Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/27

 LOSS OF PAN-HELLENIC DIGNITY. 5 placed the peace of Antalkidas side by side with the Pan-hellenie glories and ornaments at Olympia. 1 Great must have been the change wrought by the intermediate events, when Sparta, the ostensible president of Greece, in her own estimation even more than in that of others, 2 had so lost all Pan-hellenic conscience and dignity, as to descend into an obse- quious minister, procuring and enforcing a Persian mandate for political objects of her own. How insane would such an anticipa- tion have appeared to JEschylus, or the audience who heard the Persce ! to Herodotus or Thucydides ! to Perikles and Archida- mus ! nay, even to Kallikratidas or Lysander ! It was the last consummation of a series of previous political sins, invoking more and more the intervention of Persia to aid her against her Gre- cian enemies. Her first application to the Great King for this purpose dates from 1 Isokrates, Orat. xii, (Panathen.) s. 112-114. Plutarch (Agesil. c. 23; Artaxerxes, c. 21, 22) expresses himself in terms of bitter and well-merited indignation of this peace, " if indeed (says he) we are to call this ignominy and hetrayal of Greece by the name of peace, which brought with it as much infamy as the most diastrous war." Sparta (he says) lost her headship by her defeat at Leuktra, but her honor had been lost before, by the convention of Antalkidas. It is in vain, however, that Plutarch tries to exonerate Agesilaus from any share in the peace. From the narrative (in Xenophon's Hellenica, v. i, 33) of his conduct at the taking of the oaths, we see that he espoused it most warmly. Xenophon (in the Encomium of Agesilaus, vii, 7) takea credit to Agesilaus for being /Lticoiiepajjf, which was true, from the year B. c. 396 to B. c. 394. But in B. c. 387, at the time of the peace of Antalkidas, he had become /iiao-djjpalof ; his hatred of Persia had given place to hatred of Thebes. See also a vigorous passage of Justin (viii, 4), denouncing the disgrace ful position of the Greek cities at a later time in calling in Philip of Mace- don as arbiter ; a passage not less applicable to the peace of Antalkidas : and perhaps borrowed from Theopompus. ! Compare the language in which ihe lonians, on their revolt from Dari- us king of Persia about 500 B. c., had implored the aid of Sparta (Herodot. v, 49). To; KarTjKovra yap eari ravra' luvuv Trat&zf 6ov?iovs elvat avr 1 khev- tie/iuv oveidoi; nal u/lyof //eyiorov fiev avrolcti rjfuv, STI 6e TUV Xoi ir&v vfj.lv, da(f> TrpoeffTeare r^f 'EA/iadof. How striking is the contrast between these words and the peace of Antal- kidas ! and what would have been the feelings of Herodotus himself if ho could have heard of the latter event !