Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/31

13 MANTINEIA AND TEGEA. 13 city, that it was now the duty of Argos to step forward as saviour of Peloponnesus, which the Lacedasmonians were openly betray- ing to the common enemy, and to invite for that purpose, into alliance for reciprocal defence, every autonomous Hellenic state which would bind itself to give and receive amicable satisfaction in all points of difference. They affirmed that many cities, from hatred of Sparta, would gladly comply with such invitation ; especially if a board of commissioners in small number were named, with full powers to admit all suitable applicants ; so that, in case of rejection, there might at least be no exposure before ilie public assembly in the Argeian democracy. This suggestion privately made by the Corinthians, who returned home imme- diately afterwards was eagerly adopted both by leaders and people at Argos, as promising to realize their long-cherished pre- tensions to headship. Twelve commissioners were lu-cordingly appointed, with power to admit any new allies whom they might think eligible, except Athens and Sparta. With either of those two cities, no treaty was allowed without the formal sanction of the public assembly. 1 Meanwhile, the Corinthians, though they had been the first to set the Argeians in motion, nevertheless thought it right, before enrolling themselves publicly in the new alliance, to invite a congress of Peloponnesian malcontents to Corinth. It was the Mantineians who made the first application to Argos under the notice just issued. And here we are admitted to a partial view of the relations among the secondary and interior states of Pelo- ponnesus. Mantineia and Tegea, being conterminous as well as the two most considerable states in Arcadia, were in perpetual rivalry, which had shown itself only a year and a half before in a bloody but indecisive battle. 2 Tegea, situated on the frontiers of Laconia, and oligarchically governed, was tenaciously attached to Sparta : while for that very reason, as well as from the demo- cratical character of her government, Mantineia was less so, though she was still enrolled in and acted as a member of the Peloponnesian confederacy. She had recently conquered for herself 3 a little empire in her own neighborhood, composed of 1 Tlmcyd. v, 28. 2 Thucyd. iv, 134.
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