Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/345

 GRECIAN CONFEDERACY UNDER ATHENS. 321 an connection, and obtained permission to enrol herself as an ally of Athens.' This was an acquisition of signal value to the Athe- nians, since it both opened to them the whole range of terri- tory across the outer isthmus of Corinth to the interior of the Kiisssean gulf, on which the Megarian port of Pegas was situated, and placed them in possession of the passes of Mount Geraneia, 60 that they could arrest the march of a Peloponessian army over the isthmus, and protect Attica from invasion. It was, more- over, of great importance in its effects on Grecian politics : for it was counted as a wrong by Lacedaemon, gave deadly offence to the Corinthians, and lighted up the flames of war between them and Athens ; their allies, the Epidaurians and -<Eginetans, taking their part. Though Athens had not yet been guilty of unjust encroachment against any Peloponnesian state, her ambi- tion and energy had inspired universal awe ; while the maritime states in the neighborhood, such as Corinth, Epidaurus, and ^gina, ' saw these terror-striking qualities threatening them at their own doors, through her alliance with Argos and Megara. Moreover, it is probable that the ancient feud between the Athenians and ^ginetans, though dormant since a little before the Persian in- vasion, had never been appeased or forgotten : so that the -^ginetans, dwelling within sight of Peirceus, were at once best able to appreciate, and most likely to dread, the enormous mari- time power now possessed by Athens. Perikles was wont to call ^gina the eyesore of Peiraeus :" but we may be very sure that Peiraeus, grown into a vast fortified port, within the existing generation, was in a much stronger degree the eyesore of -Slgina. The Athenians were at this time actively engaged in prose- cuting the war against Persia, having a fleet of no less than two hundred sail, equipped by or from the confederacy collectively, now serving in Cyprus and on the Phenician coast. Moreover, the revolt of the Egyptians under Inaros, about 460 B.C., opened to them new means of action against the Great King ; and their fleet, by invitation of the revolters, sailed up the Nile to Mem- phis, where there seemed at first a good prospect of throwing off the Persian dominion. Yet in spite of so great an abstraction from their disposable force, their military operations near home ' Thwcyd. i, J 03. - rhitarch, Perikles, c. 8. VOI-. V 14* 21oc.