Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/267

 ASPIRATIONS OF ATHENS. 245 farther maritime aggrandizement that her present chances, as well as her past traditions, pointed. Such is the new path upon which we now find her entering. At the first formation of her new con- federacy, in 378 B. c., she had distinctly renounced all idea of resuming the large amount of possessions, public and private, which had been snatched from her along with her empire at the close of the Peloponnesian war ; and had formally proclaimed that 'no Athenian citizen should for the future possess or cultivate land out of Attica a guarantee against renovation of the previous kleruchies or out-possessions. This prudent self-restraint, which had contributed so much during the last seven years to raise her again into naval preeminence, is now gradually thrown aside, under the tempting circumstances of the moment. Henceforward, the Athenian maritime force becomes employed for the recovery of lost possessions as well as for protection or enlargement of the confed- eracy. The prohibition against kleruchies out of Attica will soon appear to be forgotten. Offence is given to the prominent mem- bers of the maritime confederacy ; so that the force of Athens, misemployed and broken into fragments, is found twelve or thir- teen years afterwards unable to repel a new aggressor, who starts up, alike able and unexpected, in the Macedonian prince Philip, son of Amyntas. Very different was the position of Amyntas himself to wards Ath- ens, in 371 B. c. He was an unpretending ally, looking for help in case of need against Jason, and sending his envoy to the meet- ing at Athens about September or October 371 B. c., when the general peace was resworn under Athenian auspices. It was at this meeting that Athens seems to have first put forth her new maritime pretensions. While guaranteeing to every Grecian city, great and small, the enjoyment of autonomy, she made exception of some cities which she claimed as belonging to herself. Among these was certainly Amphipolis ; probably also the towns in the Thracian Chersonesus and Potidasa ; all which we find, a few years afterwards, occupied by Athenians. 1 How much of their lost pos- sessions the Athenians thought it prudent now to reclaim, we can- not distinctly make out. But we know that their aspirations grasped 1 Demosthen. (Philippic, ii, c. 4, p. 71 ; De Halonneso. c. 3, p. 79; Da Rebds Chersones. c. 2, p. 91 ) ; also Epistol. Philipp. ap. Demosthen. c. 6 p. 163.