Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/228

 202 HIS10RY OF GREECE. legends ! Little pains was taken to canvass the circumstanced oi the case, and to inquire whether Thebes had exceeded the mea- sure of rigor warranted by the war-code of the time. In the patriotic and national conceptions of every Greek, Hellas consisted of an aggregate of autonomous, fraternal, city-communities. The extinction of any one of these was like the amputation of a limb from the organized body. Repugnance towards Thebes, arising out of these proceedings, affected strongly the public opinion of the time, and manifests itself especially in the language of Athe- nian orators, exaggerated by mortification on account of the loss of Oropus. 1 The great body of Thessalians, as well as the Magnetes and the Phthiot Achaeans, were among those subject to the ascenden- cy of Thebes. Even the powerful and cruel despot, Alexan- der of Pherae, was numbered in this catalogue. 3 The cities of fertile Thessaly, possessed by powerful oligarchies with numerous dependent serfs, were generally a prey to intestine conflict and municipal rivalry with each other ; disorderly as well as faithless. 3 The Aleuadae, chiefs at Larissa and the Skopadna, at Krannon had been once the ascendent families in the country. But in the hands of Lykophron and the energetic Jason, Pherae had been exalted to the first rank. Under Jason as tagus (federal general), the whole force of Thessaly was united, together with a large number of circumjacent tributaries, Macedonian, Epirotic, Dolopian, etc., and a well-organized standing army of mercen- 1 Isokratcs, Or. viii. DC Pace, s. 21 ; Demosthenes adv. Leptinera, p. 490. s. 121 ; pro Megalopol. p. 208. s. 29; Philippic ii. p. 69. s. 15. tates, in my judgment, erroneously, that Thebes was disappointed in hei attempt to establish ascendency in Thessaly (Hellenisch. Alterth timer, vol ii. x. p. 338). 3 Plato, Kriton, p. 53 D ; Xenoph. Memorab. i. 2, 24 ; Demosthen Olynth. i. p. 15. s. 23 ; Demosth. cont. Aristokratem, p. 658. s. 133. " Pergit ire (the Roman consul Quinctius Flamininus) in Thessaliam: nbi non liberandoe modo civitates erant, sed ex omni colluvione et con- fusione in aliquam tolerabilcm formam redigendse. Nee enim temporum modo vitiis, ac violentift et licentia regia (f. e. the Macedonian) turbati erant- scd inquieto etiam ingenio gent. .. is, nee contitia. nee conventum nee concit.im ullnm, non per seditionem et tumultum. jam 'iide a prints' pio ad postram usque setatem, traducent.. .is" (Livy, xxxiv 51 ).
 * Xenoph. Hellen. vii. 5, 4; Plutarch, Pelopidas, c. 35. Wachsmuth