Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/223

 POSITION OF SPARTA. 201 caused the solemnity of purification to be performed round the assembly. 1 Though Sparta thus saw her confidential partisans deposed, ex- pelled, or maltreated, throughout so many of the Peloponnesian cities, and though as yet there was no Theban interference within the isthmus, either actual or prospective, yet she was profoundly discouraged, and incapable of any effort either to afford protection or to uphold ascendency. One single defeat had driven her to the necessity of contending for home and family ; 2 probably too the dispositions of her own Perioeki and Helots in Laconia, were such as to require all her force as well as all her watchful- ness. At any rate, her empire and her influence over the senti- ments of Greeks out of Laconia, became suddenly extinct, to a degree which astonishes us, when we recollect that it had become a sort of tradition in the Greek mind, and that, only nine years before, it had reached as far as Olynthus. How completely her ascendency had passed away, ia shown in a remarkable step taken by Athens, seemingly towards the close of 371 B. c., about four months after the battle of Leukfra. Many of the Peloponnesian cities, though they had lost both their fear and their reverence for Sparta, were still anxious to continue members of a voluntary alli- ance under the presidency of some considerable city. Of this feel- ing the Athenians took advantage, to send envoys and invite them to enter into a common league at Athens, on the basis of the peace of Antalkidas, and of the peace recently sworn at Sparta. 3 Many 1 Plutarch, Eeipubl. Gerend. Praccpt. p. 814 B. ; Isokrates, Or. v, (Philip.) B. 58. ; compare Dionys. Halic. Antiq. Eom. vii, 66. 2 Xen. Hellen. vii, 1, 10. The discouragement of the Spartans is revealed by the unwilling, though indirect, intimations of Xenophon, not less than by their actual conduct Hellen. vi, 5, 21; vii, 1, 30-32 ; compare Plutarch, Agesil. c. 30. 3 Xen. Hellen. vi, 5, 1-3. 'EvfivfujdRVTee ol 'A.&7jvaioi OTI ol RehoTrovvrjaioi eri oiovrai, xpqvai UKO- Tiov&elv, KOI OVTTU tiiaiCEOivTo ol Aanedaiftovtoi, ucmep rovf 'Adrivaiove diHte- aav fieraTTEfiirovTai ruf TroAetf, oaoi jBovhovrai r^f elpfjvris /UETEXEIV, rjv In this passage, Morus and some other critics maintain that we ought to read OVKU (which seems not to be supported by any MSS.), in place of ofau. Zeune and Schneider have admitted tlu new reading into the text ; yet they doubt the propriety of the change, and I confess that I share their doubts. The word OVTU will construe, and gives a clear sense ; a very dif