Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/115

97 OLIGARCHICAL PARTY AT ARGOS. <J7 it prudent to send Demosthenes to bring them away. That gen- eral not only effected the retreat, but also contrived a stratagem, which gave to it the air almost of an advantage. On his first arrival in the fort, he proclaimed a gymnastic match outside of the gates for the amusement of the whole garrison, contriving to keep back the Athenians within until all the rest had marched out : then hastily shutting the gates, he remained master of the place. 1 Having no intention, however, of keeping it, he made it over presently to the Epidaurians themselves, with whom he renewed the truce to which they had been parties jointly with the Lacedaemonians five years before, two years before the Peace of Nikias. 2 The mode of proceeding here resorted to by Athens, in respect to the surrender of the fort, seems to have been dictated by a desire to manifest her displeasure against the Argeians. This was exactly what the Argeian leaders and oligarchical party, on their side, most desired ; the breach with Athens had become irreparable, and their plans were now matured for violently sub- verting their own democracy. They concerted with Sparta a joint military expedition, of one thousand hoplites from each city, the first joint expedition under the new alliance, against Sikyon, for the purpose of introducing more thorough-paced oli- garchy into the already oligarchical Sikyonian government. It is possible that there may have been some democratical opposi- tion gradually acquiring strength at Sikyon : but that city seems to have been, as far as we know, always oligarchical in policy, and passively faithful to Sparta. Probably, therefore, the joint enterprise against Sikyon was nothing more than a pretext to 1 The instances appear to have been not rare, wherein Grecian towns changed masters, by the citizens thus going out of the gates all together, or most part of them, for some religious festival. See the case of Smyrna (Herodot. i, 150), and the precautionaiy suggestions of the military writer ^Eneas, in his treatise called Poliorketicus, c. 17. 8 Thucyd. v, 80. Kal varepov 'ETndat'ptoif avaveuauftevoi Teif airov- (5af> ai>Tol ol 'A-drjvaloL unedoaav rb Tei^ta/ia. We are here told that tho Athenians RENEWED their truce with the Epidaurians : but I know no truce previously between them except the general truce for a year, which the Epidaurians swore to, in conjunction with Sparta (iv, 119), in the b<v ginning of B.C. 423. VOL. vii. 5 7oc.