Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/30

12 12 HISTORY OF GREECE. an institution was internally dangerous, and pregnant with mis- chief, which will be hereafter described. But at the present moment, the democratical leaders of Argos seem to have thought only of the foreign relations of their city, now that her truce with Sparta was expiring, and that the disorganized state of the Spartan confederacy opened new chances to her ambition of regaining something like headship in Peloponnesus. The discontent of the recusant Peloponnesian allies was now inducing them to turn their attention towards Argos as a new chief. They had mistrusted Sparta, even before the peace, well knowing that she had separate interests from the confederacy, arising from desire to get back her captives : in the terms of peace, it seemed as if Sparta and Athens alone were regarded, the inter- ests of the remaining allies, especially those in Thrace, being put out of sight. Moreover, that article in the treaty of peace where- by it was provided that Athens and Sparta might by mutual con- sent add or strike out any article that they chose, without consult- ing the allies, excited general alarm, as if Sparta were meditating some treason in conjunction with Athens against the confederacy. 1 And the alarm, once roused, was still farther aggravated by the separate treaty of alliance between Sparta and Athens, which followed so closely afterwards, as well as by the restoration of the Spartan captives. Such general displeasure among the Peloponnesian states at the unexpected combination of Athenians and Lacedaemonians, strengthened in the case of each particular state by private inter- ests of its own. first manifested itself openly through the Corin- thians. On retiring from the conferences at Sparta, where the recent alliance between the Athenians and Spartans had just been made known, and where the latter had vainly endeavored to prevail upon their allies to accept the peace, the Corinthians went straight to Argos to communicate what had passed, and to solicit interference. They suggested to the leading men in that be a lon/j time. It is not to be imagined that the Argeian democracy would have incurred the expense and danger of keeping up this select regimen* during all the period of their long peace, just now coming to an end. 1 Thucyd. v. 29. pr] (J.ETU 'Ajdyvaiuv cr^df (3ov?MVTai AaK< ? wn>t<> compare Piodorus, xii, 75.