Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/114

 92 HISTORY OF GREECE four leaders, in their houses and at the banquet, raises a sentiment of repugnance which withdraws his attention from the other fea- attack of the Kadmeia. Strange to say, Diodorus himself, three chap- ters afterwards (xv, 29), relates this story about Sphodrias, just in the same manner (with little difference) as Xenophon; ushering in the story with a declaration, that the Athenians were still at peace with Sparta, and forgetting that he had himself recounted a distinct rupture of that peace on the part of the Athenians. 3. The news of the revolution at Thebes must necessarily have taken the Athenian public completely by surprise (though some few Athenians were privy to the scheme), because it was a scheme which had no chance of suc- ceeding except by profound secrecy. Now, that the Athenian public, hear- ing the news for the first time, having no positive act to complain of on the part of Sparta, and much reason to fear her power, having had no previous circumstances to work them up, or prepare them for any danger- ous resolve, should identify themselves at once with Thebes, and provoke war with Sparta in the impetuous manner stated by Diodorus, this is, in my judgment, eminently improbable, requiring good evidence to induce us to believe it. 4. Assume the statement of Diodorus to be true, what reasonable ex- planation can be given of the erroneous version which we read in Xeno- phon ? The facts as he recounts them conflict most pointedly with his philo-Laconian partialities ; first, the overthrow of the Lacedaemonian power at Thebes, by a handful of exiles ; still more, the whole story of Sphodrias and his acquittal. But assume the statement of Xenophon to be true, and we can give a very plausible explanation how the erroneous version in Diodorus arose. A few months later, after the acquittal of Sphodrias at Sparta, the Athe- nians did enter heartily into the alliance of Thebes, and sent a large public force (indeed five thousand hoplites, the same number as those of Demo- phon, according to Diodorus, c. 32) to assist her in repelling Agesilaus with the Spartan army. It is by no means unnatural that their public vote and expedition undertaken about July 378 B. c., should have been erroneously thrown back to December 379 B. c. The Athenian orators were fond of boasting that Athens had saved the Thebans from Sparta ; and this might be said with some truth, in reference to the aid which she really rendered afterwards. Isokrates (Or. Plataic. s. 31 ) makes this boast in general terms ; but Deinarchus (cont. Demosthen. s. 40) is more distinct, and gives in a few words a version the same as that which we find in Diodorus ; so also does Aristeides, in two very brief allusions (Panathen. p. 172, and Or. xxxviii, Socialis, p. 486-498). Possibly Aristeides as well as Diodorus may have copied from Ephorus ; but however this may be, it is easy to under- stand the mistake out of which their version grew. 5. Lastly, Plutarch mentions nothing about the public vote of the Athe- nians, and *,he regular division of troops unier Demophon which Diodorus