seized by the banished citizens of that place. The Athenians in consequence despatched an expedition in full force to the point of danger, and recalled Chares from Thyamia; whereupon the Sicyonians and the Arcadians seized the opportunity to recapture the harbour of Sicyon. Meanwhile the Athenians, forced to act single- handed, with none of their allies to assist them, retired from Oropus, leaving that town in the hands of the Thebans as a deposit till the case at issue could be formally adjudicated.
[1] See above, VII. ii. 23; iii. 3; Diod. xv. 76.
[2] See Thuc. viii. 60.
Now Lycomedes[3] had discovered that the Athenians were harbouring a grievance against her allies, as follows:--They felt it hard that, while Athens was put to vast trouble on their account, yet in her need not a man among them stepped forward to render help. Accordingly he persuaded the assembly of Ten Thousand to open negotiations with Athens for the purpose of forming an alliance.[4] At first some of the Athenians were vexed that they, being friends of Lacedaemon, should become allied to her opponents; but on further reflection they discovered it was no less desirable for the Lacedaemonians than for themselves that the Arcadians should become independent of Thebes. That being so, they were quite ready to accept an Arcadian alliance. Lycomedes himself was still engaged on this transaction when, taking his departure from Athens, he died, in a manner which looked like divine intervention.
[3] See above, VII. i. 23.
[4] This proves that 'the Ten Thousand made war and peace in the name of all Arkadia'; cf. 'Hell.' VII. i. 38; Diod. xv. 59. 'They received and listened to the ambassadors of other Greek states'; Demosth. 'F. L.' 220. 'They regulated and paid the standing army of the Federation'; 'Hell.' VII. iv. 22, 23; Diod. xv. 62. 'They sat in judgment on political offenders against the collective majority of the Arkadian League'; 'Hell.' VII. iv. 33; Freeman, 'Hist. Fed. Gov.' 203, note 1.
Out of the many vessels at his service he had chosen the one he liked best, and by the terms of contract was entitled to land at any point he might desire; but for some reason, selected the exact spot where a body of Mantinean exiles lay. Thus he died; but the alliance on which he had set his heart was already consummated.
Now an argument was advanced by Demotion[5] in the Assembly of Athens, approving highly of the friendship with the Arcadians, which to his mind was an excellent thing, but arguing that the generals should be instructed to see that Corinth was kept safe for the Athenian people. The Corinthians, hearing this, lost no time in despatching garrisons of their own large enough to take the place of the Athenian garrisons at any point where they might have them, with orders to these latter to retire: 'We have no further need of foreign garrisons,' they said. The garrisons did as they were bid.
[5] Of Demotion nothing more, I think, is known. Grote ('H. G.' x. 397) says: 'The public debates of the Athenian assembly were not favourable to the success of a scheme like that proposed by Demotion, to which secrecy was indispensable. Compare another scheme' (the attempted surprise of Mitylene, B.C. 428), 'divulged in like manner, in Thuc. iii. 3.'
As soon as the Athenian garrison troops were met together in the city of Corinth, the Corinthian authorities caused proclamation to be made inviting all Athenians who felt themselves wronged to enter their names and cases upon a list, and they would recover their dues. While things were in this state, Chares arrived at Cenchreae with a fleet. Learning what had been done, he told them that he had heard there were designs against the state of Corinth, and had come to render assistance. The authorities, while thanking him politely for his zeal, were not any the more ready to admit the vessels into the harbour, but bade him sail away; and after rendering justice to the infantry troops, they sent them away likewise. Thus the Athenians were quit of Corinth. To the Arcadians, to be sure, they were forced by the terms of their alliance to send an auxiliary force of cavalry, 'in case of any foreign attack upon Arcadia.' At the same time they were careful not to set foot on Laconian soil for the purposes of war.
The Corinthians had begun to realise on how slender a thread their political existence hung. They were overmastered by land still as ever, with the further difficulty of Athenian hostility, or quasi- hostility, now added. They resolved to collect bodies of mercenary troops, both infantry and horse. At the head of these they were able at once to guard their state and to inflict much injury on their neighbouring foes. To Thebes, indeed, they sent ambassadors to ascertain whether they would have any prospect of peace if they came to seek it. The Thebans bade them come: 'Peace they should have.' Whereupon the Corinthians asked that they might be allowed to visit their allies; in making peace they would like to share it with those who cared for it, and would leave those who preferred war to war. This course also the Thebans sanctioned; and so the Corinthians came to Lacedaemon and said:
'Men of Lacedaemon, we, your friends, are here to present a petition, and on this wise. If you can discover any safety for us whilst we persist in warlike courses, we beg that you will show it us; but if you recognise the hopelessness of our affairs, we would, in that case, proffer this alternative: if peace is alike conducive to your interests, we beg that you would join us in making peace, since there is no one with whom we would more gladly share our safety than with you; if, on the other hand, you are persuaded that war is more to your interest, permit us at any rate to make peace for ourselves. So saved to-day, perhaps we may live to help you in days to come; whereas, if to-day we be destroyed, plainly we shall never at any time be serviceable again.'
The Lacedaemonians, on hearing these proposals, counselled the Corinthians to arrange a peace on their own account; and as for the rest of their allies, they permitted any who did not care to continue the war along with them to take a respite and recruit themselves. 'As for ourselves,' they said, 'we will go on fighting and accept whatever Heaven has in store for us,'--adding, 'never will we submit to be deprived of our territory of Messene, which we received as an heirloom from our fathers.'[6]
[6] See Isocr. 'Or.' vi. 'Archidamos,' S. 70; Jebb, 'Att. Or.' ii. 193.
Satisfied with this answer, the Corinthians set off to Thebes in quest of peace. The Thebans, indeed, asked them to agree on oath, not to peace only but an alliance; to which they answered: 'An alliance meant, not peace, but merely an exchange of war. If they liked, they were ready there and then,' they repeated, 'to establish a just and equitable peace.' And the Thebans, admiring the manner in which, albeit in danger, they refused to undertake war against their benefactors, conceded to them and the Phliasians and the rest who came with them to Thebes, peace on the principle that each should hold their own territory. On these terms the oaths were taken.
Thereupon the Phliasians, in obedience to the compact, at once retired from Thyamia; but the Argives, who had taken the oath of peace on precisely the same terms, finding that they were unable to procure the continuance of the Phliasian exiles in the Trikaranon as a point held within the limits of Argos,[7] took over and garrisoned the place, asserting now that this land was theirs--land which only a little while before they were ravaging as hostile territory. Further, they refused to submit the case to arbitration in answer to the challenge of the Phliasians.
[7] Or, 'as a post held by them within the territory of the state.' The passage is perhaps corrupt.
It was nearly at the same date that the son of Dionysius[8] (his father, Dionysius the first, being already dead) sent a reinforcement to Lacedaemon of twelve triremes under Timocrates, who on his arrival helped the Lacedaemonians to recover Sellasia, and after that exploit sailed away home.
[8] Concerning Dionysius the first, see above, VII. i. 20 foll. 28.
B.C. 366-365. Not long after this the Eleians seized Lasion,[9] a place which in old days was theirs, but at present was attached to the Arcadian league. The Arcadians did not make light of the matter, but immediately summoned their troops and rallied to the rescue. Counter- reliefs came also on the side of Elis--their Three Hundred, and again their Four Hundred.[10] The Eleians lay encamped during the day face to face with the invader, but on a somewhat more level position. The Arcadians were thereby induced under cover of night to mount on to the summit of the hill overhanging the Eleians, and at day-dawn they began their descent upon the enemy. The Eleians soon caught sight of the enemy advancing from the vantage ground above them, many times their number; but a sense of shame forbade retreat at such a distance. Presently they came to close quarters; there was a hand- to-hand encounter; the Eleians turned and fled; and in retiring down the difficult ground lost many men and many arms.
[9] See above, VII. i. 26; Freeman, 'Hist. Fed. Gov.' p. 201.
[10] From the sequel it would appear that the former were a picked corps of infantry and the latter of cavalry. See Thuc. ii. 25; Busolt, op. cit. p. 175 foll.
Flushed with this achievement the Arcadians began marching on the cities of the Acroreia,[11] which, with the exception of Thraustus, they captured, and so reached Olympia. There they made an entrenched camp on the hill of Kronos, established a garrison, and held control over the Olympian hill-country. Margana also, by help of a party
