Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/355

 GRECIAN CONFEDERACY UNDER ATHENS. 331 aud appears to have overlaid the preexisting conspiracy, that the Athenians were quickly in a condition to wipe off the stain of their defeat. It was on the sixty-second day after the battle that they undertook an aggressive march under Myronides into Boeo- tia ; the extreme precision of this date, — being the single case throughout the summary of events between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, Avherein Thucydides is thus precise, marks how strong an impression it made upon the memory of the Athenians. At the battle of OEnophyta, engaged against the aggregate Theban and Boeotian forces, — or, if Diodorus is to be trusted, in two battles, of which that of OEnophyta was the last, Myronides was completely victorious. The Athenians became masters of Thebes as well as of the remaining Boeotian towns ; reversing all the arrangements recently made by Sparta, — estab- lishing democratical governments, — and forcing the aristocratical leaders, favorable to Theban ascendency and Lacedaemonian connection, to become exiles. Nor was it only Boeotia which the Athenians thus acquired : Phocis and Lokris were both succes- sively added to the list of their dependent allies, — the former being in the main friendly to Athens and not disinclined to the change, while the latter were so decidedly hostile that one hun- dred of their chiefs were detained and sent +0 Athens as host- ages. The Athenians thus extended their influence, — maintained through internal party-management, backed by the dread of in- terference from without in case of need, — from the borders of the Corinthian territory, including both Megara and Pegae, to the strait of Thermopylae.! These important acquisitions were soon crowned by the com- pletion of the Long "Walls and the conquest of jEgina. That island, doubtless starved out by its protracted blockade, was forced to capitulate on condition of destroying its fortifications, surrendering all its ships of war, and submitting to annual tri- bute as a dependent ally of Athens. The reduction of this once powerful maritime city, marked Athens as mistress of the sea on the Peloponnesian coast not less than on the ^gean. Her ad- miral Tolmides displayed her strength by sailing round Pelopon- nesus, and even by the insult of burning the Lacedtemonian ports > Thucyd. i, 108 ; Diodor. xi, 81, 82.