Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/100

 78 HISTORY OF GREECE. truce ; though it was undoubtedly within the legitimate right of Athens to enforce, and was even less harsh than the system atic expulsion of foreigners by Sparta, with which Perikles com- pared it. These complaints found increased attention after the war of Korkyra and the blockade of Potidaea by the Athenians. The sen- timents of the Corinthians towards Athens had now become angry and warlike in the highest degree : nor was it simply re- sentment for the past which animated them, but also the anxiety farther to bring upon Athens so strong a hostile pressure as should preserve Potidsea and its garrison from capture. Accord- ingly, they lost no time in endeavoring to rouse the feelings of the Spartans against Athens, and in inducing them to invite to Sparta all such of the confederates as had any grievances against that city. Not merely the Megarians but several other confederates, appeared there as accusers ; while the JEginetans, though their insular position made it perilous for them to appear, made them selves vehemently heard through the mouths of others, complain- ing that Athens withheld from them that autonomy to which they were entitled under the truce. 1 According to the Lacedasmonian practice, it was necessary first that the Spartans themselves, apart from their allies, should de- 1 Thucyd. i, 67. Aeyovre? OVK elvat avTovo/ioi KOTO, rdf <7;rov(5uc. O. Miiller (JEginet. p. 180) and Goller in his note, think that the truce (or covenant generally) here alluded to is, not the thirty years' truce, concluded fourteen years before the period actually present, but the ancient alliance against the Persians, solemnly ratified and continued after the victory of Plataea. Dr. Arnold, on the contrary, thinks that the thirty years' truce is alluded to, which the JEginetans interpreted (rightly or not) as entitling them to independence. The former opinion might seem to be countenanced by the allusion to JEgina in the speech of the Thebans (iii, 64) : but on the other hand, if we consult i, 115, it will appear possible that the wording of the thirty years' truce may have been general, as, 'A.iro6ovvai 61 'A&jjvaiovi; &oa i^ovai lI&oTrorvrjoiuv : at any rate, the ./Eginetans may have pretended that, by the same rule as Athens gave up Nissea, Pegae, etc., she ought also to renounce JEgina. However, we must recollect that the one plea does not exclude the other : the JEginetans may have taken advantage of both in enforcing their prayer for interference. This seems to have been the idea of the Scholiastj when be says Kara TTJV av^uvlav rdv v.