Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/77

ENVOYS FROM AMYNTAS AT SPARTA. ,5S preserve their own property, but also to plunder others. If, by your delay, the attractive tendencies of the confederacy should come into real operation, you will presently find it not so much within your power to dissolve. 1 " This speech of the Akanthian envoy is remarkable in more than one respect. Coming from the lips of an enemy, it is the best of all testimonies to the liberal and comprehensive spirit in which the Olynthians were acting. They are accused, not of injustice, nor of selfish ambition, nor of degrading those around them, but literally, of organizing a new partnership on princi- ples too generous and too seductive ; of gently superseding, in- stead of violently breaking down, the barriers between the various cities, by reciprocal ties of property and family among the citizens of each ; of uniting them all into a new political aggregate, in which not only all would enjoy equal rights, but all without excep- tion would be gainers. The advantage, both in security and in power, accruing prospectively to all, is not only admitted by the orator, but stands in the front of his argument. " Make haste and break up the confederacy (he impresses upon Sparta) before its fruit is ripe, so that the confederates may never taste it nor find out how good it is ; for if they do, you will not prevail on them to forego it." By implication, he also admits, and he says nothing tending even to raise a doubt, that the cities which he repre- sents, Akanthus and Apollonia, would share along with the rest in this same benefit. But the Grecian political instinct was never theless predominant, " We wish to preserve our paternal laws, and to be a city by ourselves." Thus nakedly is the objection stated ; when the question was, not whether Akanthus should lose its freedom and become subject to an imperial city like Athens, but whether it should become a free and equal member of a larger political aggregate, cemented by every tie which could make union 1 Xen. Hellen. v, 2, 18. Asl ye /J.TJV v/uae ical rode eidevai, wf, fjv 6vvafj.iv fj.eyuX.rjv ovaav, oviru 6vffTra?Miar6g TIQ EGT'IV al jap uKovaai TUV ye Tro/Ureiaf Koivuvovaai, avrcu, uv TI iduaiv avTmahov, unoijTijaovTa.1 el UEVTOI avy K"keia&T)GO vra i ralf re EKI- Kal iyKTyaeai nap 1 a/lA^/latf, a? eijjriQ lapivot eiffl Kal yvuaovrai, on, fieru TUV uparovvruv iTrea&ai Kep- ta'h.EOv karlv, uaTTip "Ap/caSef, orav fie&' vfiuv luat, ra TS avruv au^ovai ni TUL aMorpia upnd)vaiv lauf OVKS& 6jj.oiu evXvra earai.