Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/288

 2G2 HISTORY OF GREECE. consisted of a large body of mercenaries, whom they were con strained for security to retain in pay to keep them employed beyond the border was a point not undesirable. Hence they readi- ly entered upon the Thessalian campaign. At this moment they counted, in the comparative assessment of Hellenic forces, as an item of first-rate magnitude. They were hailed both by Athe- nians and Spartans as the natural enemy and counterpoise of Thebes, alike odious to both. While the Phokians maintained their actual power, Athens could manage her foreign policy abroad, and Sparta her designs in Peloponnesus, with diminished appre- hensions of being counterworked by Thebes. Both Athens and Sparta had at first supported the Phokians against unjust persecu- tion by Thebes and abuse of Amphiktyonic jurisdiction, before the spoliation of the Delphian temple was consummated or even anticipated. And though, when that spoliation actually occurred, it was doubtless viewed with reprobation among Athenians, accus- tomed to unlimited freedom of public discussion as well as at Sparta, in so far as it became known amidst the habitual secrecy of public affairs nevertheless political interests so far prevailed, that the Phokians (perhaps in part by aid of bribery) were still countenanced, though not much assisted, as useful rivals to Thebes. 1 To restrain " the Leuktric insolence of the Thebans ," 2 and to ser the Boeotian towns Orchomenus, Thespias, Plataja, restored tc their pristine autonomy, was an object of paramount desire with each of the two ancient heads of Greece. So far both Athens and Sparta felt in unison. But Sparta cherished a farther hope in which Athens by no means concurred to avail herself of the embarrassments of Thebes for the purpose of breaking up 1 Such is the description of Athenian feeling, as it then stood, given by Demosthenes twenty-four years afterwards in the Oration De Corond, p. 230. s. 21. Tov jap &UK.LKOV avaruvrof -Koki^iav, irpurov [tev v/j.elf ovru duKeiade, uare $uKear /J.EV BovZeo&ai au'&TJva.i, Kaiirep ov diKaia noiovvraf dpuvTSf, Qrj(3aioie <5' OTIOVV uv itjuja'd^vai ira-dovoiv, OVK u/loywf oW cidt'/cwf airoi; npyi6(j.evoi, etc, BOIUTUV, etc., an expression used in reference to Philip a few years after- wards, but more animated and emphatic than we usually find in Diodorus who, perhaps, borrowed it from Thcopompus.
 * Diodor. xvi. 58. BovAo/jevof TO. AevurptKu povf}/j.a.Ta avaTel^at ru