Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/257

 SPARTA ASKS AID FROM ATHENS. 235 n Mount Ithome. In these times (he reminded the Athenian as- sembly) Thebes had betrayed the Hellenic cause by joining Xerxes, and had been an object of common hatred to both. Moreover the maritime forces of Greece had been arrayed under Athens in the Confederacy of Delos, with full sanction and recommendation from Sparta ; while the headship of the latter by land had in like man- ner been accepted by the Athenians. He called on the assembly, in the name of these former glories, to concur with Sparta in for- getting all the deplorable hostilities which had since intervened, and to afford to her a generous relief against the old common ene- my. The Thebans might even now be decimated (according to the vow said to have been taken after the repulse of Xerxes), in spite of their present menacing ascendency, if Athens and Sparta could be brought heartily to cooperate ; and might be dealt with as Thebes herself had wished to deal with Athens after the Pelo- ponnesian war, when Sparta refused to concur in pronouncing the sentence of utter ruin. 1 This appeal from Sparta was earnestly seconded by the envoys from Corinth and Phlius. The Corinthian speaker contended, that Epaminondas and his army, passing through the territory of Cor- inth and inflicting damage upon it in their passage into Pelopon- nesus, had committed a glaring violation of the general peace, sworn in 371 B. c., first at Sparta and afterwards at Athens, guar- anteeing universal autonomy to every Grecian city. The envoy from Phlius, while complimenting Athens on the proud position which she now held, having the fate of Sparta in her hands, dwelt on the meed of honor which she would earn in Greece, if she now generously interfered to rescue her ancient rival, forgetting past injuries and remembering only past benefits. In adopting such policy, too, she would act in accordance with her own true inter- ests ; since, should Sparta be crushed, the Thebans would become undisputed heads of Greece, and more formidable still to Athens. 2 It was not among the least marks of the prostration of Sparta, that she should be compelled to send such an embassy to Athens, and to entreat an amnesty for so many untoward realities during the past. The contrast is indeed striking, when we set her present language against that which she had held respecting Athens, be- fore and through the Peloponnesian war. 1 XOD. Hellen. vi, 5, 34, 35. s Xen. Hellen. vi, 5, 38-48.