Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/62

 40 HISTORY OF GREECE. social degradation, in the eyes of Greeks generally, Spartans not excepted. 1 In truth the sentence executed by the Spartans against Man- tinea was in point of dishonor, as well as of privation, one of the severest which could be inflicted on free Greeks. All the distinc- tive glory and superiority of Hellenism, all the intellectual and artistic manifestations, all that there was of literature and phi- losophy, or of refined and rational sociality, depended upon the city-life of the people. And the influence of Sparta, during the period of her empire, was peculiaily mischievous and retrograde, as tending not only to decompose the federations such as Bceotia into isolated towns, but even to decompose suspected towns such as Mantinea into villages ; all for the purpose of rendering each of them exclusively dependent upon herself. Athens, during her period of empire, had exercised no such disuniting influence ; still less Thebes, whom we shall hereafter find coming forward actively to found the new and great cities of Megalopolis and Messene. The imperial tendencies of Sparta are worse than those of either Athens or Thebes ; including less of improving or Pan-hellenic sympathies, and leaning the most systematically upon subservient factions in each subordinate city. In the very treatment of Man- tinea just recounted, it is clear that the attack of Sparta was wel- comed at least, if not originally invited, by the oligarchical party of the place, who sought to grasp the power into their own hands and to massacre their political opponents. In the first object they completely succeeded, and their government probably was more assured in the five villages than it would have been in the entire town. In the second, nothing prevented them from succeeding except the accidental intervention of the exile Pausanias ; an ac- cident, which alone rescued the Spartan name from the additional disgrace of a political massacre, over and above the lasting odium incurred by the act itself; by breaking up an ancient autonomous city, which had shown no act of overt enmity, and which was so moderate in its democratical manifestations as to receive the fa- 1 See the remarkable sentence of the Spartans, in which they reject the claim of the Pisatans to preside over and administer the Olympic festival (which had been their ancient privilege) because they were xupirai and not fit for the task (Xen. Hellen. iii ( 2, 31) : oompare ^upm/cwf (Xen. Cyrop. iv. 5. 54|.