Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/224

 202 HISTORY OF GREECE. of them, obeying the summons, entered into an engagement to the following effect : " I will adhere to the peace sent down by the Per- sian Icing, and to the resolutions of the Athenians and the allies generally. If any of the cities who have sworn this oath shall be attacked, I will assist her with all my might." What cities, or how many, swore to this engagement, we are not told ; we make out indirectly that Corinth was one j 1 but the Eleians refused it, on the ground that their right of sovereignty over the Marganeis, the Triphylians, and the Skilluntians, was not recognized. The forma- tion of the league itself, however, with Athens as president, is a striking fact, as evidence of the sudden dethronement of Sparta, and as a warning that she would henceforward have to move in her own separate orbit, like Athens after the Peloponnesian war. Athens stepped into the place of Sparta, as president of the Pelo- ponnesian confederacy, and guarantee of the sworn peace ; though the cities which entered into this new compact were not for that reason understood to break with their ancient president. 2 Another incident too, apparently occurring about the present time, though we cannot mark its exact date, serves to mark the altered position of Sparta. The Thebans preferred in the assembly of Amphiktyons an accusation against her, for the unlawful cap- ture of their citadel the Kadmeia by Phcebidas, while under a sworn peace ; and for the sanction conferred by the Spartan au- thorities on this act, in detaining and occupying the place. The Amphiktyonic assembly found the Spartans guilty, and condemned them to a fine of five hundred talents. As the fine was not paid, the assembly, after a certain interval, doubled it ; but the second sentence remained unexecuted as well as the first, since there were no means of enforcement. 3 Probably neither those who ferent sense from oviru, indeed, yet more likely to have been intended by Xenophon. 1 Xen. Hellen. vi, 5, 37. 4,8). 8 Diodor. xvi, 23-29 ; Justin, viii, 1. We may fairly suppose that both of them borrow from Theopompus, who treated at large of the memorable Sacred War against the Phokians, which began in 355 B. c., and in which the conduct of Sparta was partly deter- mined by this previous sentence of the Amphiktyons. See Theopompi Fragm. 182-184, ed. Didot.
 * Thus the Corinthians still continued allies of Sparta (Xen. Hellen. vii,