Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/277

IX war may in fact be called a war of oligarchies and democracies; it could not have lasted so long, or been maintained with such persistent determination, if in all the cities that took part in it there had not been some feeling of self-interest or fear, some desire of revenge upon enemies at home as well as abroad. In almost every city the few were for Sparta, and the many for Athens, and the party in power knew that its only hope of safety either for person or property lay in the retention of that power at all costs, and in aiding to the utmost the confederates on their own side. In the course of the war both leading States forcibly changed the constitutions of many cities; and when it was over, Sparta used her victory to oligarchise them all. These facts speak plainly of the universality and the bitterness of the strife of interests in the narrow world of the City-State.

And it is to this that we must look for the best explanation of the inward decay of this form of State. All States, like all individuals, are liable to certain diseases, and doubtless there were many, of which we can gain no accurate diagnosis, which attacked the City-State of Greece and Italy. We have already had to deal with one — the Tyrannis; and we found that its effects were as often good as bad. But from this other we can trace only evil consequences. The best test of healthiness in a State is union of interests for the common good, or at the least, the reciprocal action of opposing parties in a reasonable spirit. The tyrannis tended to