Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/107

 BEGINNING OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 8S He began by disclaiming all intention of defending his native city against the charges of specific wrong or alleged infractions of the existing truce : this was no part of his mission, nor did he recognize Sparta as a competent judge in disputes between Athens and Corinth. But he nevertheless thought it his duty to vindicate Athens against the general character of injustice and aggression imputed to her, as well as to offer a solemn warning to tfo? Spartans against the policy towards which they were obviously tending. He then proceeded to show that the empire of Athens had been honorably earned and amply deserved, that it had been voluntarily ceded, and even pressed upon her, and that she could not abdicate it without emperiling her own separate existence and security. Far from thinking that the circumstances under which it was acquired needed apology, he appealed to them with pride as a testimony of the genuine Hellenic patriotism of that city which the Spartan congress now seemed disposed to run down as an enemy. 1 He then dwelt upon the circumstances attending the Persian invasion, setting forth the superior forwardness and the unflinching endurance of Athens, in spite of ungenerous neglect from Sparta and the other Greeks, the preponderance of her naval force in the entire armament, the directing genius of her general Themistokles, complimented even by Sparta herself, and the title of Athens to rank on that memorable occasion as the principal saviour of Greece. This alone ought to save her empire from reproach : but this was not all, for that empire had been tendered to her by the pressing instance of the allies, at a time when Sparta had proved herself both incompetent and unwilling to prosecute the war against Persia. 2 By simple exercise of the constraining force inseparable from her presidential obligations, and by the 1 Thucyd. i, 73. pijdfiaETai Je ov irapair^OEUf fj.H7Jt.ov cul (i///,(ITfWf Trpof olav vfj.iv 7ro/Uv fj.Tj Ev (3ov?ivof4Evoi(6 uyuv ' Thucyil. i, 75. T Ap' ufic. iafiev, u AanEdai/iovLoi, Kat Trpodv/Liiac IVEKU Tiff rj? r Kal yvupa ovvsaeuf, apx?i ye fa e^o/zev Tolf "EM.ijai [J.TJ oiruf uyav tmfy)6vvf diaKctcrdat; Kal yap avTriv rr/vde eXuftofiev oil /3iaat'iuevoi, uW VficJv ftKV oi'K itiehriauvTuv trapafielva . Trpbf ra forotonra TOV papjupov. ii/jilt ie Ufaoe^&ufTUV ruv i;v[j./j.ax<jv, teal avruv derf&evruv qyefiovaf Karaarfivat if airov <U TOV ipyov KaTrivayKua-&r]/j.Ev TO irpurov irpoayayfiv a'vTijv ti Tofe. pa'iara fiev i-~u Jt'ot-f, EKEira 6s KOI Ti/iqf iiarepov Kat uf'hr '.ac