Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/51

SPARTAN HARMOSTS IN BCEOTIA. 29 moment of change to organize in each of them a local oligarchy, composed of partisans adverse to Thebes as well as devoted to < herself, and upheld in case of need by a Spartan harmost and garrison. 1 Such an internal revolution grew almost naturally out of the situation ; since the previous leaders, and the predominant sentiment in most of the towns, seem to have been favorable to Boeotian unity, and to the continued presidency of Thebes. These leaders would therefore find themselves hampered, intimidated, and disqualified, under the new system, while those who had be- fore been an opposition minority would come forward with a bold and decided policy, like Kritias and Theramenes at Athens after the surrender of the city to Lysander. The new leaders doubt- less would rather invite than repel the establishment of a Spartan harmost in their town, as a security to themselves against resist- ance from their own citizens as well as against attacks from 1 Xen. Hellen. v, 4, 46. 'Ei> Truaaif -yctp raif Koksai Svvaarelai Keaav, tianep ev Qrj/3aif. Respecting the Boeotian city of Tanagra, he saya en yap TOTE Kal TTJV Tavaypav ol mpl 'TnaTodupov, <j>'ikoi, ovref ruv Aaf- daipoviuv, el%ov (v, 4, 49). Schneider, in his note on the former of these two passages, explains the word dvvacFTdai as follows " Sunt factiones optimatium qui Lacedae- moniis favebant, cum praesidio et harmosta Laconico." This is perfectly just ; but the words uairep fa 0#/3atf seem also to require an explanation. These words allude to the " factio optimatium" at Thebes, of whom Leon- tiades was the chief; who betrayed the Kadmeia (the citadel of Tliebes) to the Lacedasmonian troops under Phoebidas in 382 B. c. ; and who remained masters of Thebes, subservient to Sparta and upheld by a standing Lace- dasmonian garrison in the Kadmeia, until they were overthrown by the memorable conspiracy of Pelopidas and Mellon in 379 B. c. It is to this oligarchy under Leontiades at Thebes, devoted to Spartan interests and resting on Spartan support, that Xenophon compares the governments planted by Sparta, after the peace of Antalkidas, in each of the Boeotian cities. What he says, of the government of Leontiades and his colleagues at Thebes, is " that they deliberately introduced the Lacedaemonians into the acropolis, and enslaved Thebes to them, in order that they might them- selves exercise a despotism" TOVQ TS TUV TTO^TUV eicrayayovTaf elf Trjv UK- po7ro/Uv avTovc, Kal fiovTiTj&evTac A.aKedaifj.ovloi^ TTJV Trohiv Sovfeveiv, uare avTol Tvpavveiv (v, 4, 1 : compare v, 2, 36). This character conveying a strong censure in the mouth of the philo-Laconian Xenophon belongs to all the governments planted by Sparta in the Boeotian cities after the peace cf Antalkidas, and, indeed, to the Dekarchies generally which she estab- lished throughout her empire.