Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/43

25 MAN(EUV1;ES OF THE BCEOTAKCIIS. 25 Argeians The boeoztirchs also entered heartily into the entire scheme ; receiving the Argeian envoys with marked favor, and promising, as soon as they should have obtained the requisite sanction to send envoys of their own and ask for alliance with Argos. That sanction was to be obtained from " the Four Senates of the Boeotians ;" bodies, of the constitution of which nothing is known. But they were usually found so passive and acquiescent that the boaotarchs, reckoning upon their assent as a matter of course, even without any full exposition of reasons, laid all their plans accordingly. 1 They proposed to these four Senates a reso- lution in general terms, empowering themselves in the name of the Boeotian federation to exchange oaths of alliance with any Grecian city which might be willing to contract on terms mutu- ally beneficial : their particular object being, as they stated, to form alliance with the Corinthians, Megarians, and Chalkidians of Thrace, for mutual defence, and for war as well as peace with others only by common consent. To this specific object they anticipated no resistance on the part of the Senates, inas- much as their connection with Corinth had always been intimate^ while the position of the four parties named was the same, all being recusants of tbj recent peace. But the resolution was advisedly couched in the most comprehensive terms, in order that it might authorize them to proceed farther afterwards, and con- clude alliance on the part of the Boeotians and Megarians with Argos ; that ulterior purpose being however for the present kept back, because alliance with Argos was a novelty which might surprise and alarm tie Senates. The manoeuvre, skilfully con- trived for entrapping hese bodies into an approval of measures which they never con :emplated, illustrates the manner in which an oligarchical execut ve could elude the checks devised to con- trol its proceedings. But the bceotarchs, to their astonishment, found themselves deft ated at the outset : for the Senates would not even hear of allia. ice with Corinth, so much did they fear to oflend Sparta by any special connection with a city which had 1 Thucvd. v. .38. oiupevt '. rrjv fiov^ijv, KU.V fir/ eiTruati', owe d/lAa tpTjQiElcfia.i f} a aiai 7rpo6tayv6vTe<; OT :p<u vovaiv. . . .ralf Teaaapai fiovAaif ruv Bo/w-ir, ai~sp u~av TO icvoof i%'v6',. VOL. VII. 2