Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/72

 50 HISTORY OF GREECE. aid in her revolt against Athens : whereby it seemed established, as practical international law, that neither of these two great aggregate bodies should intermeddle with the other, and that each should restrain or punish its own disobedient members.' Of this refusal, which materially affected the course of events, the main advisers had been the Corinthians, in spite of that fear and dislike of Athens which prompted many of the allies to vote for war. 2 The position of the Corinthians was peculiar; for while Sparta and her other allies were chiefly land-powers, Corinth had been from early times maritime, commercial, and colonizing, she had been indeed once the first naval power in Greece, along with JEgina ; but either she had not increased it at all during the last forty years, or, if she had, her comparative naval importance had been entirely sunk by the gigantic expan- sion of Athens. The Corinthians had both commerce and colo- nies, Leukas, Anaktoriurn, Ambrakia, Korkyra, etc., along or near the coast of Epirus : they had also their colony Potidtua, situated on the isthmus of Pallene, in Thrace, and intimately connected with them : and the interest of their commerce made them extremely averse to any collision with the superior navy of the Athenians. It was this consideration which had induced them to resist the impulse of the Lacedaemonian allies towards war on behalf of Samos : for though their feelings, both of jealousy and hatred against Athens were even now strong, 3 aris- ing greatly out of the struggle a few years before for the acqui- sition of Megara to the Athenian alliance, prudence indicated that, in a war against the first naval power in Greece, they were sure to be the greatest losers. So long as the policy of Corinth pointed towards peace, there was every probability that war would be avoided, or at least accepted only in a case of grave necessity, by the Lacedaemonian alliance. But a contingency, distant as well as unexpected, which occurred about five years Bee the important passage akeady adverted to in a prior note. Thucyd. i, 40. oiide yap Tjfieif "Zafuuv UTTOOTUVTUV ilri]^>ov vpo tvavriav iifilv, TUV u/,/.uv Uetomwiimuw &ix a tylfao/ievuv el xflrj avrolf auweiv, avepijf 6e uvTE'nropev rovf irpoajjicovrac fv/fpagoiM airov riva coAue<y.
 * Thucyd. i, 33. 3 Tnucyd. i, 42.