Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/163

 DECLINE OF SPARTAN POWER. 141 crush the liberal and promising confederacy of Olynthus, and to re-transfer the Grecian cities on the sea-coast to the Macedonian crown. The region to which her armies had been sent, was the extreme verge of Hellas. The parties in whose favor she acted, had scarcely the shadow of a claim, as friends or allies ; while those against whom she acted, hal neither done nor threatened any wrong to her : moreover, the main ground on which her in- terference was invoked, was to hinder the free and equal confed- eration of Grecian cities. Now, a claim, and a strong claim, is made upon her by Polydamas of Pharsalus, an old friend and ally. It comes from a region much less distant ; lastly, her poli- tical interest would naturally bid her arrest the menacing increase of an aggressive power already so formidable as that of Jason. Yet so seriously has the position of Sparta altered in the last eight years (382-374 B. c.), that she is now compelled to decline a de- mand which justice, sympathy, and political policy alike prompted her to grant. So unfortunate was it for the Olynthian confeder- acy, that their honorable and well-combined aspirations feU exactly during those few years in which Sparta was at her maximum of power ! So unfortunate was such coincidence of time, not only for Olynthus, but for Greece generally : since nothing but Spar- tan interference restored the Macedonian kings to the sea-coast, while the Olynthian confederacy, had it been allowed to expand, might probably have confined them to the interior, and averted the death-blow which came upon Grecian freedom in the next generation from their hands. The Lacedaemonians found some compensation for their reluc- tant abandonment of Polydamas, in the pacific propositions from Athens which liberated them from one of their chief enemies. But the peace thus concluded was scarcely even brought to execu- tion. Timotheus, being ordered home from Korkyra, obeyed and set sail with his fleet. He had serving along with him some ex- iles from Zakynthus ; and as he passed by that island in his home- ward voyage, he disembarked these exiles upon it, aiding them in establishing a fortified post. Against this proceeding the Zakyn- thian government laid complaints at Sparta, where it was so deeply resented, that redress having been in vain demanded at Athens, the peace was at once I roken off, and war again declared. A Lacedaemonian squadron of twenty-five sail was despatched tc