Page:History of Greece Vol XI.djvu/37

 ALLIANCE OF JTALIOT GREEKS. ].] having conquered the Greek cities of Poseidonia (or Piestum) and Laus, with much of the territory lying between the Gulfs of Poseidonia and Tarentum, severely harassed the inhabitants of Thurii, and alarmed all the neighboring Greek cities down to Rhegium. So serious was the alarm of these cities, that several of them contracted an intimate defensive alliance, strengthening for the occasion that feeble synodical band, and sense of Italiot communion, 1 the form and trace of which seems to have subsisted without the reality, even under marked enmity between particu- lar cities. The conditions of the newly-contracted alliance were most stringent; not only binding each city to assist at the first summons any other city invaded by the Lucanians, but also pro- nouncing, that if this obligation were neglected, the generals of the disobedient city should be condemned to death. 2 However, at this time the Italiot Greeks were not less afraid of Dionysius and his aggressive enterprises from the south, than of the Luca- nians from the north ; and their defensive alliance was intended against both. To Dionysius, on the contrary, the invasion of the Lucanians from landward was a fortunate incident for the success of his own schemes. Their concurrent designs against the same enemies, speedily led to the formation of a distinct alliance be- tween the two. 3 Among the allies of Dionysius, too, we must number the Epizephyrian Lokrians ; who not only did not join the Italiot confederacy, but espoused his cause against it with ardor. The enmity of the Lokrians against their neighbors, the Rhegines, was ancient and bitter ; exceeded only by that of Dio- jysius, who never forgave the refusal of the Rhegines to permit him to marry a wife out of their city, and was always grateful to the Lokrians for having granted to him the privilege which their neighbors had refused. Wishing as yet, if possible, to avoid provoking the other mem- bers of the Italiot confederacy, Dionysius still professed to be re- venging himself exclusively upon Rhegium ; against which he 1 Diodor. xiv. 91-101. Compare Polybius, ii. 39. "When Nikias on hia way to Sicily, came near to Rhegium and invited the Rhegines to cooperate against Syracuse, the Rhegines declined, replying, 6,Ti uv at Toif Irci^MTat; IjvvSoKri TOVTO, not^aeiv (Thucyd. vi. 44).
 * Diodor. xiv. 101. 3 Diodor. xiv. IftO