Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/52

 80 HISTORY OF GREECE. Thebes, and as a means of placing them under the assured con- .ditions of a Lysandrian dekarchy. Though most o the BceotiaB cities were thus, on the whole, favorable to Thebes, and though Sparta thrust upon them the boon, which she called autonomy, from motives of her own, and not from their solicitation, yet, Orchomenus and Thespiae, over whom the presidency of Thebes appears to have been harshly exercised, were adverse to her, and favorable to the Spartan alliance. 1 These two cities were strongly garrisoned by Sparta, and formed her main stations in Boeotia. 2 The presence of such garrisons, one on each side of Thebes, the discontinuance of the Boeotarchs, with the breaking up of all symbols and proceedings of the Boeotian federation, and the establishment of oligarchies devoted to Sparta in the other cities, was doubtless a deep wound to the pride of the Thebans. But there was another wound still deeper, and this the Lacedae- monians forthwith proceeded to inflict, the restoration of Pla- taea. A melancholy interest attaches both to the locality of this town, as one of the brightest scenes of Grecian glory, and to its brave and faithful population, victims of an exposed position com- bined with numerical feebleness. Especially, we follow with a sort of repugnance the capricious turns of policy which dictated the Spartan behavior towards them. One hundred and twenty years before, the Platreans had thrown themselves upon Sparta, to entreat her protection against Thebes. The Spartan king Kle- omenes had then declined the obligation as too distant, and had recommended them to ally themselves with Athens. 3 This recom- mendation, though dictated chiefly by a wish to raise contention between Athens and Thebes, was complied with ; and the alli- jince, severing Platosa altogether from the Boeotian confederacy, turned out both advantageous and honorable to her until the begin- ning of the Peloponnesian war. At that time, it suited the policy of the Spartans to uphold and strengthen in every way the su- premacy of Thebes over the Boeotian cities ; it was altogether by Spartan intervention, indeed, that the power of Thebes was roes- 1 Xenoph. Memorab. iii, 5, 2 ; Thucyd. iv, 133 ; Diodor. xv, 79. tan:.) s. 14, 15. 3 Herodot. vi, 108.
 * Xen. Hellen. v, 4, 15-20 ; Diodor. xv, 32-37} Isokratcs, Or. xiv, (Pla-