief exploits of Athens, was in fact never effected. Without entering into the discussion respecting the problematical treaty of Cimon,(811) we will merely seek to ascertain the actual state of the Asiatic Greeks at this period. Herodotus states, that Artaphernes, the satrap at Sardes under Darius, fixed the tribute to be paid by the Ionians as it remained until the time of the writer,(812) _i.e._ about the end of the Peloponnesian war. It is evident that this was a tribute to be paid to the king of Persia: the exactions of the Athenians were clearly not regulated by any Persian register of property. Again, in the nineteenth year of the war, Tissaphernes sought for a.s.sistance against Athens, that he might be able to pay to the king of Persia the tribute due from the Grecian maritime towns, which the Athenians had prevented him from collecting.(813) From this it is plain that the shah of Susa was ignorant that the majority of those cities had for more than sixty years paid to the Athenians and not to him, and attributed the arrears only to the negligence of his viceroys. I say only the majority; for the Athenians had been far from completing the glorious work of the great Cimon; and after the war-contributions had become a most oppressive tribute, these cities might not themselves be very desirous to change their master. Hence Themistocles, as a va.s.sal of Persia, possessed undisturbed, at the accession of Artaxerxes, the beautiful towns of Magnesia on the Maeander, Lampsacus, Myus, Percote, and ancient Scepsis.(814) At a still later period the descendants of king Demaratus, Eurysthenes, and Procles, ruled by the same t.i.tle over Halisarna in Mysia.(815) The neighbouring towns of Gambrium, Palaegambrium, Myrina, and Grynium had been given by Darius to Gongylus, and his descendants still dwelt there after the Peloponnesian war.(816) When Athens unjustly expelled the Delians from their island, they found a place of refuge at Adramytteum, on the coast of aeolis, which was granted them by the satrap Pharnaces.(817) Thus the Athenian empire did not prevent the va.s.sals and subjects of the king of Persia from ruling over the Greeks of Asia Minor, even down to the very coast. We need not go any further to prove the entire falsehood of the account commonly given by the panegyrical rhetoricians of Athens.

9. Peloponnesus took the less concern in these proceedings, as internal differences had arisen from some unknown cause, which led to an open war between Sparta and Arcadia. We only know, that, between the battle of Plataea (in which Tegea, as also later still, showed great fidelity towards Sparta) and the war with the Helots (_i.e._ between 479 and 465 B.C.), the Lacedaemonians fought two great battles, the one against the Tegeates and Argives at Tegea, the other against all the Arcadians, with the exception of the Mantineans, at Dipaea in the Maenalian territory. Tisamenus, an Elean, of the family of the Iamidae, was in both battles in the Spartan army; and in both Sparta was victorious.(818) Yet, in an epigram of Simonides, the valour of the Tegeates is praised, who by their death had saved their city from destruction;(819) probably after the loss of the first battle. As we find that Argos had a share in this war,(820) it is possible that the views of that state were directed against the ascendancy of Sparta; perhaps also the independence of the Maenalians, Parrhasians, &c. had been, as was so often the case, attacked by the more powerful states of Arcadia, and was defended by the head of the Peloponnesian confederacy.

10. This war had not been brought to a termination, when, in the year 465 B.C., in the reign of Archidamus(821) and Pleistoanax, a tremendous earthquake (which is said to have been predicted by Anaximander(822)) destroyed Sparta, and a sudden ruin threatened to overwhelm the state of Greece. For, in the hope of utterly annihilating their rulers, many Helots (perhaps doubly excited by the late outrage on the suppliants at the altar of the Taenarian G.o.d),(823) especially the ancient inhabitants of Messenia, and two cities of the Perici, revolted from Sparta; these rebels were all named Messenians, and the war was called the third Messenian war.(824) The circ.u.mstances of this terrible contest are almost unknown to us; and we can only collect the few fragments extant of its history. Aeimnestus the Spartan, who had killed Mardonius, fought with 300 men at Stenyclarus against a body of Messenians, and was slain with all his men.(825) This was followed by a great battle with the same enemy at Ithome,(826) in which the Spartans were victorious. Most of the conquered Messenians then intrenched themselves on the steep summit of Ithome, which was even then sacred to Zeus Ithomatas; and they probably restored the ancient walls and defences which had fallen down. Upon this the Lacedaemonians, foreseeing a tedious siege, called in the aid of their allies; and this call was answered among others by the aeginetans,(827) the Mantineans,(828) the Plataeans,(829) and the Athenians, who, at the request of the Spartan envoy Periclides, sent 4000 hoplites(830) under the command of Cimon; the Spartans, however, dismissed them before the fortress was taken, in which they expected to be aided by the superiority of the Athenians in the art of besieging, not without showing their suspicion of the innovating spirit of their ally.(831) In the tenth year of the siege, 455 B.C., Ithome surrendered on terms; and the Messenians, together with their wives and children, quitted Peloponnesus, under a promise of never again entering it. It appears that the war between Lacedaemon and Arcadia was concluded upon conditions, of which one was, that no person should be put to death for the sake of the Lacedaemonian party at Tegea; and another, that Sparta was to expel the Messenians from the country, but not kill them-which were inscribed on a pillar on the banks of the Alpheus.(832) The Athenians, however, gave the fugitives the town of Naupactus, which they had shortly before conquered, and which was conveniently situated for tempting them, against their promise, to make inroads and forays in Peloponnesus. The Messenians still continued, in the Peloponnesian war, to be distinguished from the neighbouring people by their Doric dialect.(833)

11. Immediately after the dismission of the Athenians from Ithome, the people of Athens, in order to resent the affront, annulled the alliance with Sparta, which had subsisted since the Persian war;(834) entered into a treaty with Argos, the enemy of Sparta, and also with the Thessalians; and even joined to itself Megara, which was dependent on its commercial intercourse. Then followed the war with the maritime towns of Argolis, in which Athens, after many reverses, at length succeeded in destroying the fleet of aegina, and subjugating that island (457 B.C.).(835) Sparta was compelled to be a quiet spectator of the subjection of so important a member of her confederacy, as she was still occupied with the siege of Ithome, and in the same year had sent out an army to liberate her mother country, Doris, from the yoke of the Phocians. But when, after the execution of this object, the Spartans were hastening back to Peloponnesus, they were compelled to force their pa.s.sage home by the battle of Tanagra, which, with the a.s.sistance of the Thebans, they gained over an army composed of Athenians, Ionians, Argives, and Thessalians.

This aid was afforded to them on the condition that they would help the Thebans to regain their supremacy in Botia, which the Thebans had lost by their defection from the Grecian cause in the Persian war.(836) Sparta, however, after so decisive a victory, concluded a four months' armistice with Athens, during which that state conquered the Thebans at nophyta, finished the blockade of aegina, subdued all Botia with the exception of Thebes, and Phocis, and extended its democratical const.i.tution, which after the battle of Tanagra was nearly threatened with destruction,(837) even to the city of Thebes. The inactivity of Sparta during these astonis.h.i.+ng successes of her enemy (for when she concluded the armistice with Athens she must have partly foreseen its consequences) seems to prove that she was entirely occupied with the final capture of Ithome, and the settlement of her interests in Arcadia.(838) But that the war, which was now renewed by Athens, nevertheless extended to the whole Peloponnesian league, is shown by the connected attacks of Tolmides on the Spartan harbour Gytheium, and the cities of Sicyon and Corinth, and also by the expedition of Pericles in the Corinthian gulf. The five years' truce in 451 B.C. was only an armistice between Athens and the Peloponnesian confederacy, which left Botia to shake off the Athenian yoke by its own exertions. This was also the time of the Sacred war, in which a Spartan and an Athenian army, one coming after the other, the first gave the management of the temple to the Delphians, and the second, against all ancient right,(839) to the Phocians. At the end of these five years Megara revolted from the Athenians, and in consequence an invasion of Attica by the Peloponnesians took place, which, though it did not produce any immediate result, was soon followed by the thirty years' truce, in which Athens ceded her conquests in Megaris and Peloponnesus,(840) and on the mainland returned within her ancient boundaries; but she preserved the same power over her other confederates. For when the Athenians soon afterwards attacked the revolted island of Samos, the Peloponnesians indeed debated whether they should protect it, but the proposal of Corinth was adopted, that Athens should be allowed to deal with her allies as she pleased.(841)

12. If now we consider the events which have been briefly traced in the foregoing pages, it will be perceived, that the principle on which the Lacedaemonians constantly acted was one of self-defence, of restoring what had been lost, or preserving what was threatened with danger; whereas the Athenians were always aiming at attack or conquest, or the change of existing inst.i.tutions. While the Spartans during this period, even after the greatest victories, did not conquer a foot of land, subjugate one independent state, or destroy one existing inst.i.tution; the Athenians, for a longer or for a shorter time, reduced large tracts of country under their dominion, extended their alliance (as it was called) on all sides, and respected no connexion sanctioned by nature, descent, or antiquity, when it came in conflict with their plans of empire. But the astonis.h.i.+ng energy of the Athenian people, which from one point kept the whole of Greece in constant vibration, almost paralysed Sparta; the natural slowness of that state became more and more apparent: which having been, as it were, violently transplanted into a strange region, only began by degrees to comprehend the policy of Athens.

But when Athens saw the Peloponnesian confederacy again established, and as she could not, on account of the truce, attack it directly, she looked to the colonial law, which rested rather on hereditary feelings than on positive inst.i.tution, for an opportunity of an indirect attack. This was soon found in the defensive treaty with Corcyra, which state was engaged with its mother country Corinth in a war, according to ancient Greek principles, wholly unlawful and unjust. Besides this, however, it was an actual breach of the thirty years' truce.(842) And the same principles were expressed in the demand that Potidaea should, for the sake of the Athenian confederacy, give up its original connexion with the parent state. In both these cases it is manifest that the maxims of the Athenian policy were directly at variance with the general feeling of justice entertained by the Greeks, and especially with the respect for affinity of blood; and this fundamental difference was the true cause of the Peloponnesian war.

13. As it would not be consistent with the plan of this work to give a detailed account of the influence of the Peloponnesian war upon the political and private character of the Greeks, we must be content to point out the following obvious points of opposition between the contending parties. In the first place, then, _Dorians were opposed to Ionians_; and hence in the well-known oracle it was called the Doric war.(843) The individual exceptions are for the most part merely apparent;(844) also when the Athenians attacked Sicily, all the Doric cities were opposed to them.(845) On the side of Athens were ranged all the Ionians of Europe, of the islands, and of Asia, not indeed voluntarily, but still not altogether against their inclination. _The union of the free Greeks against the evil ambition of one state._ At the beginning of the war the general voice of Greece was in favour of Sparta(846) (which was heard through the Delphian oracle, when it promised that state a.s.sistance);(847) nor did she compel any one to join in it. The allies of Athens, having previously been Persian subjects, were accustomed to obey; and on the present occasion forced to submit; the public a.s.sembly of Athens was the only free voice in so large a combination. _Land-forces against sea-forces._ According to the speech of Pericles, Peloponnesus was able, in an action with heavy-armed troops, to resist all the rest of Greece together; and Athens avoided coming to this mode of engagement with singular ingenuity. The fleet of the Peloponnesians, on the other hand, was at the beginning of the war very inconsiderable.(848) Hence it was some time before the belligerent parties even so much as encountered one another. The land was the means of communication for one party, the sea for the other: hence the states friendly to Athens were immediately compelled to build _long walls_ for the purpose of connecting the chief city with the sea, and isolating it from the land; as Megara before, and Argos and Patrae during the war.(849) _Large bodies of men practised in war against wealth._ The Peloponnesians carried on the war with natives: whereas Athens manned her fleet-the basis of her power-chiefly with foreign seamen; so that the Corinthians said justly that the power of Athens was rather purchased than native.(850) It was the main principle of Pericles' policy, and it is also adopted by Thucydides in the famous introduction to his History, that it is not the country and people, but moveable property, (???ata, in the proper sense of the word,) which makes states great and powerful. _Slow and deliberate conviction against determined rashness._ This is evident both from the different direction taken by the alliances of the two parties, and from their national character. It was with good reason that the oracle admonished Sparta to carry on the war with decision and firmness; for that state was always cautious of undertaking a war, and ready for peace.(851) _Maintenance of ancient custom as opposed to the desire of novelty._ The former was the chief feature of the Doric, the latter of the Ionic race.