9. We now return to Peloponnesus. In SICYON the tyrants had, as in other states, been the leaders of a democratic party;(758) but their dominion put an end to the times of disturbance and irregularity, which had occasioned the Pythian priestess to say, that “Sicyon needed a disciplinarian.”(759) After their overthrow an early constitution was restored, which remained unshaken during the Peloponnesian war. We are only informed that in 418 B.C. the Lacedæmonians made the constitution more oligarchical;(760) that it had not previously been entirely democratical, is shown by the fidelity with which Sicyon adhered to the head of the Peloponnesian league. After the battle of Leuctra we find that Sicyon possessed an Achæan constitution, _i.e._, one founded on property, in which the rich were supreme;(761) Euphron, in 369 B.C., undertook to change this into a democracy, and thus obtained the tyranny, until the party of the nobles, whom he persecuted, overthrew him.(762) Plutarch states most clearly the changes in this constitution; “after the unmixed and Doric aristocracy(763) had been destroyed, Sicyon fell from one sedition, from one tyranny into another;” until, at the time of Aratus, it adopted the almost purely democratical institutions of the Achæans. As PHLIUS during the whole Peloponnesian war remained faithful to the interest of Sparta and hostile to Argos, it is evident that the state was under an aristocratic government.(764) In a revolution which took place before 383 B.C. the Lacedæmonian party had been expelled, but were in the same year again received by the people; the government, however, did not become democratical, until Agesilaus, introduced by the former party, conquered the city, and remodelled the constitution(765) (379 B.C.). Before this period the democratic assembly consisted of more than 5000 members, those who were inclined to the Lacedæmonians furnished above 1000 heavy-armed soldiers. A very regular system of government is proved to have existed, by the patience and heroism with which the Phliasians, in 372-376 B.C., defended their city and country against the attacks of the Argives, Arcadians, Eleans, and Thebans, until, without breaking their fidelity to Sparta, they concluded a peace with Thebes and Argos (366 B.C.).