Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/246

 224 HISTORY OF GREECE. of the Olympic festival to exclude her from attendance on occasion, and had subsequently been in arms against her along with Argos and Mantineia. To these grounds of quarrel, now of rather ancient date, had been added afterwards, a refusal to furnish aid in the war against Athens since the resumption of hostilities in 414 B. c., and a recent exclusion of king Agis, who had come in person to offer sacrifice and consult the oracle of Zeus Olym- pius ; such exclusion being grounded on the fact that he was about to pray for victory in the war then pending against Athens, con- trary to the ancient canon of the Olympic temple, which admitted no sacrifice or consultation respecting hostilities of Greek against Greek. 1 These were considered by Sparta as affronts ; and the season was now favorable for resenting them, as well as for chas- tising and humbling Elis. 2 Accordingly Sparta sent an embassy, requiring the Eleians to make good the unpaid arrears of the quota assessed upon them for the cost of the war against Athens ; and farther, to relinquish then* authority over their dependent town- ships or Perioeki, leaving the latter autonomous. 3 Of these depen- dencies there were several, no one very considerable individually, in the region called Triphylia, south of the river Alpheus, and north of the Neda, One of them was Lepreum, the autonomy of which the Lacedaemonians had vindicated against Elis in 420 B. c., though during the subsequent period it had again become subject. 1 Xen. Hellen. iii, 2, 22. TOVTUV ff vffTepov, Kai 'Aytdof neiiQdevrof tivaai T Ai Kara fiav-Eiav riva, knuTwov oi 'HAeZoi, p.f) npoaev^sa^at VIKIJV nokefiov, ^.tyovref, o>f KO! rd apxalov elrj ovru v6fj.ifj.ov, fj.r) xpi)OTi)piu&a$ai Toi)f "E/Wjyvaf kfi 'EAX^vui 7TO?.ejuu ware o$t>rof unqhtiev. This canon seems not unnatural, for one of the greatest Pan-hellcnic temples and establishments. Yet it was not constantly observed at Olym- pia (compare another example Xen. Hellen. iv, 7, 2) ; nor yet at Delphi, whish was not less Pan-hellenic than Olympia (see Thncyd. i, 118). We are therefore led to imagine that it was a canon which the Eleians invoked only when they were prompted by some special sentiment or aversion. tyopoif not TTJ iKK^Tjaig., cutypovlaat avTovf. 3 Diodorus (xiv, 17) mentions this demand for the arrears; which ap- pears very probable. It is not directly noticed by Xenophon, who however mentions (see the passage cited in the note of page preceding) the general assessment Ic ried by Sparta upon all her Peloponnesian allies during the war
 * Xen. Hellen. iii, 2, 23. 'E/c TOVTUV ovv TTUVTUV bpyi&pevois, edoje Toif