Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/25

 FIAT ENFORCED UPON GREECE. 3 with Antalkidas), read by him aloud, and heard with submission by the assembled Grecian envoys, after he had called their special attention to the regal seal." * Such was the convention which Sparta, the ancient president of the Grecian world had been the first to solicit at the hands of the Persian king, and which she now not only set the example of sanctioning by her own spontaneous obedience, but even avouched as guarantee and champion against all opponents ; preparing to enforce it at the point of the sword against any recusant state, whether party to it or not. Such was the convention which was now inscribed on stone, and placed as a permanent record in the temples of the Grecian cities ; 2 nay, even in the common sanctuaries, the Olympic, Pythian, and others, the great foci and rallying points of Pan-hellenic sentiment. Though called by the name of a convention, it was on the very face of it a peremptory mandate proceeding from the ancient ene- my of Greece, an acceptance of which was nothing less than an act of obedience. While to him it was a glorious. trophy, to all 1 Xen. Hellen. v, 1, 30, 31. 'flar' iirel Trapr/yyetAw 6 Tipi(3ao; irapelvat rot)f /?o v/lo^e vovf VTT aKovaai, f/v fiaaiheiif elpr/vijv KaraKepTtoi, Taxeac iravree irapeyivovTo. 'Eirel 6s ^VVTJ^OV, imSs'it-af 6 Tipl(3a fof TU Paaiheug ff7i[j.Eta, aveyivuaKe TU. ye-ypa/j./neva, el%e Je ude 'AprafepfT/f /?aaf Kal Kimpov ruf 6e a/U,af 'E/lA??viJaf TroTieif aac jUi/cpaf Kal ^eya/laf, avrovo/j.ovf elvai, n'Xijv AT//J.VOV, Kal "Ipfipov Kal JZnvpov, ravraf 6e, wuTTfp TO ap^atov, drat, 'A&jjvaiuv. 'Onorepot 6} TaiiTqv TTJV elprjvrjv /HTJ ds%ovTai, Toiiroif yu iroTie/iTiCFo, fiera TUT raiiTa flovhouevuv, Kal JTE^TI Kal Kara da^aaaav, Kal vaval Kal xPWaGiv. 2 Isokrates, Or. iv, (Panegyr.) s. 211. Ka Tavraf ^af iivayKaaev (the Persian king) ev GTifiaif hr&ivaie avaypa^avrnc iv Tolg Koivolg TUV iepuv uvadelvai, TTO^V Kahliiov Tpoiralov TUV iv Tatg [tdxait; yiyvojitvuv. The Oratio Panegyrica of Isokrates (published about 380 B. c., seven years afterwards) from which I here copy, is the best evidence of the feel- ings with Which an intelligent and patriotic Greek looked upon this treaty at the time ; when it was yet recent, but when there had been full time to see how the Lacedaemonians carried it oit. His other orations, though Tilnable and instructive, were published later, and represent the feelings of after-time. Another contemporary, Plato in his Menexenus (c. 17, p. 245 D), stigma- tizes severely "the base and unholy act (alaxpbv Kal uvoaiov epyov) of sur- rendering Greeks to the foreigner," and asserts that the Athenians resolutely refused to sanction it. This is a sufficient mark of his opinion respecting the peace of Antalkidas