whom its extinction was owing, in surrendering the Asiatic Greeks,
had destroyed the security even of the islanders.
[64] Isokrates. Or. iv, (Paneg.) s. 142, 156, 190. Τάς τε πόλεις
τὰς Ἑλληνίδας οὕτω κυρίως παρείληφεν, ὥστε τὰς μὲν κατασκάπτειν,
ἐν δὲ ταῖς ἀκροπόλεις ἐντειχίζειν.
[65] See Herodot. vi, 9; ix, 76.
[66] Isokrat. Or. iv, (Paneg.) s. 142.
Οἷς (to the Asiatic Greeks after the peace of Antalkidas) οὐκ
ἐξαρκεῖ δασμολογεῖσθαι καὶ τὰς ἀκροπόλεις ὁρᾷν ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν
κατεχομένας, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ταῖς κοιναῖς συμφοραῖς δεινότερα πάσχουσι
τῶν παρ’ ἡμῖν ἀργυρωνήτων· οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἡμῶν οὕτως αἰκίζεται τοὺς
οἰκέτας, ὡς ἐκεῖνοι τοὺς ἐλευθέρους κολάζουσιν.
[67] Isokrat. Or. iv, (Paneg.) s. 143, 154, 189, 190. How
immediately the inland kings, who had acquired possession of the
continental Grecian cities, aimed at acquiring the islands also,
is seen in Herodot. i, 27. Chios and Samos indeed, surrendered
without resisting, to the first Cyrus, when he was master of
the continental towns, though he had no naval force (Herod. i,
143-169). Even after the victory of Mykalê, the Spartans deemed
it impossible to protect these islanders against the Persian
masters of the continent (Herod. ix, 106). Nothing except the
energy and organization of the Athenians proved that it was
possible to do so.
It soon appeared, however, how much Sparta herself had gained by
this surrender in respect to dominion nearer home. The government
of Corinth,—wrested from the party friendly to Argos, deprived of
Argeian auxiliaries, and now in the hands of the restored Corinthian
exiles who were the most devoted partisans of Sparta,—looked to her
for support, and made her mistress of the Isthmus, either for offence
or for defence. She thus gained the means of free action against
Thebes, the enemy upon whom her attention was first directed. Thebes
was now the object of Spartan antipathy, not less than Athens had
formerly been; especially on the part of King Agesilaus, who had to
avenge the insult offered to himself at the sacrifice near Aulis,
as well as the strenuous resistance on the field of Koroneia. He
was at the zenith of his political influence; so that his intense
miso-Theban sentiment made Sparta, now becoming aggressive on all
sides, doubly aggressive against Thebes. More prudent Spartans,
like Antalkidas, warned him[68] that his persevering hostility
would ultimately kindle in the Thebans a fatal energy of military
resistance and organization. But the warning was despised until it
was too fully realized in the development of the great military
genius of Epaminondas, and in the defeat of Leuktra.
[68] Plutarch, Agesil. c. 26; Plutarch, Lykurg. c. 13.
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