§ 1. Sparta the head of the Peloponnesian confederacy. Its members and their order of precedence. § 2. Mode in which the supremacy of Sparta was exercised. § 3. Congress of the confederacy. § 4. Non-interference of the confederacy with the internal affairs of the confederate States. § 5. Sparta the head of the confederacy by general acknowledgment. § 6. Hellenic league during the Peloponnesian war. § 7. Sparta withdraws from the command of the Allied Army. § 8. Ionia never completely liberated by Athens from the power of Persia. § 9. War between Sparta and Arcadia. § 10. Revolt of the Helots; third Messenian war. § 11. Dissolution of the alliance between Sparta and Athens. Battles of Tanagra and Œnophyta. Five years’ truce. Thirty years’ truce. § 12. Origin of the Peloponnesian war. § 13. Opposite principles of the contending parties in the Peloponnesian war. § 14. Its influence upon Sparta. 1. Sparta, by the conquest of Messenia and Tegea, had obtained the first rank in Peloponnesus, which character she confirmed by the expulsion of the tyrants, and the overthrow of Argos. From about the year 580 B.C. she acted as the recognised commander, not only of Peloponnesus, but of the whole Greek name. The _confederacy_ itself however was formed by the inhabitants of that peninsula alone, on fixed and regular laws; whereas the other Greeks only annexed themselves to it temporarily. The order of precedence observed by the members of this league may be taken from the inscription on the footstool of the statue of Zeus, which was dedicated at Olympia after the Persian war, the Ionians, who were only allied for a time, being omitted.(762) It is as follows: Lacedæmon, Corinth, Sicyon, Ægina, Megara, Epidaurus,(763) Tegea, Orchomenus, Phlius, Trœzen, Hermione, Tiryns, Mycenæ, Lepreum, and Elis; which state was contented with the last place, on account of the small share which it had taken in the war. The defenders of the Isthmus are enumerated in the following order;(764) Lacedæmonians, Arcadians, Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Phliasians, Trœzenians, and Hermionians, nearly agreeing with the other list, only that the Arcadians, having been present with their whole force, and also the Eleans, occupy an earlier place; and the Megarians and Æginetans are omitted, as having had no share in the defence. This regular order of precedence is alone a proof of a firm union. The Tegeates, since they had joined the side of Lacedæmon, enjoyed several privileges, and especially the place of honour at the left wing of the allied army.(765) Argos remained excluded from the nations of Peloponnesus, as it never would submit to the command of Sparta; the Achæans, indifferent to external affairs, only joined themselves momentarily to the alliance:(766) but the Mantineans, though latterly they followed the policy of Argos,(767) were long attached to the Peloponnesian