Classical literature; Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.; Greece -- History -- Spartan and Theban Supremacies, 404-362 B.C.
The arguments of the speakers were approved, and the Lacedaemonians
passed a resolution to accept peace on a threefold basis: the withdrawal
of the governors from the cities, (14) the disbanding of armaments naval
and military, and the guarantee of independence to the states. "If any
state transgressed these stipulations, it lay at the option of any power
whatsoever to aid the states so injured, while, conversely, to bring
such aid was not compulsory on any power against its will." On these
terms the oaths were administered and accepted by the Lacedaemonians on
behalf of themselves and their allies, and by the Athenians and
their allies separately state by state. The Thebans had entered their
individual name among the states which accepted the oaths, but their
ambassadors came the next day with instructions to alter the name of
the signatories, substituting for Thebans Boeotians. (15) But Agesilaus
answered to this demand that he would alter nothing of what they had in
the first instance sworn to and subscribed. If they did not wish to
be included in the treaty, he was willing to erase their name at their
bidding. So it came to pass that the rest of the world made peace, the
sole point of dispute being confined to the Thebans; and the Athenians
came to the conclusion that there was a fair prospect of the Thebans
being now literally decimated. (16) As to the Thebans themselves, they
retired from Sparta in utter despondency.
(14) Grote ("H. G." x. 236) thinks that Diod. xv. 38 ({exagogeis})
belongs to this time, not to the peace between Athens and Sparta
in 374 B.C.
(15) See, for a clear explanation of the matter, Freeman, "Hist. Red.
Gov." iv. p. 175, note 3, in reference to Grote, ib. x. 231 note,
and Paus. IX. xiii. 2; Plut. "Ages." 28; Thirlwall, "H. G." v. p
69 note.
(16) Or, "as the saying is, taken and tithed." See below, VI. v. 35,
and for the origin of the saying, Herod. vii. 132.
IV
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