Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/101

 BEGINmNG OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 79 cide whether there existed a sufficient case of wrong done by Athens against themselves or against Peloponnesus, either in violation of the thirty years' truce, or in any other way. If the determination of Sparta herself were in the negative, the case would never even be submitted to the vote of the allies ; but if it were in the affirmative, then the latter would be convoked to deliver their opinion also : and assuming that the majority of votes coincided with the previous decision of Sparta, the entire confede- racy stood then pledged to the given line of policy, if the majority was contrary, the Spartans would stand alone, or with such only of the confederates as concurred. Each allied city, great or small, had an equal right of suffrage. It thus appears that Sparta herself did not vote as a member of the confederacy, but separately and individually as leader, and that the only question ever submitted to the allies was, whether they would or would not go along with her previous decision. Such was the course of proceeding now followed: the Corinthians, together with such other of the confederates as felt either aggrieved or alarmed by Athens, presented themselves before the public assembly of Spartan citizens, prepared to prove that the Athe- nians had broken the truce, and were going on in a course of wrong towards Peloponnesus. 1 Even in the oligarchy of Sparta, such a question as this could only be decided by a general assem- bly of Spartan citizens, qualified both by age, by regular contri- bution to the public mess, and by obedience to Spartan disci- pline. To the assembly so constituted the deputies of the various allied cities addressed themselves, each setting forth his case against Athens. The Corinthians chose to reserve themselves to the last, after the assembly had been previously inflamed by the previous speakers. Of this important assembly, on which so much of the future fate of Greece turned, Thucydides has preserved an account unusually copious. First, the speech delivered by the Corinthian envoys. Next, that of some Athenian envoys, who happening to be at the same time in Sparta on some other matters, and being 1 Thucyd. i, 67. Karepouv ta?6i>ref ruv ' 'A.'&rjvaiuv ore cmovduf re JU^i'/corcf elev KOI udinoiev TJ)V HehoTrovvqaov. The change of tense in Jiese two verbs is to be noticed.