Page:History of Greece Vol VII.djvu/44

26 ?3 IIISTOUY OF GlII'ECK. revollol from her. Nor did the boeotarchs think it sare to divulge $heir communications with Kleobulus and Xenares, or to ac quaint the Senates that the whole plan originated with a power- ful party in Sparta herself. Accordingly, under this formal refusal on the part of the Senates, no farther proceedings could be taken. The Corinthian and Chalkidian envoys left Thebes, while the promise of sending Boeotian envoys to Argos remained unexecuted. 1 But the anti-Athenian ephors at Sparta, though baffled in their schemes for arriving at the Argeian alliance through the agency of the Boeotians, did not the less persist in their views upon Panaktum. That place a frontier fortress in the mountainous range between Attica and Bceotia, apparently on the Bo3Otian side of Phyle, and on or near the direct road from Athens to Thebes which led through Phyle 2 had been an Athenian posses- sion, until six months before the peace, when it had been treach- erously betrayed to the Boeotians. 3 A special provision of the treaty between Athens and Sparta, prescribed that it should be restored to Athens ; and Lacedzemonian envoys were now sent on an express mission to Boeotia, to request from the Boeotians the delivery of Panaktuin as well as of their Athenian captives, in order that by tendering these to Athens she might be induced to surrender Pylos. The Boeotians refused compliance with this request, except on condition that Sparta should enter into special alliance with them as she had done with the Athenians. Now the Spartans stood pledged by their covenant with the latter, either by its terms or by its recognized import, not to enter into any new alliance without their consent. But they were eagerly bent upon getting possession of Panaktum ; while the prospect of breach with Athens, far from being a deterring motive, was exactly that which Kleobulus and Xenares desired. Under these feelings, the Lacedaemonians consented to and swore the special alliance with Bceotia. But the Boeotians, instead of handing over Panaktum for surrender, as they had promised, immediately razed the fortress to the ground ; under pretence of some ancient ' ThucyU. v, 38. f See Colonel Leakc, Travels iu Northern Greece, vol. ii, ch. xvii, p. ;T
 * -n.^yd. v, 3.