Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/103

Rh at Sparta, they touch but lightly, and in vague terms, on positive or recent wrongs. Even that which they do say completely justifies the proceedings of Athens about the affair of Korkyra, since they confess without hesitation the design of seizing the large Korkyrsean navy for the use of the Peloponnesian alliance : while in respect of Potidaea, if we had only the speech of the Corinthian envoy before us without any other knowledge, we should have supposed it to be an independent state, not connected by any permanent bonds with Athens,—we should have sup- posed that the siege of Potidzea by Athens was an unprovoked aggression upon an autonomous ally of Corinth, —we should never have imagined that Corinth had deliberately instigated and aided the revolt of the Chalkidians as well as of the Potidaeans against Athens. It might be pretended that she had a right to do this, by virtue of her undefined metropolitan relations with Potidaea: but at any rate, the incident was not such as to afford any decent pretext for charge against the Athenians, either of outrage towards Corinth, or of wrongful aggression against the Peloponnesian confederacy.

To dwell much upon specific allegations of wrong, would not have suited the purpose of the Corinthian envoy; for against such, the thirty years' truce expressly provided that recourse should be had to amicable arbitration,—to which recourse he never once alludes. He knew that, as between Corinth and Athens, war had already begun at Potidæa; and his business, throughout nearly all of a very emphatic speech is, to show that the Peloponnesian confederacy, and especially Sparta, is bound to take instant part in it, not less by prudence than by duty. He employs the most animated language to depict the ambition, the unwearied activity, the personal effort abroad as well as at home, the quick resolves, the sanguine hopes never dashed by failure,—of Athens; as contrasted with the cautious, home-keeping, indolent, scrupulous routine of Sparta. He reproaches the