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 GftECtAN AFFAIRS AFTfiR THE PERSIAN INVASION. 261 the like effect still more. For an instant, after the battles of Platiea and Mj kale, — when the town of Plataea was set apart as a consecrated neutral spot for an armed confederacy against the Persian, with periodical solemnities and meetings of deputies, • — Sparta was exalted to be the chief of a full Pan-Hellenic union, Athens being only one of the principal members : and had Sparta been capable either of corapreliensive policy, of self- directed and persevering efforts, or of the requisite flexibility of dealing, embracing distant Greeks as well as near, — her position was now such, that her own ascendency, together with undivided Pan-Hellenic union, might long have been maintained. But she was lamentably deficient in all the requisite qualities, and the larger the union became, the more her deficiency stood manifest. On the other hand, Athens, now entering into rivalry as a sort of leader of opposition, possessed all those qualities in a remarkable degree, over and above that actual maritime force which was the want of the day ; so that the opening made by Spartan incompe- tence and crime, so far as Pausanias was concerned, found her in every respect prepared. But the sympathies of the Peloponne- sians still clung to Sparta, while those of the Ionian Greeks had turned to Athens : and thus not only the short-lived symptoms of an established Pan-Hellenic union, but even all tendencies towards it from this time disappear. There now stands out a manifest schism, with two pronounced parties, towards one of which nearly all the constituent atoms of the Grecian world gravitate : the maritime states, newly enfranchised from Persia, towards Athens, — the land-states, which had formed most part of the confederate army at Plataea, towards Sparta.^ Along with ' Thucyd.i, 18. Kai fieya/MV kivSvvov e—iKpEnaadivToc oIte AaKEdaifiovioi rCiv ^vfinoT^efiTjauvTuv 'E/.atjvuv ijyfjaavTo dvvufiet TrpovxovTEC, xat ol 'Ai?^- vaZoi, diavoTj^EVTEC ek?u7teIv tt/v ttoaip Kai avaaKEvaaafMEvoi. ic ''""f vav( ififfavTE^ vavTiKol iyivovTO. Koiv^ 6e uTTuaafiEVOi tov (Suppapov, vaTEpov oi) noX/M 6iEKpL-&riaav Tipo^ te ^A^ijvaiovc Kai AaKedatnovlovc, ol te u~oaruvTE( ■ l3aai?.Edvri ■ laxvov yap oi fiiv Kara yrjv, ol 6e vavai. Kai 67.Lyov fiiv xP'^'^ov (TVVEftEivEV 7} 6 fi a I X IJ- i fii E'TTEiTa 6e Sievex^cvtec ol AaKEdaifiovioi. Kai ol ^A'&TjvaloL iTTo}.Efirjaav fiETu ruv ivfifiaxc-iv Trpbg tiAA^Aovf • Kai Tuv uKTmv 'K2.X7JVUV Ecrivi^ nov diaaraiEv, Tzpdc TovTov^ r/dr/ EX(Jpovv. 'Hare and tuv Mr} 6 iKuv ic Tovds usl tov ttoA e//o v, etc. This is a clear and concise statement of the great revolution iu Grecian