Macedonia. With the Chalkidians of Thrace, the revolted subjects of Athens, the old alliance was renewed and even new engagements concluded 1; while Perdikkas of Macedonia was urged to renounce his covenants with Athens, and join the new confederacy. In that quarter the influence of Argos was considerable; for the Macedonian princes prized very highly their ancient descent from Argos, which constituted them brethren of the Hellenic family. Accordingly Perdikkas consented to the demand and concluded the new treaty; insisting, however, with his habitual duplicity, that the step should for the moment be kept secret from Athens'. In farther pursuance of the new tone of hostility to that city, joint envoys were also sent thither, to require that the Athenians should quit Peloponnesus, and especially that they should evacuate the fort recently erected near Epidaurus. It seems to have been held jointly by Argeians, Mantineians, Eleians, and Athenians; and as the latter were only a minority of the whole, the Athenians in the city judged it prudent to send Dêmosthenês to bring them away. That general not only effected the retreat, but also contrived a stratagem which gave to it the air almost of an advantage. On his first arrival in the fort, he proclaimed a gymnastic match outside of the gates for the amusement of the whole garrison, contriving to keep back the Athenians within until all the rest had marched out: then hastily shutting the gates, he remained master of the place. Having no intention however of

1 Compare Thucyd. v. 80, and v. 83.

2 The instances appear to have been not rare, wherein Grecian towns

B.C. 417.

keeping it, he made it over presently to the Epidaurians themselves, with whom he renewed the truce to which they had been parties jointly with the Lacedæmonians five years before, two years before the peace of Nikias'.

The mode of proceeding here resorted to by Athens, in respect to the surrender of the fort, seems to have been dictated by a desire to manifest her displeasure against the Argeians. This was exactly what the Argeian leaders and oligarchical party, on their side, most desired; the breach with Athens had become irreparable, and their plans were now matured for violently subverting their own democracy. They concerted with Sparta a joint military expedition, of 1000 hoplites from each city (the first joint expedition under the new alliance), against Sikyôn, for the purpose of introducing more thorough paced oligarchy into the already oligarchical Sikyônian government. It is possible that there may have been some democratical opposition gradually acquiring strength at Sikyôn: yet that city seems to have been, as far as we know, always oligarchical in policy, and passively faithful to Sparta. Probably therefore the joint enterprise against Sikyôn was nothing more

changed masters, by the citizens thus going out of the gates all together, or most part of them, for some religious festival. See the case of Smyrna (Herodot. i. 150) and the precautionary suggestions of the military writer Æneas, in his treatise called Poliorketicus, c. 17.

1 Thucyd. v. 80. Καὶ ὕστερον Επιδαυρίοις ἀνανεωσάμενοι τὰς σπονδὰς, αὐτοὶ οἱ ̓Αθηναῖοι ἀπέδοσαν τὸ τείχισμα. We are here told that the Athenians RENEWED their truce with the Epidaurians: but I know no truce previously between them, except the general truce for a year, which the Epidaurians swore to, in conjunction with Sparta (iv. 119), in the beginning of B.C. 423.

than a pretext to cover the introduction of 1000 Lacedæmonian hoplites into Argos, whither the joint detachment immediately returned, after the business at Sikyôn had been accomplished. Thus reinforced, the oligarchical leaders and the chosen Thousand at Argos put down by force the democratical constitution in that city, slew the democratical leaders, and established themselves in complete possession of the government'.

in Sikyôn

and the

towns in

Achaia.

This revolution (accomplished about February B.C. 417. B.C. 417)—the result of the victory of Mantineia Oligarchy and the consummation of a train of policy laid by Sparta-raised her ascendency in Peloponnesus to a higher and more undisputed point than it had ever before attained. The towns in Achaia were as yet not sufficiently oligarchical for her purposeperhaps since the march of Alkibiadês thither two years before-accordingly she now remodelled their governments in conformity with her own views. The new rulers of Argos were subservient to her, not merely from oligarchical sympathy, but from need of her aid to keep down internal rising against themselves: so that there was neither enemy, nor even neutral, to counterwork her or to favour Athens, throughout the whole peninsula.

But the Spartan ascendency at Argos was not destined to last. Though there were many cities in Greece, in which oligarchies long maintained themselves unshaken, through adherence to a tra

1 Thucyd. v. 81. Καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι καὶ ̓Αργεῖοι, χίλιοι ἑκάτεροι, ξυστρατεύσαντες, τά τ' ἐν Σικυῶνι ἐς ὀλίγους μᾶλλον κατέστησαν αὐτοὶ οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι ἐλθόντες, καὶ μετ ̓ ἐκεῖνα ξυναμφότεροι ἤδη καὶ τὸν ἐν "Αργει δῆμον κατέλυσαν, καὶ ὀλιγαρχία ἐπιτηδεία τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις κατέστη, Compare Diodor. xii. 80.

Violences

of the Thousand at Argos:

counter re

volution in

that town:

restoration of the democracy.

ditional routine and by being usually in the hands of men accustomed to govern-yet an oligarchy erected by force upon the ruins of a democracy was rarely of long duration. The angry discontent of the people, put down by temporary intimidation, usually revived, and threatened the security of the rulers enough to render them suspicious and probably cruel. Such cruelty moreover was not their only fault they found their emancipation from democratical restraints too tempting to be able to control either their lust or their rapacity. With the population of Argos-comparatively coarse and brutal in all ranks, and more like Korkyra than like Athenssuch abuse was pretty sure to be speedy as well as flagrant. Especially the chosen regiment of the Thousand-men in the vigour of their age and proud of their military prowess as well as of their wealthier station-construed the new oligarchical government which they had helped to erect, as a period of individual licence to themselves. The behaviour and fate of their chief, Bryas, illustrates the general demeanour of the troop. After many other outrages against persons of poorer condition, he one day met in the streets a wedding procession, in which the person of the bride captivated his fancy. He caused her to be violently torn from her company, carried her to his house, and possessed himself of her by force. But in the middle of the night, this high-spirited woman revenged herself for the outrage by putting out the eyes of the ravisher while he was fast asleep1: a terrible revenge, which the pointed clasp-pins of the

1 Pausanias, ii. 20, 1.

feminine attire sometimes enabled women' to take upon those who wronged them.

Having con

trived to make her escape, she found concealment among her friends, as well as protection among the people generally against the indignant efforts of the chosen Thousand to avenge their leader.

From incidents such as this, and from the multitude of petty insults which so flagitious an outrage implies as co-existent, we are not surprised to learn that the Demos of Argos soon recovered their lost courage, and resolved upon an effort to put down their oligarchical oppressors. They waited for the moment when the festival called the Gymnopædiæ was in course of being solemnised at Sparta-a festival at which the choric performances of men and boys were so interwoven with Spartan religion as well as bodily training, that the Lacedæmonians would make no military movement until they were finished. At this critical moment, the Argeian Demos rose in insurrection, and after a sharp contest, gained a victory over the oligarchy, some of whom were slain, while others only saved themselves by flight. Even at the first instant of danger, pressing messages had been sent to Sparta for aid. But the Lacedæmonians at first peremptorily refused to move during the period of their festival: nor was it until messenger after messenger had arrived to set forth the pressing necessity of their friends, that they reluctantly put aside their festival to march towards Argos. They were too late the precious moment had already passed by. They

1 See Herodot. v. 87; Euripid. Hecub. 1152, and the note of Musgrave on line 1135 of that drama.