Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/84

56 of true Spartans tended to diminish, and the lands fell into the hands of too few. The jealous exclusion of strangers made the Spartans narrow, and unfit to govern others or work with other states. The prohibition of the use of money was evaded in various ways, and Spartans abroad on state missions gained a bad reputation for corruption. Their slowness of movement and rigid adherence to local customs often made their alliance of little use. But continuity of institutions was at any rate attained. There were none of the fluctuations between tyranny oligarchy, and democracy which we have seen in Corinth, Sicyon, and Argos.

The three remaining districts of the Peloponnese—Arcadia, Elis, and Achaia—were not reduced to dependence upon Sparta, though they were decisively influenced by her. The question which principally divided the Eleians concerned the management of the Olympic festival, which was claimed exclusively by the people of Pisa, while the rest of the Eleians demanded a share in it. In this demand the Eleians were supported by Sparta, and the dispute ended in the demolition of Pisa about B.C. 572, after which the Eleians generally acted in close alliance with Sparta. The cities of Arcadia, on the other hand, long contended against Spartan supremacy, and it was not till the conquest of Tegea in B.C. 560 that the country generally was compelled to follow the Spartan lead in matters of international importance. Achaia consisted of a league of twelve cities, each apparently with a more or less democratic constitution, but its importance belongs to a later period. At this time