Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/125

EFFORTS OF ATHENS. 103 while the discontent against the ascendency of Sparta was widely spread, the late revolution in Thebes had done much to lessen that sentiment of fear upon which such ascendency chiefly rested. To Thebes, the junction with Athens was preeminently welcome, and her leaders gladly enrolled their city as a constituent member of the new confederacy. 1 They cheerfully acknowledged the presi- dency of Athens, reserving, however, tacitly or expressly, their own rights as presidents of the Boeotian federation, as soon as that could be reconstituted ; which reconstituion was at this moment desirable even for Athens, seeing that the Boeotian towns were now dependent allies of Sparta under harmosts and oligarchies. The Athenians next sent envoys round to the principal islands and maritime cities in the -ZEgean, inviting all of them to an alli- ance on equal and honorable terms. The principles were in the main the same as those upon which the confederacy of Delos had been formed against the Persians, almost a century before. It was proposed that a congress of deputies should meet at Athens, one from each city, small as well as great, each with one vote ; that Athens should be president, yet each individual city autono- mous ; that a common fund should be raised, with a common naval force, through assessment imposed by this congress upon each, and applied as the same authority might prescribe ; the general purpose being defined to be, maintenance of freedom and security from foreign aggression, to each confederate, by the common force of all. Care was taken to banish as much as possible those asso- ciations of tribute and subjection which rendered the recollection of the former Athenian empire unpopular. 2 And as there were many Athenian citizens, who, during those times of supremacy, had been planted out as kleruchs or outsettlers in various depen- dencies, but had been deprived of their properties at the close of the war, it was thought necessary to pass a formal decree, 3 re- 1 Xen. Hellene, 4, 34 ; Xen. de Vectigal. v, 7 ; Isokrates, Or. xiv, (Pla- taic.) s. 20, 23, 37 ; Diodor xv, 29. 8 The contribution was now called avvra^if, not <j>6pof ; see Isokrates, Da Pace, s. 3746; Plutarch, Phokion, c. 7 ; Harpokration, v. Swrof. Plutarch, De Fortuni Athen. p. 351. lao^rj^ov aiiroif TT)V 'E/U,ac5a /carecr- TP.VO.V. 3 Isokratcs, Or. xiv, (Plataic.) s. 47. ~K.al ruv /j.ev ifierepuv aitruv aireaTijTe, (3ovA,6[i.Evoi T-TIV cv/,tua%ia.v toirjoat. etc.