Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/230

 HISTORY OF GREECE. even an infirm body and an age of seventy years, was more than ever indispensable to his country. He was still the chief leader of her affairs, condemned to the sad necessity of sul/nitting to this Mantinean affront, and much Avorse that followed it, without the least power of hindrance. TLd reestablishment of Mantinea was probably completed dur- ing the autumn and winter of B. c. 371370. Such coalescence of villages into a town, coupled with the predominance of feelings hostile to Sparta, appears to have suggested the idea of a larger political union among all who bore the Arcadian name. As yet, no such union had ever existed; the fractions of the Arcadian name had nothing in common, apart from other Greeks, except many legendary and religious sympathies, with a belief in the same heroic lineage and indigenous antiquity. 1 But now the idea and aspiration, espoused with peculiar ardor by a leading Man- tinean named Lykomedes, spread itself rapidly over the country, to form a " commune Arcadum," or central Arcadian authority, composed in certain proportions out of all the sections now auton- omous, and invested with peremptory power of determining by the vote of its majority. Such central power, however, was not intended to absorb or set aside the separate governments, but only to be exercised for certain definite purposes ; in maintaining una- nimity at home, together with concurrent, independent action, as to foreign states. 2 This plan of Pan-Arcadian federation was warmly promoted by the Mantineans, who looked to it as a protec- 1 It seems, however, doubtful whether there were not some common Ar- cadian coins struck, even before the battle of Leuktra. Some such are extant ; but they are referred by K. 0. Miiller, as well as by M. Boeckh (Metrologisch. Untersuchungen, p. 92) to a later date subse- quent to the foundation of Megalopolis. On the other hand, Ernst Curtius (Beytrage zur Aeltern Miinzkunde, p 85-90, Berlin, 1851) contends that there is a great difference in the style and execution of these coins, and that several in all probability belong to a date earlier than the battle of Leuktra. He supposes that these older coins were struck in connection with the Pan- Arcadian sanctuary and temple of Zeus Lykscus, and probably out of a common treasury at the temple of that god for religious purposes ; perhaps also in connection with the temple of Artemis Hymnia (Pausan. viii, 5, 11) between Mantinea and Orchomenus, ?,n TiKr] tv TO Kotvti, TOVTO Kvpiov elvat Kal TUV irdfauv, etc. Cont>ore Dirdor. xv, 59-62.
 * Xen. Hellen. vi, 5, 6. ovvriyov knl rb <ruvie~sai TTUV rb 'ApKadtt ov, KoJ