Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/134

 112 HISTORY OF GREECE. selves afterwards came to feel, but her enemk s, who broke the provisions of the truce, by encouraging the revolt of Potidaea, and by promising invasion of Attica : it was not Athens, but her enemies, who, after thus breaking the truce, made a string of exorbitant demands, in order to get up as good a case as possi- ble for war. 1 The case made out by Perikles, justifying the war on grounds both of right and prudence, is in all its main pointa borne out by the impartial voice of Thucydides. And though it is perfectly true, that the ambition of Athens had been great, and the increase of her power marvellous, during the thirty-five years between the repulse of Xerxes and the thirty years' truce, it is not less true that by that truce she lost very largely, and that she acquired nothing to compensate such loss during the fourteen years between the truce and the Korkynean alliance. The policy of Perikles had not been one of foreign aggrandize- ment, or of increasing vexation and encroachment towards other Grecian powers : even the Korkyrasan alliance was noway courted by him, and was in truth accepted with paramount regard to the obligations of the existing truce : while the circumstances out of which that alliance grew, testify a more forward ambition on the part of Corinth than on that of Athens, to appropriate to herself the Korkyraean naval force. It is common to ascribe the Peloponnesian war to the ambition of Athens, but this is a par- tial view of the case. The aggressive sentiment, partly fear, partly hatred, was on the side of the Peloponnesians, who were not ignorant that Athens desired the continuance of peace, but were resolved not to let her stand as she was at the conclusion of the thirty years' truce ; it was their purpose to attack her and break down her empire, as dangerous, wrongful, and anti-Hel- lenic. The war was thus partly a contei t of principle, involving the popular proclamation of the right of every Grecian state to autonomy, against Athens : partly a contest of power, wherein Spartan and Corinthian ambition was not less conspicuous, and far more aggressive in the beginning, than Athenian. poTepov ^w&^Kaif 5/rAa fir) k~iepeiv TJV diKag tic/Mai JiJovai, avrol oii if 6'iKa^ irponahovftEvuv TUV 'A.'&rjvaluv /cat 6iH TOVTO eiKorut rt kvopi&v, etc. 1 Thncyd. i, 126. o:ruf afyiar. 5n fieyiarri irpofyaais eln ~ov